In the Beginning:

Buckingham Nicks

"We had gone to some party and he was sitting in the middle of this gorgeous living room playing a song. I walked over and stood next to him, and the song was "California Dreaming," and I just started singing with him. And so I just threw in my Michelle Phillips harmony, and...he was so beautiful. And then I didn't really see him again until two years later, when he called me and asked me if I wanted to be in his rock'n'roll band, which I didn't even know existed. And within two or three months we were opening for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, all the San Francisco bands. Two years later, we packed up and moved to Los Angeles with about 12 demos."

-[Stevie] SPIN Magazine October 1997

 

"We were in this band in the Bay Area for a number of years in the late '60s before we got romantically involved and moved to L.A. We knew each other musically before we knew each other in the biblical sense."

-[Lindsey] Creem Magazine February 1985

 

"I think there was always something between me and Lindsey, but nobody in that band [Fritz] really wanted me as their girlfriend because I was just too ambitious for them. But they didn't want anybody else to have me either. If anyone else in the band started spending any time with me, the other three would literally pick that person apart. To the death. They all thought I was in it for the attention. These guys didn't take me seriously at all. I was just a girl singer, and they hated the fact that I got a lot of credit [after the breakup of Fritz, Stevie and Lindsey chose to stay together as a duo, calling themselves Buckingham Nicks.] We started spending a lot of time together working out songs. Pretty soon we started spending all our time together and… it just happened."

-[Stevie] Rolling Stone, March 24, 1977

 

"Stevie and I kinda got selected out of that group as the ones who were perceived as having the most potential. We had not gotten romantically involved until that time, though, and when Fritz broke up, we kind of got together on a lot of different levels. We met (producer) Keith Olsen who eventually brought us down here to LA to make the Buckingham Nicks album, and one thing led another. It was kind of a tough time, actually. After the album went down the toilet, we had managers who were trying to get us to play steakhouses and that sort of stuff...which we figured was a dead end, so we didn't want to do that. We also had to deal with a record company that didn't seem to have any idea of what the music on the album was about. "

-[Lindsey] BAM Magazine March 1992

 

"Our relationship started when I was twenty. I joined his rock & roll band called Fritz. I was in that band for three and a half years. Lindsey and I didn't write any songs for the band, which was a drag, but what we did get was three and a half years of preparation for Fleetwood Mac, 'cause we opened for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, CCR and Chicago. We played the Fillmore, Winterland, the Avalon, simply everywhere. I was the center-front stage singer in the band. I got a whole bunch of serious job experience. When the band broke up we moved to L.A. in 1971 and tried to find a record deal. We ahd some great demos. We shopped around. Over a period of time we got a deal with Polydor and we made our first album, Buckingham Nicks. At the end of 1973, they just flopped the record. We had a taste of the big time. Keith Olson was the producer. We had great musicians in a big grand studio. We were happening. Things were going our way. But, up until that point thinking of quitting it all and going back to school, 'cause I was sick of being miserable and I hate being poor. When they dropped that record, we were completely depressed. "

-[Stevie] The Island Ear 1994

 

"You have to understand. I didn't want to be a waitress, but I believed that Lindsey shouldn't have to work, that he should just lay on the floor and practice his guitar and become more brilliant every day. And as I watched him become more brilliant every day, I felt very gratified. I was totally devoted to making it happen for him. I never worried about not being successful; I wanted to make it possible for him to be successful. And when you really feel that way about somebody, it's very easy to take your own personality and quiet it way down. I knew my career was going to work out fine. I knew I wasn't going to lose myself. "

-[Stevie] SPIN Magazine October 1997

 

"We lived together for six years. I cooked for him. I did the laundry. I took care of him. It was as close to being married as I will ever be again. "
-[Stevie] Arizona Republic, August 12, 1997

 

"Lindsey thought it would be selling out for him to work at a restaurant like that [Bob's Big Boy], so I did."

-[Stevie] November 1997 Harper's Bizarre

 

"Well, let's see . . . I think Mick Fleetwood was looking for a recording studio. Stevie and I had just finished an album, and Keith Olsen, our engineer, put something on tape to show his work as an engineer. It turned out to be our song "Frozen Love," which had a searing guitar solo. At that time, Stevie and I just happened to be in the back room, and when we walked in, there was this really tall guy stomping his feet to our song. Bob Welch was leaving the band, so Mick Fleetwood asked me to join. At first, he didn't want both of us, but I told him we were sort of a package deal."

-[Lindsey] Ventura County Edition March 4, 1993

 

"Y'know, I was really tired of being poor, and I was really tired of having no money. And we were really struggling and it was starting to become no fun."

-[Stevie] VH1 Behind the Music 

 

"'We were broke, and we were starving, and we needed money, basically."

-[Lindsey] Creem Magazine February 1985

 

"We went out in style."

-[Lindsey] Rolling Stone March 1977