Music Icon, 77, Once Said She Owes Everything to This Artist — 'She Changed My Life'
- - - Music Icon, 77, Once Said She Owes Everything to This Artist — 'She Changed My Life'
Isabella TorregianiJuly 12, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Walter McBride/Corbis via Getty Images
Music Icon, 77, Once Said She Owes Everything to This Artist — 'She Changed My Life' originally appeared on Parade.
Stevie Nicks is one of the most celebrated artists to emerge from the 1970s. But many fans might be surprised to learn that she credits another music legend from a decade earlier with shaping her career.
That artist was none other than Janis Joplin — known for her raw, soulful vocals and commanding presence on stage.
In a 2011 interview with The Telegraph, Nicks, now 77, opened up about just how deeply Joplin influenced her, calling her a trailblazer for women in rock.
“From Janis, I learned that to make it as a female musician in a man’s world is gonna be tough, and you need to keep your head held high,” she said.
Joplin tragically passed away in 1970 at just 27 — five years before Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham would join Fleetwood Mac and release their self-titled 1975 breakout album.
However, their paths did cross at the end of the ‘60s. Back when Nicks and Buckingham were performing together in their band Fritz, they had the chance to open for both Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.
“It was a big huge show in San Francisco,” Nicks recalled during an Ultimate Classic Rock Nights interview. “There were like 20 bands on; there was you, there were 15 more bands, and then there was Jimi Hendrix.”
However, their set went a little long — and Joplin reportedly wasn’t thrilled. According to Nicks, Joplin came storming backstage, demanding they wrap it up to make room for her own set.
While that moment might have rattled another artist, Nicks saw it differently. “Being yelled off the stage by Janis Joplin was one of the greatest honors of my life,” she later reportedly said.
Despite her fiery temperament, Joplin was admired for her ability to form a powerful connection with her audience — something Nicks never forgot.
“Janis Joplin had a connection with the audience that I had not seen before, and when she left the stage – I knew that a little bit of my destiny had changed,” Nicks recalled.
“I would search to find that connection that I had seen between Janis and her audience. In a blink of an eye, she changed my life.”
Music Icon, 77, Once Said She Owes Everything to This Artist — 'She Changed My Life' first appeared on Parade on Jul 12, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
Source: AOL Entertainment
