Stevie was in New York on 9/11, touring for Trouble in Shangri-La. You can read her journal entries of the 9/11 attacks at The Nicks Fix, where they were originally published.
Dearest Everyone~
This is my journal entry beginning September 11, 2001. I wanted to share it with you, because I was in New York; because it was the heaviest thing I have ever experienced ~
Love, Stevie Nicks
In 2003, Stevie reflected on 9/11 in the song “Illume (9-11),” which she recorded with Fleetwood Mac for Say You Will.
Stevie Nicks has shared some thoughts about 9/11. Stevie was in New York when the terrorist strikes occurred. She also shared the audio clip of “Illume (9-11)” from Fleetwood Mac’s 2003 album Say You Will, a song reflecting on her 9/11 experience.
Read Stevie’s full comments below:
Today is 9-11, a day no one ever forgets. As you know I was there ~ and it seems like yesterday. Looking down from high up in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel at 7:30 on the morning of 9-11 at a sea of yellow cabs~ thinking about going out to enjoy the beauty of New York~ deciding to go to sleep for a few hours and then go out…
The next time I looked out of that same window it was totally grey. No sign of life. My assistant didn’t wake me until after the second plane hit.
And the world changed. I was there from early that morning until Friday night. I waited for my 3 gigs to cancel. I was not going to cancel.
As I drove away in a bus as the sun was going down there was a part of me that wanted to say “Turn this bus around. I need to go back.”
The love and camaraderie and determination of everyone to help was so strong that you could feel it in your blood. Gathered around the TV~ my small team and I watched George Bush stand on that huge pile of debris~ and spiritually reach out to all of us, to try and give us hope in a hopeless situation. I cried. The city cried. The grey sky was crying. But we didn’t feel beaten.
We had this illusive thing in our hearts called hope.
Hope is everything.
The lack of hope ~ is devastating. The opposite of hope ~ is nothing.
When I got home 6 weeks later, I wrote a song called Illume. I have never been able to sing it on stage. I can still hardly listen to it 19 years later. The thing about a song is~ it lives on and reminds you~ in detail~ what happened on a day like 9-11.
I’m going to go listen to it now.
Love,
Stevie Nicks
P.S.
Below is a snippet of a poem I wrote in 2008. I thought these words might mean something to you right now. Poetry is an amazing thing. Sometimes you say things in a poem that you might not say in real time.
Stevie honored the victims of 9/11 on the 17th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States. Sharing her thoughts to her Facebook page, Stevie expressed the importance of remembering the tragedy and the people who perished and the first responders who tried to save them.
Stevie was in New York when terrorists intentionally crashed two commercial passenger jets into both twin towers of the World Trade Center. On tour for her sixth solo album Trouble in Shangri-La, Stevie had arrived in New York from Toronto just hours before the attacks; she had been scheduled for two New York shows on the 12th and 14th, which were eventually canceled.
With the encouragement and support from her friends and family, Stevie resumed the tour in Atlantic City, NJ on September 15, vowing to help people heal through the power of her music. She later reflected on the ordeal in the 2003 song “Illume (9-11),” which was recorded for Fleetwood Mac’s 17th studio album Say You Will.
