Stevie Nicks Was Furious She Didn’t Sing on This Fleetwood Mac Hit Song

Between the rockstar egos, messy romances, and even messier breakups, Fleetwood Mac had no shortage of things to fight about—including a 1987 hit that Stevie Nicks was reportedly furious she didn’t get to sing on. The track, which the band recorded on the heels of Nicks’ stint in rehab, prompted a massive fight in the studio.

The band eventually did what they always did and put their personal grievances aside for the sake of their album. But they had to have some difficult conversations before they could do that.

Stevie Nicks Was Furious She Wasn’t On This Mac Track

By the time the late 1980s rolled around, Fleetwood Mac had long been at the apex of their fame. Years after their smash success Rumours came out, frontwoman Stevie Nicks had begun to pursue a solo musical career. She also struggled with cocaine addiction, which led to her stint at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1985. Consequently, Nicks was largely absent from the studio as Fleetwood Mac worked on their 14th album, Tango in the Night.

In late March 1987, Fleetwood Mac listened to the final mixdown of Tango as a group in the studio. As the final notes for “Everywhere” rang out, Stevie Nicks began storming around the studio in a rage. “All right, Stevie. Tell us what’s wrong,” Mick Fleetwood told Nicks, per Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks. “It’s not even like I’m on this f***ing record,” she replied. “I can’t hear myself at all.”

Fleetwood tried to remind Nicks that the band was operating on a deadline, and her lengthy absences made it difficult to put her at the forefront of the Tango arrangements. “Maybe I wasn’t able to get to the studio that much,” Nicks said. “You know how f***ing sick I was. How is it going to look when the record comes out, and I might have to tell Rolling Stone that I didn’t work on it?”

A Standoff Between The Two Women of Fleetwood Mac

For the most part, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie were inseparably close, having made a pact with one another early in their time together as bandmates that they would look out for one another. But when it came to the Fleetwood Mac track “Everywhere,” which McVie wrote, the keyboardist was less accommodating of Nicks’ sour reaction. Bolstered by a couple of glasses of wine, McVie asked Nicks, “OK, Stevie. What specifically are you so upset about?”

When Nicks replied that she wanted to sing harmonies on “Everywhere,” McVie countered, “I wanted you to sing on it, too. But you weren’t there. In fact, we’ve been working on this record for almost a year, and you were only with us for a couple of days. Now why don’t you just tell us you’re sorry, and we’ll work it out.”

Nevertheless, Nicks pushed for the chance to add her background vocals to the track. The band eventually acquiesced, and as Fleetwood would later recall, “This was a good thing because the album sounded much more like Fleetwood Mac. Stevie had been right after all, and so had Christine.” Nicks later softened her feelings about the song, telling Rolling Stone that the song “just shows you that Christine is the hit songwriter in Fleetwood Mac.”

Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns