By Nui te Koha
Herald Sun (AU)
Feb 21, 2004
Superstar Stevie Nicks had dispelled the myth of her witch alter-ego.
Nicks, 55, also revealed her image was an on-the-spot decision made 30 years ago.
Her so-called witch link dates back to Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 breakthrough hit, Rhiannon.
“But that really wasn’t about being a witch,” Nicks said.
“Rhiannon was a mythological goddess of horses and steeds, a maker of birds.
“She was a goddess who could save you. If you want to call her a witch, then you would have to say a very, very good witch. She never hurt me,” Nicks says.
Indeed, Nicks banked her now-famous image on black couture with a deliberate supernatural feel.
“I wanted to look like a Dickens character, like somebody straight out of Great Expectations. I wanted to be raggy and elegant.”
Nicks met a designer in 1974 and sketched a fashion plan.
“I drew an edgy skirt. I wanted it to be chiffon. I wanted it to fall in an edgy, handkerchief way,” she said.
“Then I wanted to harden up this ballerina thing with a pair of big clumpy boots.
“I wanted to put an industrial twist on the whole thing.”
A designer sewed Nicks’ outfit, which then made its debut on the cover of Mac’s defining album, Rumours.
Nicks says she managed only one year, when she went solo in 1983, without her black uniform.
“I wore pink,” she said, laughing. “After that, I said: ‘You know what? I look so much skinnier in black’. So I went back to black and figured that people were just going to have to get over the whole witch thing.”
Fleetwood Mac will perform at Rod Laver Arena on Monday and Tuesday.
