 |
||
 |
||
|
When I first met him, he was going with somebody and so was I, but I fell totally
in love with him. I was captivated. |
|
|
|
|
I met Lindsey when I was a senior in high school and he was a junior, and we
sang a song together at some after-school function. Two years later, in 1968,
he called me and asked me if I wanted to be in a rock & roll band. I had been
playing guitar and singing pretty much totally folk-oriented stuff. So I joined
the band, and within a couple of weeks we were opening for really big shows: Jefferson
Airplane, Janis Joplin. all of a sudden I was in rock & roll. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I never in a million years expected it [stardom] to happen to me. I
took typing and shorthand. I went to five years of college and I quit and also
got into humoungous trouble from my parents for that. I moved to Los Angeles with
Lindsey Buckingham, which was totally unacceptable to my entire family. Not only
was I living with somebody, but I quit school. 'What are you gonna do? Be in the
circus for the rest of your life?' |
|
|
|
No actually, we both moved down here [L.A.] from San Francisco. I met
Lindsey in high school, near Cupertino. |
|
|
|
It was great to have supportive parents, though I'm sure they really would
have been much happier at one point if I'd done something else, because they didn't
think I was strong enough. I was always sick and Lindsey and I had no money and
whenever they'd see me, I'd be really down. My relationship with Lindsey was tumultuous.
|
|
|
|
We were so poor that we used to share a hamburger for dinner, or sometimes
a slice of pizza. |
|
|
|
I didn't want to be a waitress, but I believed that Lindsey didn'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 everyday,
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 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. |
|
|
|
Lindsey thought it would be selling out for him to work at a restaurant like
that, so I did. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know before Lindsey and I joined [Fleetwood Mac], we'd have to
steel ourselves not to go into stores. Six months later we were earning $400 a
week each and I was totally famous. We used to pin $100 bills up on the walls
of our apartment just for fun. You go through that with someone, you don't forget. |
|
|
|
I was twenty-seven when I joined Fleetwood Mac. Everybody thought I was this
teenager, but I had already lived with Lindsey for seven [sic?] years
and been a cleaning lady. I worked at the Copper Penny, Clementine's and Bob's
Big Boy [restaurants]. I supported Lindsey and I for years, 'cause he
never worked or had a job. I was pretty grown up when I joined Fleetwood Mac.
I was glad because I would not have been able to handle that kind of overnight
success. From that day that we joined to June of that summer [1975], we
were famous. |
|
|
|
|
|
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.
We
played in a band there from 1968 to 1972. That's when Lindsey and I packed up
and moved down here. When we were in a band up there, we opened up for all of
these really big bands. We played up and down the Peninsula to Monterey and came
down through the other side of San Francisco and all the way to Sacramento. Every
Friday and Saturday we opened almost every big rock show that came through the
area. Even though I only lived up there for my senior year in high school, that's
where I feel like I'm from because that's where the music all happened.
When the band
[Fritz] broke up we moved to L.A. in 1971 and tried to find a record deal.
We had some great demos. We shopped around. Over a period of time we got a deal
with Polydor and made our first album, Buckingham Nicks. We had a taste
of the big time. We had great musicians in a big, grand studio. We were happening.
Things were going our way. But up until that point I had been thinking of quitting
it all and going back to school 'cause I was sick of being miserable and I hate
being poor. When they [Polydor] dropped that record, we were completely
depressed. Then three months later Mick Fleetwood called. 