Stevie Nicks Was Once Accused of Being ’a Witch and a Satan Worshipper’

In 1998, a high school banned students from performing Stevie Nicks’ song “Landslide” because of a belief that Nicks was a witch. For much of her career, Nicks has dealt with similar rumors. Though she has denied them on numerous occasions, her clothing and performance style has kept the story alive. At the time, Nicks and her publicist issued a statement about the banning. 

Stevie Nicks said people who thought she was a witch sent her frightening letters 

Nicks often wears floaty black outfits that compliment her twirling onstage presence. She also describes “Rhiannon,” one of her most famous songs, as being about a Welsh witch. These two factors have led some to believe that she practices witchcraft. She denies this, but that hasn’t stopped rumors.

“‘Rhiannon’ was the only song I ever wrote about a sort of celestial being,” she told The Guardian, “but that song and the fact I wore black, floaty clothes somehow became this, this … this witch thing.”

She explained that she started receiving upsetting letters that frightened her so much that she swore off the color black. 

“About three years into it, it actually started to scare me,” she said. “People were writing me really weird letters that were scaring me. So I had Margi [Kent, still her personal designer] make me up a bunch of outfits that were just horrible – I call them the Easter Egg outfits because they were peach, mint green, and blue … not colors for me.”

Eventually, though, she said “screw that” and went back to her preferred black outfits.

Her music was banned over the belief she worshiped Satan

Decades after Nicks first dispelled this rumor, her song “Landslide” was banned from an Alabama high school’s baccalaureate program in 1998.

Per AP, students reported that they could not perform the song because school and church officials believed it “was inappropriate because they consider the singer a Satan worshipper.”

Nicks directly responded to the banning.

“I can’t believe people are still telling me I’m a witch because I wear black,” she said.

Her longtime publicist Liz Rosenberg explained that the rumors about Nicks’ witchcraft were essentially just a misunderstanding about the meaning behind “Rhiannon.”

“The press picked up on it, and they’ve been confused about it ever since,” she said. 

Stevie Nicks isn’t a witch, but she said Botox made her look like Satan’s daughter

Though Nicks denies being a witch, she has joked about a connection to Satan. She shared that she got Botox once and was unhappy with the results.

“Oh God, the Botox,” she told The Guardian. “Let me tell you, Botox only makes you look like you’re in a satanic cult. I only had it once and it destroyed my face for four months.”

She explained that she could barely move her face during this time.

“I would look in the mirror and try and lift my eyebrow and go: ‘Oh, there you are, Satan’s angry daughter.’ Never again,” she said. “I watch a lot of news and I see all the lady newscasters looking like Satan’s angry daughters, too.”