Richie Kotzen Recalls Unexpected House Tour With Stevie Nicks: ‘The Tour Ended In Her Bedroom’

Guitar virtuoso Richie Kotzen recently shared a surprising anecdote from his early days in Los Angeles. In a conversation with Hot Metal while promoting his new collaborative album with Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, titled Black Light/White Noise, Kotzen recounted a memorable visit to Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks‘ home in the early 1990s.

Kotzen, reflecting on his move to Los Angeles facilitated by a major record company, recalled attending a party at Nicks‘ residence. “I remember going to a party at Stevie Nicks’ house and I’m there with a couple of people,” Kotzen, now 55, explained. He noted that they shared the same manager at the time, Howard Kaufman.

According to Kotzen, Nicks herself greeted him at the door and offered a tour of her house. “She opens the door. She sees me… she says, ‘hey let me give you a tour of the house’,” Kotzen recounted. He then revealed the tour took an unexpected turn, stating, “And she gives me a tour of the house. The tour ended in her bedroom. And I was 20 years old, 21 possibly, very young.”

Considering that Nicks is currently 76 years old, this encounter would have occurred when she was approximately 40 or 41.

Kotzen admitted that while he was aware of Nicks‘ fame, her music wasn’t a primary focus for him at the time. “In my mind … I knew who she was, she was not super on my radar, you know, as far as the music that I listened to,” he said. He recalled his somewhat flustered reaction to the situation, stating, “I remember saying to her ‘wow, you have a lovely house – I’d better go find my friends’.”

Kotzen concluded by suggesting this was just one of many such experiences during his initial years in Los Angeles, emphasizing his immediate immersion into a certain lifestyle upon his arrival.

Interestingly, in the same interview, Richie also disclosed that he nearly became a member of the influential industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.