Nikki O’Neill

Author: Zig at the gig
Published: Wed 19 Feb 2025
Episode Link: https://zigatthegig.podbean.com/e/nikki-o-neill/

Nikki O’Neill, an R&B/Americana singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Chicago, is releasing

her third solo album, Stories I Only Tell My Friends. It’s being issued on Blackbird Record Label

on March 14, 2025 on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming.

This interweaving of Soul, Americana, Rock, Gospel and Blues is an integral part of O’Neill’s

sound, and likely due to her upbringing. “I was born in L.A., but grew up mostly in Stockholm,

Sweden with a Russian grandmother and Polish mother,” she says. “Both of them, and also my

father, grew up with war and had a history of constantly moving from one country and one

apartment to another. My mom was young when she had me, and music seemed to be her

source of joy. She loved listening to all kinds of artists, from Al Green to Santana, Dinah

Washington, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon, and the Traveling Wilbury’s. I soaked it all up like a

sponge. I started making up songs when I was twelve, and first picked up a guitar when I was

16. I loved going to record stores, and when Prince’s Purple Rain album came out, I bought it

immediately and listened to it religiously. Then a friend and drummer in my first band

introduced me to Sly Stone. The way Prince and Sly fused soul and rock, and were leaders of

multi-racial bands with male and female musicians was tremendously influential.”

O’Neill moved from Stockholm to New York City where she mostly played guitar in other bands.

She relocated to Los Angeles after meeting Rich Lackowski at a music trade show. O’Neill

became a solo artist, and the couple (now married) eventually became members of L.A.’s small,

but supportive Americana artist community. After self-releasing her 2017 solo EP, Love Will

Lead You Home (with songs co-written by lyricist Paul Menser), she regularly performed around

L.A. with Lackowski in their 4-piece band, and was signed to Blackbird Record Label in August,

2020. In October that same year, she released World is Waiting, her second solo album and

label debut. With touring opportunities erased by the pandemic and California becoming

unaffordable, they packed up their instruments into her little red Honda Fit and drove to

Lackowski’s hometown of Chicago. “It took me a while to get rooted in Chicago, meet musicians

and start writing again, but I also didn’t want my songs to sound like leftovers from the last

album,” O’Neill says. “I wanted to find out how Chicago would inspire me.”

Stories I Only Tell My Friends is eloquent testimony to the inspiration she found.