A 19-year-old Stevie Nicks on stage with the Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band in 1967. This was Stevie’s very first rock band, joined shortly after she graduated high school. It was here that her legendary partnership with Lindsey Buckingham began, as the group became a staple of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, opening for the likes of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.
Stevie Nicks was yelled off a stage by Janice Joplain. She has been telling this story for 55 years. She says, "Being yelled off the stage by Janice Joplain was one of the greatest honors of my life. Not one of the most embarrassing moments, not one of the most frustrating, one of the greatest honors. This is the story of why.
" 1968, San Francisco, Stevie Nicks was 19 years old. She had dropped out of San Jose State University to pursue music full-time. She was singing with a band called Fritz, a California rock band that included a young guitarist named Lindseay Buckingham, who would become her musical partner for the next 50 years.
Fritz was a good band, not yet a great one. They had a small following in the Bay Area and were building something the way bands build things. slowly, show by show, learning their craft in real time. And they got the opportunity to open for Janice Joplain, not once, multiple times between 1968 and 1970. Fritz opened for Janice Joplain and Jimmyi Hendris at concerts in San Francisco, at the big shows that the city was producing in those years when the scene was at its peak and the stages were full of people who were changing what American music was. For Stevie Nicks, these shows were school. The first time she saw Janice Joplain, she did not recognize her. This is what Stevie Nicks told Q magazine in 2008. She said, "The first time I saw her, I didn't know who she was because she wasn't all dressed up. She was backstage
in ordinary clothes, small and wild-haired and not performing. and she was telling the band that was on before her, who had gone over their time to get off her stage. The specific language Janice used by Stevie Nicks's account was direct. I thought, Stevie said, "Whoa.
" The voice that was telling the previous band to leave was the voice of someone who had no interest in managing the distance between what she felt and what she showed. Who did not soften things when unsoftened was more accurate. Who was small and ordinarylooking backstage and completely extraordinary when she decided to be. Stevie Nicks was 19 years old and standing backstage in San Francisco watching a woman she had not recognized 10 minutes earlier tell an entire band to get off a stage with full authority and zero apology. Whoa. 30 minutes later, Janice Joplain walked onto that stage. Stevie Nicks described this transformation in her Q interview and in interviews across the decades with the specific wonder of someone who has been thinking about it for 50 years and still finds it remarkable, she said. Anyway, they wrapped it up and 30 minutes later
on comes Janice. Very different. feathers in her hair, fantastic bell bottoms, really high heeled shoes, a top with little bell sleeves in silky beautiful material, beads, wild, crazy curly hair. I was blown away by her. The woman who had been backstage telling people to get off her stage had become in 30 minutes something else entirely.
Stevie Nicks watched Janice Joplain walk onto that stage and command it. She watched the crowd respond. She watched the connection form between the performer and the audience. The specific electrical thing that happens when a great performer and a receptive crowd find each other.
She had not seen this before. Not like this. What Stevie Nicks took from that hour and a half is documented across many interviews across many decades. She said, "I learned more from her during that hour and a half, watching how she dealt with the crowd, how she paced herself, how she sang, than any hour and a half in my life.
How did being yelled off a stage create one of the greatest rock icons in history? CLICK the link below to discover the priceless lesson that changed Stevie Nicks’ life forever, SHARE if you’re inspired by the raw power of women who rule the stage! https://ifeg.info/2026/06/04/the-shadow-of-the-phoenix-the-19-year-old-night-that-altered-stevie-nickss-destiny-before-the-roar-of-janis-joplin/
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