While I am not generally given to trading in celebrity gossip, this interview between Stevie Nicks of “Fleetwood Mac” and a reporter with “The Rolling Stone” has stuck with me. The interview took place in the wake of activist Supreme Court judge, Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death in 2019. Nicks decried the horror of women seeking out back-alley abortionists if Donald Trump were to replace Ginsberg with a judge that might be the deciding vote to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark case which opened the floodgate to legalized abortion.

Nicks, of course, was not only a prominent member of “Fleetwood Mac,” but also had a rather successful solo career. Into the mix, she had several tumultuous relationships, sexual dalliances, and one extremely brief marriage that, all told, resulted in 4 abortions. Nicks was particularly open about one specific abortion of a girl conceived with “Eagles” front-man, Don Henley; stating that the ballad “Sara” was written to memorialize the girl that would have been allowed to live if she and Henley had married.

Before Henley, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham were performing together and, by all accounts, were essentially in a committed relationship. Fleetwood Mac put out a successful album in 1975 and by the time they were working on the hugely successful “Rumors” album, the entire group had become a hot mess. “Rumors” was a public airing of the relational dysfunction brought on by affairs, relational drama, and in-fighting. Had the album failed to launch, there is reason to believe that Fleetwood Mac could have become second-hand news.

Setting aside the rest of the chaos, Stevie Nicks reportedly had an affair with Mick Fleetwood and, after Henley, bounced to fellow “Eagles” guitarist, Joe Walsh. Her only marriage was to her best friend’s husband after her friend died from leukemia while 6½ months pregnant. The marriage lasted less than a year and Nicks claimed she regretted making such a rash decision. Nicks remained childless. I give this background as it is integral to the claims the songstress made in defense of her serial abortions.

Here are the salient pull quotes from the interview:

• “If I had not had that abortion (of Henley’s baby in 1979), I’m pretty sure there would have been no ‘Fleetwood Mac.’”

There is an awful lot of hubris and crystal ball gazing behind this assertion. First, Fleetwood Mac started out in 1967, 8 years before Nicks and Buckingham were attempting to get traction with their fledgling “Buckingham-Nicks” band. Several members dropped out or were kicked out, mostly due to the demands, tensions, and drug and/or alcohol use. Furthermore, their former producer had enlisted another group under the same name which was sued by the original/reconstituted band. What could be said with certainty is that “Fleetwood Mac” seemed to be fated to exist. The only question would be who would be occupying the slots in the lineup. In fairness, Stevie Nicks was clearly a profound driver of their fame, but the comment itself rings of self-importance and suggests that she was not replaceable.

Not only that, but she assumes that having children and a career is impossible. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m guessing there might be a few women out there who might have managed to thread that needle. Fortunately for Stevie, her mother put her career on hold to raise her daughter and doubtless made sacrifices along the way. Nicks says that her mother encouraged her to live her life independently without relying on a man, but it appears her father was a head honcho with Greyhound buses. Also, in a bit of irony, Fleetwood Mac was only seeking a guitarist when they approached Lindsay Buckingham and he made clear that he and Nicks were a package deal. I guess you could say that without a man, Stevie Nicks likely wouldn’t have had a thriving music career with Fleetwood Mac or any group.

Finally, one could easily argue that if she chose not to engage in extramarital sex with Henley, she wouldn’t have had a child to sacrifice on the altar of fame.

• “There was just no way I could have a child then, working as hard as we worked constantly. And there were a lot of drugs, I was doing a lot of drugs…I would have had to walk away.”

The juxtaposition of these remarks is puzzling. Was the workload causing or feeding the addiction? Isn’t drug use an impediment to productivity and creativity? Could the drugs be a salve for the guilt caused by her abortions and to numb the pain caused by the void? If not, we can only conclude that the career that she gave up her children for was driving her to such self-destructive behaviour. Given this, couldn’t the balance achieved by a stable homelife with a child or children have kept her from the drug use that drove her ambition and impeded her potential? I would have had so many more questions.

Nicks’ cocaine sniffing also created a hole in her nasal cartilage which landed her in a 28-day stint at the Betty Ford Clinic. She came out with an addiction to the medication, Klonopin, an anticonvulsant which is also intended to treat panic attacks and anxiety. Nicks blamed the psychiatrist who got her hooked for using up 8 years of her life – all while admitting that having had a child likely would have prevented this spiral. Frankly, the whole claim that abortions helped to salvage her career is just not making sense.

• “And I knew that the music we were going to bring to the world was going to heal so many people’s hearts and make people so happy. And I thought: you know what? That’s really important. There’s not another band in the world that has two lead women singers, two lead women writers. That was my world’s mission.”

Again, we return to the inflated impression of the contribution she and Fleetwood Mac made to music. I would venture to say that few people found healing in vitriol-laden lyrics about dissolving and contentious relationships that characterized the blockbuster “Rumors” album. At the same time, she reduces herself to a demographic by her “girl power” mantra. If she was just making a sex-based contribution, couldn’t other equally talented women have filled her slot, or, again, was she uniquely qualified, therefore making her inspiration talk empty rhetoric? Music groups come and go with vast numbers dropping out of existence with no one realizing it. Like Nicks, Fleetwood Mac was not replaceable as a music icon, but she would have been irreplaceable to a family who loved her and to whom she committed her time and energy.

In the scheme of things, no one cares that Nicks and Christie McVie were front women and songwriters for Fleetwood Mac. Women and men bring their unique voices, writing talents and gifts to bear. Pioneering female performers and writers like Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon didn’t need the ladies of Fleetwood Mac to break the glass ceiling, nor did the glut of future stars. I can’t help but feel that Stevie Nicks pursued her path for her own fame and she chose to sacrifice in many ways that cost her while ignoring the pleasures derived from sacrificing for one’s children and partner for life.

Also, even singers have managed to have families. This is no either/or choice. This comes across as justification for selfish choices.

My objective is not to deride Stevie Nicks personally or come off as judging her personal choices. The fact is that she made many of her personal life decisions very public of her own volition. She put herself out there as an advocate for abortion; providing the fuel and the match to burn the strawman she formed as a defense for ending innocent human life in the womb. She clearly had talent and earned her fame, but it is fair to weigh the cost benefit analysis she applied to celebrate the taking of 4 innocent lives who didn’t get to pursue their ambitions.

Henley, unlike Nicks, has done his best to bury his dirty laundry. The year after his role in Sara’s demise, he called 911 after a party to mark the “Eagles” first break up. The victim was a 16-year-old girl who died in his apartment from a cocaine overdose. If you’re counting at home, that’s 2 girls at least that Henley had a hand in killing. He took the Bill Clinton defence by insisting he did not have sexual relations with this woman. Besides, the roadies gave her the drugs. Being an entitled rock celebrity has its privileges and he skated with a fine and 2 years probation. These details, plus the fact that he was apparently known to take part in cocaine orgies (with this, we are expected to believe, being the exception), would tend to suggest a low regard for women and thus might have been a warning sign for Stevie or any woman to steer clear.

This reads like a paeon to narcissism and is painful to read. One would think that if an aborted child could inspire an emotional song, she might have mustered up a song or two for living children and, by now, potential grandchildren who could have replaced the substances and “fleeting” relationships she had.

There was one other man that Stevie Nicks clearly didn’t depend on – Jesus Christ. This best explains the rest of the ill-conceived choices that dogged her through her life. God gave her a gift and potential, which was squandered in many ways where it could have truly given inspiration.