Stevie Nicks Was Nearly ‘Decapitated’ During a Music Video Shoot, Reminding Her of Her Death in a Past Life
Stevie Nicks had a miserable time shooting the music video for “Gypsy.” Not only did it take a long time and force her to dance with her ex-boyfriend, but she also almost lost her head. She talked about her near-miss with tragedy and why she believes she was decapitated in a past life.
Stevie Nicks has shared her thoughts on the afterlife
After her mother’s death, Nicks said she became more in touch with the spirit world. She firmly believes in some form of life after death.
“Some people are really afraid of dying, but I’m not,” she told The Guardian. “I’ve always believed in spiritual forces. I absolutely know that my mom is around all the time.”
When she loses things, Nicks asks her mother for help locating them. She said her mother is often helpful.
“It’s so real and creepy, and I always just go ‘Thank you, Barbara,’” she told the LA Times. “I sometimes feel I have more of a relationship with my mom since she’s been dead than I did before she died.”
She thinks she was decapitated in a past life
During the music video for Fleetwood Mac’s “Gypsy,” there is a scene where Nicks runs outside into the rain. According to Nicks, she was nearly “decapitated” from a low swinging rain machine. Eerily, she believes that this is close to how she died in a past life.
Nicks believes that in some previous life, she was “put to death, like Marie Antoinette,” according to the book Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams, and Rumours by Zoë Howe. This belief stems from the fact that she’s always had difficulty putting her head back. Even in “the beauty parlor, I can’t put my head back in the sink for a shampoo.”
Though she begrudgingly posed with her head tilted back on the cover of the Fleetwood Mac album Mirage, she refused to do it again in a later music video shoot. Rather than toss her head back, she made the director “call in a back-up singer to do it. I called her my stunt neck.”
Stevie Nicks said the music video shoot was unpleasant outside of the incident
Outside of her brush with death, Nicks said the music video shoot for “Gypsy” was generally unpleasant. She was attempting to stop using cocaine, which exhausted her. She eventually tried to smuggle some in, but someone confiscated it before she could have any.
The director also required that Nicks and former boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham dance together and, at one point, kiss. At this point in her life, she “didn’t want to be anywhere near him.”
“I certainly didn’t want to be in his arms,” she said. “If you watch the video, you’ll see I wasn’t happy. And he wasn’t a very good dancer.”
All told, the “Gypsy” video was the most expensive music video produced at that point. It was also the first “World Premiere” music video on MTV. Despite the various challenges filming, the end result was impressive.
