Stevie Nicks on Waiting Until 70 to Vote: “I Regret That, and I Don’t Have Very Many Regrets”

Stevie Nicks is sharing why her one big regret in life was not voting in a U.S. election until about six years ago. 

The 76-year-old singer recently sat down with MSNBC to talk about the importance of voting in this year’s high-stakes election and why she wishes she participated in politics earlier in life. 

“I never voted until I was 70, but I regret that,” Nicks said. “I’ve told everybody that onstage for the last two years. I regret that, and I don’t have very many regrets.”

Nicks began explaining the reasons why she waited to vote and believes so many others have too. “You can say, ‘Oh, I didn’t have time. I was this and that.’ In the long run, you didn’t have an hour? You didn’t have an hour of your time that you could have gone and voted,” she recalled.

The “Go Your Own Way” singer insists that this is the election to vote because women’s rights are in jeopardy. “No matter who wins, we have to find a way to bring back Roe v. Wade,” she said. Nicks also mentioned how she now wants to use her platform to speak up about important causes and to encourage other musicians to do so also. 

“In the end of the ’50s and ’60s and into the ’70s, everyone was writing protest songs. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills,” Nicks said. “I would say to all my musical poets that write songs to write some songs about what’s happening like I did.”

In September, Nicks released a song called “The Lighthouse,” which she began writing a few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. The song is inspired by the fight to protect reproductive rights. 

“They’ll take your soul, they’ll take your power / Unless you stand up and take it back / Try to see the future and get mad,” she sings in “The Lighthouse.” “It’s slipping through your fingers, you don’t have what you had / You don’t have much time to get it back.” 

Nicks added, “Whoever wins, the lighthouse needs to keep shining its light and keep those ships from crashing into the rocks. That’s my idea of the lighthouse being a protector, protecting all those boats and ships that are coming in.”

She concluded with a message to people who don’t see how crucial this election is, “We just have to not quit. We just have to keep talking about it.” 

On Sept. 11, Nicks announced her support for Kamala Harris on Instagram, shortly after Taylor Swift also endorsed the vice president’s presidential bid. 

“As my friend @taylorswift so eloquently stated, now is the time to research and choose the candidate that speaks to you and your beliefs,” Nicks wrote at the time. “Only 54 days left until the election. Make sure you are registered to vote! Your vote in this election may be one of the most important things you ever do.”