Rachel Brodsky to Release New Book About Stevie Nicks

For more than five decades, Stevie Nicks has captivated audiences not just with her music, but with the wisdom she's shared along the way. Now, a new book pulls back the curtain on the life lessons that have shaped her legendary career.

A new biography detailing Stevie Nicks' storied life has hit bookshelves, penned by culture journalist and author Rachel Brodsky. The book is an independent tribute that draws on years of archival interviews and accounts from people in Nicks' orbit.

Brodsky recalled first discovering Fleetwood Mac through her father when she was 10, listening as he recounted the band's dramatic history. She was far too young at the time to fully understand the sex, drugs, and ego woven into their story.

It wasn't until later that she found herself captivated by the group's spellbinding frontwoman, Nicks, 78. "I started to think about her as a maternal figure once I got a little older," Brodsky, now 39, told People in a new interview.

That fascination eventually became Brodsky's debut book, "Lessons & Lace," now available from Harmony/Penguin Random House. The book explores the life lessons and hard-won wisdom the "Dreams" singer has shared with the world throughout her career.

The author revealed she was approached by a Harmony at Random House editor via email, who pitched the idea of a book centered on Nicks. "They wanted to do a book on Stevie Nicks, which I immediately couldn't have said 'yes' fast enough. I felt like I could easily take this idea and run with it," she said.

"I really enjoyed the research that went into the liner notes and, in the absence of any artist interviews, doing that research and placing the reader in the environment of what it must have been like for the band and for the listener at that time," she shared of her writing process.

As she dug into her research, Brodsky found herself relating to Nicks on a personal level.

"Something that I didn't realize about her as a person, but put together via reading tons of archival interviews with her, was that she really displays this duality as a person [who is] very romantic, very dreamy, spiritual, seeming to live her life from a higher vibrational plane," she explained.

"But at the same time, she's got this real pragmatism to her and is pretty unapologetically ambitious. I related to that a lot," Brodsky said.

The author also praised how Nicks became a feminist icon for women, particularly in the early days of her career.

"We have a whole language to talk about feminism, meaning women making the choices that are right for them. We have this whole language around women who choose to be child-free," Brodsky said.

"And I imagine that it must have been far trickier as a famous woman in the '70s, '80s, '90s, and having people endlessly ask Stevie [about kids and marriage], especially a woman writing about her relationships to the extent that she did," she continued.

"She really has set a beautiful example for somebody who has decided not to have children [and] dedicate their life to other things," she added. Brodsky went on to reflect on Nicks' lasting legacy and her staying power in an industry that rarely affords artists such longevity.

"I can't think of a comparable artist from her generation in [the] pop-rock genre of music who has maintained such relevance today. I was just at Daisy Chain Fields and I was just seeing teenagers psyched to see Stevie," Brodsky recalled.

"I can't think of almost any other artist of Stevie's generation, especially female, who retains that kind of cultural high profile," she said.

"I think she's done that by being that source of support for other up-and-coming artists, being so open about sharing her experiences and what she's learned to try to ease the way for younger artists," she added, naming Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Miley Cyrus as prime examples.