I think if you are really into words and poetry and situations of life, there is always a little kiss of sadness on everything you do, she explains. Its just the kind of person I am. I always look carefully beneath the outward appearance of things. I want to know whats really going on in somebodys heart.

Nicks says she writes from her experience and those her friends, relatives and others share with her. I write about people and whats really going on. I dont make up stories, she says. She hopes that people feel about her music the way she feels about a particular book she might carry with her on the road or back and forth to her Phoenix home. There are certain books that have become dear to me and Im always going to have with me, she says. Im going to read a page of this and it will tell me something about what is happening now.

These days, Nicks seems to be feeling good about her life - professionally and personally. Sober since 1993, after battling addictions to cocaine and a tranquilizer, she also overcame major eye surgery, the Epstein-Barr virus and lost weight. She feels today, she says, like the old Stevie again. The much-heralded reunion tour of Fleetwood Mac was a commercial and critical triumph, as well as a lot of fun, Nicks says. The band seemed to become a family again.

Now Nicks is exploring her solo side with another studio album, Trouble In Shangri-la, and tour. It is her first solo album since 1994, one that she feels in a sense brings her full circle from her solo debut in 1981 with Bella Donna. I feel just like a teacher in an incredible school that has incredible tenure, she says. Ive been doing this so long and put so much of my time and life into it, when and if I decide to leave is when it will be over for me.

At 53, she has earned her place as an enduring woman in rock n roll, and she intends to keep it as long as the music continues to inspire her. The songstress says she is not a person who will ever drag something out. Ill stop when its time. Nobody will push me out. Im very proud and very defensive when it comes to that, she says. All these new kids coming in, thats terrific. Im really knocked out. I wish somebody would come along that is another Hendrix or be as good as a Zeppelin.

There is no better time for her, she says, than when she is inspired by something and feels compelled to write. A line will come in my head and Ill tell friends Im with, Im going to write tonight. Go have a good time. I need to write this down.

Her creative spirit was challenged during the second through fourth years in Fleetwood Mac, she says. It was a huge money-making machine, with limos and jets and drugs and crazy people all around all the time, she explains. Thats why I really hated that time in my life because the spiritual sort of went away. It has taken a while to get it all back. I never got married or had children. I kind of gave it up for music. When I write a song and know Im saying something important for me to say to everybody, thats my greatest love.

Increasingly, she finds comfort in her writing. I love to go into a room with some instrumental music and write, she says. I just have so much fun writing so fast, smiling and kind of talking to myself. Im in my own world. I like to read it back to people to kind of see their reactions and see if it means something to them. If it means something to them, it means something to me. I know my experiences are not that different from everybody else. She sees herself today an improved writer, in both song and prose. As we get older, we achieve a wisdom. I feel Ive come a long way since 75 when I joined Fleetwood Mac, she says.

The Arizona native cannot see her life in any other way. I cant really imagine what else I would do, she says. If I didnt write songs and write journalistically and perform and dance, I really dont know what I would do. It does seem to have been her life. She met musician Lindsey Buckingham while in high school in San Francisco. They played in Fritz, a rock group that performed throughout California from 1968-1971, even opening for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater and Chicago.

It was in the mid-1970s that they recorded the critically-acclaimed Buckingham Nicks album that caught the ear of Mick Fleetwood and won them an invitation to join the then struggling British blues-rock band, Fleetwood Mac. The rest is history as the duo helped re-energize the band which went on to supergroup status in the 70s and 80s.

She began her solo work in 1980 with the Bella Donna project. It was one of those times when I was very disenchanted with the whole rock n roll life, she recalls of that period. I was too tired to feel very creative or to be very spiritual. I feel like I was a mom to a lot of children. Bella Donna means beautiful lady and also poisonous herb. I felt somewhere between the two images. This whole life can just kill you. I was looking for some sort of balance when I wrote that song. I was constantly looking for something to lead me out of it. I was not in a happy place. What she did need to have, she says, was a relationship with the people who listened to her music. I didnt want to be just this chiffon girl. I need to really, really write for them and need them to know it. From that point, I set upon developing an intimate relationship with the kids who listen. With every song I write, I really try to express a situation. I want people to know if I can get through something, anybody can. I try never to leave them with a depressing feeling.

Nicks believes that female artists can bring a sensitivity to people. They can make women and men understand how important it is to really be good to each other and be sensitive, she says. It can be more difficult for a woman in music than a man, says Nicks, but I also think Ive been really lucky. She reminds that she and Buckingham joined a name, veteran band, though it was struggling at the time. I went from being a waitress and a cleaning lady to being rich and famous overnight - in six months, she says. I dont think I had near the difficulties most women have.

She is leaving the door open on the possibility that Fleetwood Mac will have more projects. The good outnumbered the bad parts, she says of the time with the band. I cant imagine my life without Fleetwood Mac. Everything I do now is all linked to that.