Stevie Nicks Once Accused This Fellow Icon of Treating Her Music in a “Vile” Way

What has become one of Stevie Nicks’ strongest defining characteristics was also a hurdle she had to overcome in her early days as a singer-songwriter. Her big break in Fleetwood Mac didn’t stop her from struggling to fit her songs within the commercial confines of this already successful group. Languid songs just didn’t make for chart-topping hits. The band even thought “Dreams” was too slow and boring, but Nicks fought for it.

Other songs weren’t so fortunate. Despite Nicks’ best efforts, some of her compositions, like “Silver Springs”, didn’t make the “Dreams” album, Rumours, in 1977. Two decades later, Nicks found herself fighting over “Silver Springs” once again. Except this time, Nicks was trying to get the rights to her song back, not convincing someone else to take them, like she was in the late 1970s.

Fleetwood Mac Relegated Stevie Nicks’ Song to a B-Side

With a bit of arrangement help via Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks was able to save “Dreams” from the cutting room floor. The song ended up on Rumours and became one of the group’s most iconic tracks of all time. “Silver Springs”, on the other hand, was left off the album and used as a B-side to “Go Your Own Way” instead. A great irony of that release is that Nicks wrote “Dreams” as a direct response to “Go Your Own Way”, though “Silver Springs” was still undoubtedly about her failing relationship with Buckingham.

Twenty years later, Nicks was putting together a compilation album called Timepiece, on which she wanted to include her B-side from 1977. Drummer and bandleader Mick Fleetwood, however, refused to cede the rights to the song Fleetwood Mac established back in the late 70s. Fleetwood was about to release a compilation in celebration of the band’s 25th anniversary, and “Silver Springs” was a potential candidate for that tracklist. Their disagreement was so tumultuous that Nicks left the band in 1991.

Speaking to Vox Magazine one year later, Nicks said of the copyright battle, “I have told the world what a vile thing it was that Mick Fleetwood had done to me, who has fought like a dog to keep this band from breaking up. I don’t really know what’s going through Mick’s mind. He never returned a phone call, and he never felt it was his duty to sit down and write a letter to tell me why.”

Of Course, That Wasn’t the End of This Working Relationship

In true Fleetwood Mac fashion, Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood reconciled, and the band eventually came back together. By 1997, Fleetwood Mac was back together, and “Silver Springs” was just water under the bridge. Still, the debacle gives new meaning to Nicks’ lyrics: “Time cast a spell on you, but you won’t forget me / Well, I know I could have loved you, but you would not let me / I’ll follow you down ‘til the sound of my voice will haunt you.”

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