Lately we’ve brought you a few different bits of news about Stevie Nicks. First of all, she performed on the AMAs with Lady Antebellum, bringing a little bit of class to the self-congratulatory proceedings of that event. Also, she will be touring with the “classic” (not original) lineup of Fleetwood Mac, along with friend Christine McVie.

Stevie Nicks has been a household word ever since the Fleetwood Mac album in 1975. Of course, she had an album with then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham before that. But there is more to the “Welsh witch” than most people may know.

For example, Stevie Nicks and Prince have a musical connection. Stevie Nicks once called up Prince and told him that she was writing as song that she wrote while listening to “Little Red Corvette”, and that she was going to give him 50% of it. That song became “Stand Back” and was a hit.

Then Prince called her up and wanted to do a song with her. He sent her a demo instrumental to write lyrics to. Nicks was so intimidated by the song that she sent it back and told him she couldn’t do it. That song ended up becoming “Purple Rain”.

Stevie Nicks has soft spot for and does a lot to help wounded American soldiers. Back before it became vogue to do so, she would visit Walter Reed Hospital and give out hundreds of free iPod Nano players loaded with music, sitting with soldiers, listening to their stories.

Stevie Nicks had a really bad addiction to cocaine. But she checked herself into the Betty Ford Clinic and kicked her addiction. She once said in an interview:

“I saw how [Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix] went down, and a part of me wanted to go down with them…but then another part of me thought, I would be very sad if some 25-year-old lady rock and roll singer ten years from now said, ‘I wish Stevie Nicks would have thought about it a little more.’ That’s kind of what stopped me and made me really look at the world through clear eyes.”

Nicks is now 65, clean and sober, about to start a tour with the band she helped put on the map in the U.S.

Image via Wikimedia Commons