MusicThe advice Stevie Nicks would give her 28-year-old selfSinger also revealed that she has one regret about turning forty that has affected both her personal and professional lifetoday at 10:40

Stevie Nicks entered the Fleetwood Mac in 1975, with her then boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. There is no doubt that the artist contributed a lot to the band’s success.

Along with her activities with the group, the singer pursued a successful solo career. In her personal life, she became known for some of her relationships and her drug addiction for a few years.

Now 76, Nicks has a very clear view of the successes and failures of her life. She once revealed what she would say to her 28-year-old self — roughly the same age she was when she achieved success with Fleetwood Mac — if she could go back in time.

In 2020, Stevie participated in a series of the magazine Bustle (via American Songwriter), during which several women comment on their lives when they were 28 years old. When asked what she would say to herself at this age, the singer said:

I would just say, ‘Follow your heart,’ because that’s exactly what I did. I followed my heart, I had some great relationships — maybe some I shouldn’t have had, but my heart told me, ‘Do it.’ And I did. I don’t regret anything.”

A regret at 40

Stevie Nicks may not have any regrets about this time in her life, but she has a different take on another phase. Three years earlier, in a conversation with Rolling Stone USAthe same reflective question was asked: what advice would you give to your younger self?

In her response, the singer made it clear that she preferred to forget the period when she was forty years old — implying that everything happened precisely because she did not follow her heart, as stated in the interview given to Bustle. Nicks stated:

About when I was in my early forties? That’s when I was able to kick cocaine. I had a great time for two months. But then my managers and everyone encouraged me to see this guy who was the darling of psychiatrists. This guy was the one who put me on Klonopin (the other brand name for Rivotril, used to treat anxiety and panic attacks). This guy was the one who took me from 125 pounds to almost 170 pounds at just 5’11” tall. He stole eight years of my life.”

Nicks then hinted that if it weren’t for this psychiatrist in question, she could have had a better personal life and delivered much more on the professional side. The artist said:

Maybe I would have gotten married, maybe I would have had a baby, maybe I would have made three or four great albums with Fleetwood Mac. That was the pinnacle of my life, and he stole that from me. And you know why? Because I followed what other people thought. So I would tell myself at 40, ‘Don’t listen to other people; in your heart, you know what’s best for you. ‘”

Although she mentioned the possibility of getting pregnant, Stevie — who ended up not having a child — says in interviews that she had an abortion in 1979, at the height of her success. She tells the newspaper The Guardian (via Igor Miranda website) that if she had not terminated the pregnancy of a child she would have with Don Henleymusician of the Eagles“Fleetwood Mac would no longer exist”, due to the intense pace of work during the period.

Contributed by: Augusto Ikeda.