Nicolette got her first break after college, when she was hired as a singer with Hoyt Axton's band and later with Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen. She was soon on her way to becoming one of the top recording and touring vocalists in the business, recording with key musical figures like Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Michael McDonald, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, Neil Young, Christopher Cross, The Dirt Band, the Beach Boys and the Doobie Brothers. Within five years of her arrival in California, she found herself at the top of the pop chart with "Lotta Love" in 1979, the Neil Young song that she turned into a classic. Nicolette passed away in December of 1997, due to complications from a cerebral edema, she was 45.