<p id=”par-1_56″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/stevie-nicks/?swcfpc=1″>Stevie Nicks’</a> songwriting practice has been vitally important to her for much of her life. She began writing as a way to lessen the sting of her first heartbreak and has made a decades-long career out of the art form. Nicks loves writing <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/music/”>music</a>, but she said another artistic practice is just as important to her.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-stevie-nicks-said-she-values-painting-as-much-as-songwriting”>Stevie Nicks said she values painting as much as songwriting</h2>
<p id=”par-2_27″>Nicks has followed a busy touring schedule in recent years. She said she’s glad the tour has ended, as she finally has time for her creative practices.</p>
<p id=”par-3_32″>“I haven’t been able to do a lot of the creative things that I love in many, many years,’ she told <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/stevie-nicks-fleetwood-mac-kamala-harris-new-music-1235140437/” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Rolling Stone</a>. “I draw, I write songs, and I write poetry.”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Stevie-Nicks-diagnosis.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Stevie Nicks wears a black dress and stands in front of a microphone.” class=”wp-image-3732446″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Stevie Nicks | Kevin Mazur/WireImage for SN</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-4_14″>Though she hasn’t drawn in some time, the practice is still important to her.</p>
<p id=”par-5_18″>“I haven’t drawn in years,” she said, “but my drawings are as important to me as my songs.”</p>
<p id=”par-6_10″>She hopes to share her art with the public soon.</p>
<p id=”par-7_29″>“I’m really proud of all the stuff that I’ve done,” she said. “My drawings are very precious to me. I will, maybe next year, do a big art show.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-she-wants-to-spend-more-time-drawing”>She wants to spend more time drawing</h2>
<p id=”par-8_9″>Recently, Nicks began to notice <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/stevie-nicks-said-troubling-diagnosis-worry-lose-hobby-important-music.html/”>problems with her vision</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-9_86″>“I got diagnosed with this thing a year and a half ago called wet macular degeneration, and it is not a good thing,” she said, adding, “I was seeing all these colors, big things of purple. I was having, like, acid trips. And I’m going, ‘I’m not taking any acid, so I don’t understand what this is.’ Now, every six, seven, eight, nine weeks, I have to have a shot in each one of my eyes. That’s going to be for the rest of my life.”</p>
<p id=”par-10_19″>She said that the diagnosis has made her want to rededicate herself to her artwork while she still can.</p>
<p id=”par-11_32″>“So when I got diagnosed with this, all of a sudden, I’m going like, ‘You know what? You need to finish these drawings, because what if you start to lose your sight?’”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-stevie-nicks-recalled-her-first-experience-with-songwriting”>Stevie Nicks recalled her first experience with songwriting</h2>
<p id=”par-12_16″>When Nicks was in high school, her boyfriend ended their relationship and began dating her friend. </p>
<p id=”par-13_44″>“I had fallen for this incredible guy, and he ended up going out with my best friend,” she said, per the book <em>Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks</em> by Stephen Davis. “And they both knew that I was <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/stevie-nick-high-school-boyfriend-left-close-friend-horrified.html/”>going to be crushed</a>.”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-2″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Stevie-Nicks-2.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of Stevie Nicks singing into a microphone while on stage.” class=”wp-image-3733016″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Stevie Nicks | Michael Putland/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
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<p id=”par-14_22″>She had always loved music but, for the first time, she turned to songwriting as a way to deal with her emotions.</p>
<p id=”par-15_36″>“I was totally in tears, sitting on my bed with lots of paper, my guitar, and a pen, and I wrote this song about your basic sixteen-year-old love affair thing that I was now going through.”</p>
<p id=”par-16_17″>Though she still felt devastated by the breakup, she had discovered a new love in her life.</p>
<p id=”par-17_71″>“I finished that song, hysterically crying. And I was hooked,” she said. “When I played my own song later that night, I knew — from that second on — that I was not going to sing a lot of other people’s songs. I was going to write my own. From that day forward, when I was in my room playing my guitar, nobody would come in without knocking, nobody disturbed me.”</p>