3 Stevie Nicks Songs That Hit Even Harder When You Know Their Backstories

Much of songstress Stevie Nicks‘ music is autobiographical. Although her songs definitely stand on their own, knowing the real-life stories behind them makes them even more interesting to listen to. Here are some Stevie Nicks songs you simply need to know the backstory behind.

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“Landslide”

If you know anything about Fleetwood Mac lore, you know that some of the group’s best songs emerged from Nicks’ relationship with Lindsey Buckingham. This was one of them, but “Landslide” is also about her decision to continue pursuing music despite the odds.

Nicks actually wrote this one right after the couple’s debut project together, Buckingham Nicks, dropped. Nick was staying in Aspen, Colorado, at the time and was feeling discouraged by the album’s limited success.

“But looking up at those Rocky Mountains and going, ‘Okay, we can do it. I’m sure we can do it’, she recalled to Performing Songwriter. “In one of my journal entries, it says, ‘I took Lindsey and said, We’re going to the top!’ And that’s what we did. Within a year, Mick Fleetwood called us, and we were in Fleetwood Mac making $800 a week apiece. Washing $100 bills through the laundry. It was hysterical. It was like we were rich overnight.”

“Stand Back”

Nicks wrote “Stand Back” after hearing a Prince song on the radio called “Little Red Corvette”. At the time, she had actually just gotten married to Kim Anderson, whom she would divorce just three months later. While in their honeymoon suite, Nicks recorded a demo of the song using a tape recorder.

“I can’t even really tell you what ‘Stand Back’ is about,” she admitted to Jim Ladd in 1998. “‘Stand Back’ is kinda about more than one thing. There was a lot going on when ‘Stand Back’ was written so it kinda pulled together all the things that were happening so it wasn’t about one thing. It was written very quickly and I really did hum along to ‘Little Red Corvette’.

Fun fact: Prince himself actually contributed a synth part to this song.

“Edge Of Seventeen”

Although the title “Edge Of Seventeen” was inspired by something that Tom Petty’s wife, Jane, said to Nicks, the rest of the song took shape through a series of tragic losses.

In the 1980s, while Nicks was preparing to record Bella Donna, she was living with her then-romantic partner, Jimmy Iovine. That’s when Iovine told her that John Lennon had taught him how to record. That December, Lennon passed away.

“Then one grey day, the fairy tale ended… Jimmy’s friend was dead…” Nicks recounted in the Timespace liner notes. “But Jimmy’s love for John did not die. A terrible sadness set in over the house; there was simply nothing I could say. So I went home… Jimmy would have to go this one alone.”

At home in Phoenix, Nicks also had to deal with the passing of her uncle, which also helped to inspire the song.

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