(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Jess Nicks, father of Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks and owner of the now-defunct concert venue Compton Terrace, died August 10th from heart failure. He was 80 years old.
Nicks built the venue in 1979 after retiring as president and chairman of Armour/Greyhound.
“He was a pioneer,” promoter Danny Zelisko of Evening Star Productions told The Arizona Republic. “Compton Terrace was one of the first ‘sheds.’ When Jess opened it, there weren’t many venues like it. No one thought to dig a hold in the ground and hold concerts outdoors. Now there are 50 or 60 across the country.”
The outdoor amphitheater closed in 1996.
“Jess brought business savvy from outside the concert business to the concert business,” Zelisko told the paper. “But he also loved the music, because his daughter was a musician.”
A longtime sufferer from heart disease, Nicks had undergone three heart operations, and was heavily involved with the Arizona Heart Institute. He had served as chairman of the board for three decades.
He had teamed up with his daughter to raise millions of dollars for the institute. Stevie and Fleetwood Mac performed numerous benefit concerts for the organization, ranging from an intimate private performance in 1996 to a recent concert with Don Henley on August 5th at the nearby Dodge Theatre.
Stevie released a statement on her website that read, “He was a force of nature. He waited until the Fleetwood Mac Tour was over – I asked him for that. He waited until this summer tour was over – I asked him for that. He couldn’t leave us during a tour – he knew that…He waited for me.”
Besides Stevie, Nicks also leaves his wife, Barbara, and son Christopher. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
