Stevie Nicks Shares Regret On Tranquilizer Addiction

It Stopped Her From Being Creative

In a new interview with The Guardian, Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks recalls her eight-year addiction to the tranquilizer clonazepam, which is sold as Klonopin. It began in 1986 when she was prescribed the drug by her psychiatrist to help her sleep after she completed her rehab program for cocaine addiction.

She says, “It’s a very subtle drug; you just don’t feel it much, or so you think. On the bottle, it says: ‘Take as needed.’ That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. So you think: ‘Well, I need it every two hours.’ It’s addiction in a bottle.”

It wasn’t a particularly difficult or traumatic period in her life but it affected her creativity.

She recalls, “It was a totally non-time. I just existed. It took away all my wonderful drama, my tempestuousness, my compassion, my empathy – all those things that drove me to my piano. I say to myself now: ‘How did you survive eight years without your wonderful drama?’”

She also adds that she “always look back and think: what could I have done during that time? Made a Fleetwood Mac album or a solo record. I could have gotten married or had a baby or adopted one. Let me tell you, if anybody ever tries to put you on Klonopin, run screaming out of the room.”

At 72 years old, Stevie Nicks still has no plans of slowing down. In fact, she just wants to keep telling stories.