On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Stevie Nicks commemorated the day with a social media post in her signature journal format.
Noting that the Fleetwood Mac front woman thinks of the clock striking midnight each year, Nicks began the remembrance on September 10th at 11:50 p.m. having just flown in from Canada with her solo band (twenty years ago) that morning. Ready to perform three shows she stayed at the Waldorf Astoria 2001, writing:
“It was 2:30 a.m. when we landed. By the time I went to bed it was almost 7:30 a.m. I sat in the window for a minute and looked dawn on a glorious day. The whole city was up. I actually thought about just not going to bed and going out to have breakfast and then out to walk the streets. Well, I’m too old to do that now, so, I laughed and went to bed.â€
Stevie's assistant woke her up right when the second plane hit. “We had been attacked,†she said. “It couldn’t have been an accident. Not two accidents in a row… I walked over to the window where I had been sitting (it seemed like minutes ago) and looked down. Everything was grey. There were no cars. There were no yellow cabs. There were no people. It looked like death. It looked like the end of the world."
Calling family and friends and watching the news on television, Nicks remained at the hotel in lockdown. “We saw things on our TV that most people did not see because the Waldorf is where the presidents and the foreign diplomats stay,†she wrote. “So we saw things that the U.S. did not see â€" but the rest of the world saw.â€
Following the cancellation of her New York shows the musician took a bus to Atlantic City in preparation of her gig at the Etess Arena on September 15th, 2001. “I called my mom and Don Henley to ask, ‘Should I come home?'†she recalled. “And they both said, ‘If the people aren’t asking for their money back, then they must want to see you.’ So, we put a big American flag up behind me and went on. It was like everyone just wanted to be with everyone that night.â€
As part of her story she added a photo of an angel that she drew in 1994. “I named her ‘A Soldiers Angel,'†she said. “She visited Walter Reed and Bethesda with me many times. The soldiers held her and signed their names on the back. She heard many of their stories of war and compassion. So I send her out to you on this day to be your angel; you might see a faint candle burning on her right side. It burns for all those lost on this day â€" and all those who survived this day and to tell their own personal stories. I am so sorry, so broken hearted for all that we lost that day. But I would not have wanted to be anywhere else but there in New York with the people of New York. I became a New Yorker on that day. I was honored.â€
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Author: Brad LeBeau
Photo: Sandy Mac