Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks has lived a plentiful existence, and there aren’t many things that she hasn’t achieved throughout her gilded career, but there is one deep regret she holds about the late David Bowie.
One would assume that the two hung around in the same circles during their respective hedonistic heydays, but, astonishingly, Nicks doesn’t remember meeting Bowie. Although she did describe him as “one of my heroes”.
Perhaps she did encounter him, and her memory hasn’t served her correctly on this occasion. In truth, it’s almost unbelievable that they never found themselves at the same glitzy showbiz party, awards ceremony, or even backstage at a festival.
Undoubtedly, the pair shared a coterie of mutual friends, but somehow that wasn’t enough to bring them together. Despite not meeting each other, Nicks knew precisely what would have been on the agenda if she did have a chance encounter with ‘The Starman’. “You know what, I don’t even know that I ever met David Bowie,” the singer told Dazed in 2020. “Had I ever met him, I probably would have said the first thing I usually say whenever I meet somebody who is one of my heroes: ‘Maybe we could get together and work on a song or something?’ That’s usually my first line, because that’s all I really want from all these people – to be in their presence and study what they do.”
“I missed out on that,” Nicks reflected. A collaboration between the two is the material that dreams are made of, and it’s an almighty shame that the Fleetwood Mac vocalist never got to work her magic on Bowie to convince him to collaborate.
She continued: “I loved a lot of his songs. A great singer-songwriter. He was also a performance artist. He had a lot of talent and in a lot of different ways. He was a special guy. Really special. I am sorry, because you look back on your life and think, ‘Why didn’t I get on an aeroplane and go see David Bowie? Why didn’t I get on an aeroplane and go see a lot of people that I’ll never get to meet now?’”
Bowie’s death was a heartbreaking reminder that life can’t be taken for granted, and there won’t always be a tomorrow waiting around their corner. If there’s something that you want to do with your life, even if it’s simply seeing your favourite band in concert, then there’s no time like the present.
Nicks will forever live with that regret that she decided against getting on a plane to meet Bowie and initiating a conversation with him. While that incident isn’t relatable, we all have a less glamorous version of not meeting David Bowie in our own lives and a regret lingers.
