Here’s How Stevie Nicks Has Gotten Away With This Big No-No Since 1981

Nicks Explains How Her Solo Career Actually Helps Fleetwood Mac

Any other band on the planet would have given up the ghost a long time ago if a key member consistently put their solo career over the good of the band. Can’t link up for an album? Bye, Felicia. Too busy with your own projects to tour with your band? Not today.

Yet somehow, Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks has been able to have the best of both worlds and best of all? It doesn’t just work; everyone thrives. But how? How could a band that hasn’t recorded an album of brand new material in 15 years or toured with all five members in three years or longer possibly thrive in the shadow of their most visible member’s solo career?

Easy: it keeps things new and exciting, and fans love it.

Nicks, 69, revealed to TeamRock that the magic of Fleetwood Mac lies in the fact that her solo career does, in fact, pull her away from the band so often. “A big band like Fleetwood Mac needs to get out of the spotlight, so that’s what we’ve done,” she explains. “We should always be off the road for three years, because when we come back it’s an event. I think that’s very important. There’s a lot of famous bands and a lot of important people out, and you’re going to make a choice of which ticket to buy, and if you haven’t seen one of them for three years or more then that’s going to be at the top of the list. It feels more special.”

It’s not just a matter of giving fans an experience to remember after a few years away – it also allows for Fleetwood Mac to savor the reunion that comes after a long time away from each other, everyone’s excited to be on the road and in the studio together and the bad blood that can accumulate over months and years of looking at the same people day after day never has a chance to ruin things.

“It really sets you up for a good time because everything’s new and everybody’s got new stories and everybody’s been doing crazy, different things, so when you walk into rehearsal that first day everyone’s really happy to see each other. If we toured every other year it wouldn’t be like that.”

Constantly having two feet in two different worlds also helps Stevie Nicks navigate Fleetwood Mac in ways that no other singer could. She reveals that while her solo career has taught her how to be the boss, being in Fleetwood Mac has taught her how to let that take a backseat in favor of being a team player; “Part of it knocks your ego down, makes you humble.” Clearly, Stevie’s formula for success is a winning one; her 24 Karat Gold Tour was an overwhelming success and now, she’s gearing up to rejoin Fleetwood Mac for what’s sure to be one of the most highly, eagerly anticipated global tours in recent memory later in 2018.

With results like that, who can argue?