Stevie Nicks Cringes Watching Old Fleetwood Mac Interviews: ‘God, Could You Have Just Laid off the Blow for an Hour?’

With her level of fame, Stevie Nicks is the frequent subject of articles and taped interviews. This doesn’t mean that the musician is always comfortable watching them back, however. She explained that when she views Fleetwood Mac interviews from the ’70s and ’80s, she can’t help but cringe. Here’s what makes them so uncomfortable to her.

In the ’70s, Stevie Nicks achieved massive success

Following years of struggling to find success as musicians, Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham turbocharged their careers by joining Fleetwood Mac. Soon, they were performing for massive audiences and amassing staggering amounts of record sales.

With this fame came money, and Fleetwood Mac embraced excess. They ordered gourmet food that nobody touched, drank the finest champagne, and made outrageous requests at hotels. They also began using drugs heavily — cocaine in particular. The band even hired a luxurious private train to transport them throughout Europe to avoid customs checks. 

She has a hard time watching old interviews

At this time, Nicks says that it’s difficult for her to watch interviews from this drug-fueled period.

“I watch interviews from the early years of Fleetwood Mac and I’m so, like, out there,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. 

Nicks added that her looks and speech make her cringe while watching these old recordings. 

“I think, ‘God, could you have just laid off the blow for an hour? Because this is not attractive. You sound like an idiot,'” she said.

Part of Nicks’ judgment likely lies in the fact that she looks back on these interviews with a sober eye. After learning that her cocaine use had burned a hole in her nasal cartilage, she checked herself into a rehabilitation center. Over the next eight years, she dealt with addiction to her prescription for Klonopin. Now, though, she says she doesn’t use drugs or alcohol.

“I don’t drink, I quit smoking cigarettes. I don’t do any recreational drugs. And I’m really pretty happy,” she told Vulture. “Sometimes I’m up onstage and I’m going, ‘I can’t really believe you are actually up here, sober as a judge, having a great time.’”

Stevie Nicks’ memoir won’t come for a long time

Though she doesn’t like watching old interviews, Nicks has stated that she’ll tell her own story in a book, but not any time soon. She’s brushed shoulders with some of music’s biggest names, and she wants to wait until they’re too old to care what she says about them.

“The world is not ready for my memoir, I guarantee you,” she once told Billboard. “All of the men I hung out with are on their third wives by now, and the wives are all under 30. If I were to write what really happened between 1972 and now, a lot of people would be very angry with me.”

Still, she confirmed that a memoir will come eventually: “It’ll happen someday, just not for a very long time. I won’t write a book until everybody is so old that they no longer care. Like, ‘I’m 90, I don’t care what you write about me.’”

How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.