The singer was born Stephanie Lynn Nicks on May 26, 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona. However, her father, Jess Nicks, was the vice president of Greyhound buses, so they moved around a lot.

One of the places they ended up was Arcadia, California, where Nicks joined her first band, the Changing Times, its focus on folk-rock music. After that, the Nicks family moved to Atherton, California where a young Stevie met Lindsey Buckingham, her future boyfriend and fellow Fleetwood Mac member.

The two started dating when they were high school seniors and would also go on to attend San José State University together. Nicks studied speech communication in the hopes of becoming an English teacher, but dropped out to pursue her musical career.

Then, in 1967, Buckingham asked Nicks to join his rock band, Fritz. They would go on to open for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin from 1968 until 1970. The band broke up in 1972, but Nicks and Buckingham stuck together.