American singer-songwriter Stephenie (Stevie) Nicks was BOTD in 1948. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, her family moved to California when she was a teenager. She attended Menlo-Atherton High School, where she met fellow music student Lindsey Buckingham. They began performing together at school concerts, and formed the band Fritz while Nicks was studying at San Jose State University. They became a romantic couple, moving to California to pursue a music career, and released an album in 1973. Dropped by their record label, they were invited by drummer Mac Fleetwood to join pop-rock band Fleetwood Mac. Their self-titled 1975 album peaked at No 1 on the US Billboard chart and spawned three hit singles, including Nicks’ composition Rhiannon. Her B-side song Landslide, showcasing her soulful, sultry contralto, became an enduring classic and her signature song. The band reached stratospheric success with their 1977 album Rumours, selling 40 million copies worldwide and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year. The album’s troubled production history, including Nick’s acrimonious separation from Buckingham and the band’s rampant cocaine use, filtered into the emotionally brutal lyrics of Dreams, Go Your Own Way, Never Going Back Again and I Don’t Want to Know. Nicks’ subsequent affair with Mac Fleetwood inspired much of their 1979 album Tusk. During the 1980s, Nicks continued to perform with Fleetwood Mac, penning the songs Gypsy and Sara, while releasing four successful solo albums, with hits including Wild Heart, Talk to Me, Edge of Seventeen and Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You? She left Fleetwood Mac in 1990, developing an addition to prescription medication in an attempt to treat her cocaine habit. In 1993, Fleetwood Mac reunited to perform at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, following Clinton’s adoption of their song Don’t Stop during his campaign. After a rapturously received reunion tour in 1997, the band was inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Nicks performed intermittently in reunion tours throughout the 2000s and 2010s, while continuing to record and tour as a solo artist. In 2019, she was inducted as a solo artist into the Hall of Fame. Her other appearances include a cameo (as herself) in Ryan Murphy‘s TV series American Horror Story: Coven, and innumerable documentaries about the rise and fall of Fleetwood Mac. As well as Buckingham and Fleetwood, Nicks had relationships with Don Henley, Jimmy Lovine, Kim Anderson (to whom she was briefly married) and Joe Walsh. Now considered one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her generation, she has influenced performers including Courtney Love, Billy Corgan, the Dixie Chicks, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Florence Welch, Taylor Swift and Lorde. Beloved for her eccentric Victorian Gothic dress sense, flirtations with witchcraft and frank discussions of her battles with addiction, she has attracted and nurtured a devoted LGBTQ fanbase. Since 1991, the New York dress-up party Night of 1,000 Stevies has been held in her honour.