Stevie Nicks Says She Got Starstruck by David Beckham: 'He Just Oozed Handsomeness'

"I just stood there, like, 'Is this real? Maybe it's a dream,'" the Fleetwood Mac singer tells PEOPLE in this week's issue of meeting David Beckham

david beckham and stevie nicks
David Beckham and Stevie Nicks. Photo: David Beckham/Instagram

Even after more than four decades of stardom, Stevie Nicks still has fan-girl moments — and she's not afraid to admit it.

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now, the Fleetwood Mac singer and rock icon, 72, recalls being starstruck by former pro soccer star David Beckham while meeting him backstage at her November 2019 concert in San Francisco.

"He just oozed handsomeness. Gorgeousness, you know?" Nicks says. "I just stood there, like, 'Is this real? Maybe it’s a dream.' Anyway, he was super nice and really sweet."

(For the record, Beckham was just as starstruck and posted a photo of him and Nicks to his Instagram after the show with the caption, "What a night in San Fran seeing Fleetwood Mac ❤️Stevie Nicks ❤️.")

At the same show, Nicks also met and spent time with the Mother of Dragons herself, Emilia Clarke.

"I watched her on Game of Thrones for like 10 years, and I just loved her to death," she says. "She was kind of like my long-lost daughter that I had found, and she followed me around after the show. She was great, and she wanted to talk, so she was with me the entire time for the meet and greet. I just thought she was the cutest thing."

These days, stadium shows feel like a thing of the past for Nicks, who has been off the road since the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. into lockdown in March.

"I had this like amazing conversation with Harry Styles last January after I went and sang 'Landslide' with him at the Forum [in Los Angeles], before we knew about this thing," she says. "I was on the phone with him, probably in February, when the rumors were starting to really fly around about the pandemic. I said to Harry, 'So H, what do you think? I think it's going to be a long time before we get to step on that stage again.' And he said, 'I don't think it will be until at least the end of 2021, and possibly not until 2022.'"

"I'm listening to him, and he's 26, and I'm like, you know, 109," she continues. "I said to him, 'So you're becoming the sage here because I don't want to even believe that. But are you serious? Do you really believe that?' He said, 'I do. I believe that.'"

Harry Styles and Stevie Nicks
Harry Styles and Stevie Nicks. Helene Pambrun

Nicks has made sure to be especially cautious during this time, noting in a Facebook post over the summer that if she gets coronavirus, she will "probably never sing again" because a ventilator will make her "hoarse for the rest" of her life.

"My niece just got married, and I couldn’t go to her wedding," she says. "I can’t run over and hug my friends. My mantra every day is: I’m not getting [the coronavirus]; I can’t chance it."

While isolating at home, Nicks has kept busy dancing around her apartment, making up dances to Lady Gaga's 2013 Artpop hit "Applause," binging shows like Law & Order and Chicago P.D. and spending time with her Chinese crested Lily, who "thinks she's Marilyn Monroe," she says.

"Her little butt does the total Marilyn Monroe wiggle," she says. "It’s back and forth, back and forth. I say to her, 'We will get old, but this will never get old.'"

"Even though Chinese cresteds are so beautiful, they live so long that they always win the Ugliest Dog in the World contest," she adds. "I have never actually told Lily because I don't want her to say, 'Oh my God, I'm jumping off the balcony at 15. I don't want to be in that pageant.'"

RELATED VIDEO: Stevie Nicks Reveals Hit Song 'Stand Back' Was Inspired by Prince's 'Little Red Corvette'

She also recently had a new revelation: she's allergic to gluten.

"At 72 years old, who knew?" she says. "But I just had these gluten-free brownies from Erewhon Market in Pacific Palisades that taste like chocolate soufflé. As long as they exist, I can do this."

With her 24 Karat Gold Tour live album and concert film, as well as her new single, "Show Them the Way," out now, Nicks says she feels nothing but gratitude for where she's at.

"I'm grateful that I was able to get 'Show Them the Way' out three weeks before the 2020 Presidential election," she says. "It was hard, but if it helped just 10 people go out and vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, then it was worth it."

For all the details on Stevie Nicks' life now, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.

Updated by
Julie Jordan
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Julie Jordan is an Editor at Large for PEOPLE. She has been with the brand for 25 years, writing cover stories and features and managing special issues including the Beautiful Issue and Sexiest Man Alive. 

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