Behind the Ultimatum and Looming Pressure That Inspired Stevie Nicks to Write “Landslide”

Pursuing a music career is one of the hardest career paths one can undergo. Most people fail, and very few succeed, as the number of people pursuing the dream is far higher than the number of opportunities in the market. As a result of this ratio, trying to achieve such a dream is nearly impossible, and consequently, all actions taken to achieve it seem trivial. All musicians, successful and not, know about the mental and emotional toll this line of work entails, including Stevie Nicks.

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Before Stevie Nicks became a member of Fleetwood Mac, she did what many aspiring musicians do: she worked odd jobs to stay afloat. In the early 1970s, Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were signed by Polydor Records, but were later dropped. Spread thin and lacking hope, Buckingham and Nicks were having a hard time making ends meet. It was during this time that Stevie Nicks entertained quitting music. Her father supported that thought, but he also gave her an offer and one final chance, and those two things encouraged Nicks to write “Landslide”.

Stevie Nicks Had Six Months to Make Something Happen When She Wrote “Landslide”

In a 1998 interview with VH1 Storytellers, Stevie Nicks revealed the deal she struck with her dad. The deal was that if Stevie Nicks couldn’t make something happen in six months, her parents would pay for her to go back to school. Nicks recalled in the interview, “My Dad did have something to do with it, but he absolutely thinks that he was the whole complete reason it was ever written.”

“I guess it was about September 1974, I was home at my Dad and Mom’s house in Phoenix, and my father said, ‘You know, I think that maybe…you really put a lot of time into this, maybe you should give this six more months, and if you want to go back to school, we’ll pay for it and uh, basically you can do whatever you want and we’ll pay for it,’” continued Stevie Nicks.

Subsequently, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham moved to Aspen, Colorado, and it was there that Nicks wrote “Landslide,” looking out over the snow-covered hills. Months after Nicks agreed to the deal, she and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac. Months after that, Fleetwood Mac released their self-titled album, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Needless to say, Stevie Nicks didn’t feel the need to return to college after those six months.

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