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What’s playing on Stevie Nicks’ speakers? Well, a lot of things are, especially when she is using “the power of music” to heal.
When the legendary singer-songwriter, 77, stepped away from the stage temporarily to heal from a shoulder fracture earlier this year, music filled her ears nonstop, she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview.
Giving a rare glimpse into her current music rotation while speaking about her new Bella Donna Barbie doll, the hitmaker includes an indie band that opened for her at a recent show and reveals the process she uses to discover new artists.
“I’m all over the internet. I listen to a lot of current bands,” Nicks says, listing The Midnight, The White Kites and Night Traveler as some of the groups she enjoys of late.
“And all through my recovery, I’ve listened,” the star continues. “That’s the one thing that I have done physically through this recovery, is to really listen to all this younger music that I love. And when I wasn’t feeling well at all, it just carried me on a cloud through this whole thing.”
Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns
So it was full-circle when one of the bands that “carried” her, Night Traveler, opened for the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman at her Phoenix concert on Oct. 7 — one of her first show back post-injury.
The Texas-based rock duo later shared an Instagram post reflecting on the monumental gig.
“We thought opening for [Stevie Nicks] would be the coolest musical moment of our lives,” the band wrote in the caption. “Turns out the kindness and sincerity of her spirit that she shared with us will be the thing we never forget.”
Regardless of what she’s listening to, Nicks tells PEOPLE, “All my tapes are really curated by me.” Still, she explains, “I’m not high-tech at all.”
In the past five or six years, the “Silver Springs” singer has started using radio functions on platforms like Pandora and Spotify.
“I push the thumbs-up. Love this. Don’t love that. Love this,” she explains. Then, Nicks makes a list, which becomes a tape, which becomes a source of healing and inspiration during difficult times.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
“Just to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling is not my idea of a good time,” the rock icon explains. “That kept me dancing to a point, just kind of Snoop Dogging around my place, because you can be pretty beat-up, and you can still dance if inspirational music comes on.”
“The power of music to heal you is amazing,” adds Nicks. “If I didn’t have those tapes, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Another piece of music Nicks has been listening to lately? Buckingham Nicks, the eponymous 1973 album she recorded with her ex and former bandmate Lindsey Buckingham before they brought their talents to Fleetwood Mac.
The former rock duo re-released the project in September, prompting Nicks to listen for the first time in a long while, she tells PEOPLE.
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“If you can ever just sit in a big room with somebody who has a great stereo or whatever you want to call it, great speakers, or lives next door to a studio, just go in and listen to it, because you’ll hear stuff in Buckingham Nicks that none of us have heard since that record came out,” the star explains, “because it was only pressed at one time and went out that one time.”
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Nicks says she has even “had some people go, ‘I put it on in my house stereo that goes all over, and I walk all over the house and just listen to it, and it’s like I’m in a huge studio listening to you guys make this record.’ ”
“I don’t even have a copy, so it’s like, when you listen to this, it’s like you’re in the studio with us,” she adds. “And there are parts, vocal parts, music parts that I haven’t heard in so long that I’m, like, ‘Wow. I would join that band.’ ”
