Stevie Nicks on Phoenix: 'I'm so sorry I don't live here anymore'

Stevie Nicks is a music legend with strong Phoenix connections who has twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

She's been in there for her work with Fleetwood Mac since 1988. In 2019, during a ceremony in New York, she was honored for her solo work, including many songs she wrote in the shadow of Camelback Mountain while living in Paradise Valley.

Here's a look at several reasons Valley residents are proud to look at her as something of a local girl made good.

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Stevie Nicks, a Phoenix baby on the move

Nicks was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix to Jess and Barbara Nicks on May 26, 1948.

She never went to school here, though. Her father, an executive at the Armour-Dial Greyhound Corp., was always on the move, resulting in her having spent her childhood growing up in Phoenix, Albuquerque, El Paso, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Barbara Nicks and Silver Springs

Barbara Nicks was born in Bisbee and although the family moved a lot as Stevie was growing up, her parents eventually settled in Paradise Valley in 1972, by which point Nicks had long since finished high school and was working on her music with a guy she met in California, Lindsey Buckingham.

Barbara opened a boutique called Silver Springs Emporium in Scottsdale in the '70s, selling collectibles — dolls, antiques and mementos that her famous daughter donated. She named it after "Silver Springs," a Nicks song Fleetwood Mac recorded and released as the flip side to "Go Your Own Way."

Barbara later moved the store to Payson and renamed it Old Hopi House. The business operated there for 11 years before reopening in Scottsdale in 2010 in a three-bedroom house across the street from Hotel Valley Ho. 

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Barbara died peacefully at her home in Paradise Valley on Dec. 28, 2011, after a brief battle with pneumonia.

The store, which was run by Nicks' cousin Minette Nicks Lebrecht, closed in 2012.

Jess Nicks and Compton Terrace

After retiring as president and chairman of Armour/Greyhound, Jess Nicks opened Compton Terrace, named in honor of local radio personality and music promoter Bill Compton. It became the Valley's biggest concert venue and the only venue Nicks or Fleetwood Mac would would play for many years.

The first Compton Terrace was located alongside Legend City, an Old West-themed amusement park in Phoenix.

It opened in 1979, becoming the Valley's first rock-and-roll amphitheater, and was demolished four years later. 

A second Compton Terrace amphitheater opened in Chandler in 1985, located next to the Firebird International Raceway. It closed in 1996 and was later demolished.

Jess Nicks died of heart disease on Aug. 10, 2005.

At the time, Valley concert promoter Danny Zelisko told The Arizona Republic, "He was a pioneer. Compton Terrace was one of the first 'sheds.' When Jess opened it, there weren't many venues like it. No one thought to dig a hole in the ground and hold concerts outdoors."

Zelisko added, "Jess brought business savvy from outside the concert business to the concert business. But he also loved the music, because his daughter was a musician."

Stevie's Paradise Valley home

In 1981, Nick built a home near her parents in Paradise Valley, sharing the house with her brother Chris; his wife, Lori; and their daughter, Jessica, and writing many songs while living there.

She announced in mid-2007 that the home would be put up for sale as part of an attempt to downsize. She'd only spent about two weeks there in 2006. The house sold for $3 million.

Arizona Heart Foundation

The singer played a key role in a nine-year grassroots effort to raise money for the building of the Arizona Heart Foundation's Cardiovascular Research and Education Building at Thomas Road and 20th Street, which opened in 2007.

Nicks helped raise funds with three performances at what was then America West Arena and one at what was then the Dodge Theatre, for which the premier seats fetched $1,000 per ticket.

Speaking at the dedication, two years after her father's death, Nicks said, "This was my dad's dream," and, "I know my father's here. He'd be saying 'Stevie, this is so great.'"

Her father died a few days after her Dodge Theatre performance benefiting the foundation in August 2005. He had been a driving force to raise funds for the research building and expanding the frontiers of cardiovascular research.

'This actually is my home'

She always makes it feel like she still thinks of Arizona as home when she performs here.

In November, when the latest Fleetwood Mac tour played here, she reminded fans at Talking Stick Resort Arena, "I was born here" and went on to talk about her deep connection to the Valley before dedicating "Landslide" and eventually the whole night to her brother. 

"More than Oakland or San Jose, this actually is my home," she said. "I was born here in 1948. So I lived here and I loved it and I had a house here for a long, long time and my parents, and I wrote a lot of songs here. … So I would like to dedicate this song to someone who no matter what our problems are or how much we fight or what comes between us, he always has my back, my brother, Christopher Nicks."

She referred to Phoenix as "my hometown" two years earlier on that same stage on the opening night of her most recent solo tour. 

The time before that, on a Fleetwood Mac tour in 2014, she said, "I actually lived here for 20 years" before admitting that she wished she hadn't sold her house. "I miss coming home to write and being near Camelback Mountain and all of you."

After acknowledging her friends and family in attendance, Nicks said, "A lot of our songs were written here. It's good to be home." And the last thing she said before leaving the stage was, "Phoenix, I'm so sorry I don't live here anymore."

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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