and Irish ancestry. Nicks' grandfather, Aaron Jess "A.J." Nicks Sr., taught Nicks to sing duets with him by the time she was four years old. Nicks' mother was protective, keeping her at home "more than most people" and fostered in her daughter a love of fairy tales. As a toddler, Stephanie could pronounce her own name only as "tee-dee", which led to her nickname of "Stevie". Her father's frequent relocation as a vice president of Greyhound had the family living in Phoenix, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles; and San Francisco. With the Goya guitar that she received for her 16th birthday, Nicks wrote her first song, titled "I've Loved and I've Lost, and I'm Sad but Not Blue". She spent her adolescence playing records constantly, and lived in her "own little musical world". While attending Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California she joined her first band, the Changing Times, a folk rock band focused on vocal harmonies. Nicks met her future musical and romantic partner, Lindsey Buckingham, during her senior year at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California. When she saw Buckingham playing "California Dreamin'" at Young Life club, she joined him in harmony. She recalled, "I thought he was a darling." Buckingham was in a psychedelic rock band, Fritz, but two of its musicians were leaving for college. He asked Nicks in mid-1967 to replace the lead singer. Fritz later opened for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin from 1968 until 1970. Nicks credits both acts as having inspired her stage intensity and performance. Both Nicks and Buckingham attended San José State University, where Nicks majored in speech communication and planned to become an English teacher. With her father's blessing, Nicks dropped out of college to pursue a musical career with Buckingham. 1972–1978: Buckingham Nicks and Fleetwood Mac After Fritz disbanded in 1972, Nicks and Buckingham continued to write as a duo, recording demo tapes at night in Daly City, California, on a one-inch, four-track Ampex tape machine Buckingham kept at the coffee-roasting plant belonging to his father. They secured a deal with Polydor Records, and the eponymous Buckingham Nicks was released in 1973. The album was not a commercial success and Polydor dropped the pair. With no money coming in from their album, and Buckingham contracting mononucleosis shortly thereafter, Nicks began working multiple jobs. She waited tables and cleaned producer Keith