The night Stevie Nicks met late British producer Rupert Hine was a “dangerous one.” Before connecting with Nicks, Hine had already produced albums by Tina Turner, the Waterboys, Bob Geldof, and more. “He was different from anyone else I had ever known,” recalled Nicks. “He was older, and he was smarter, and we both knew it. I hired him to do the album before we even started talking about music. It seemed that we had made a spiritual agreement to do a magic album.”
Soon after meeting, both started working on Nicks’ fourth solo album The Other Side of the Mirror in a very fairytale-like setting, relocating to “a fabulous Dutch-style castle, at the top of the mountain” at the Farmyard studio in Buckinghamshire, England for more than four months.
“We recorded it in the formal dining room whereupon the walls hung all these very old and expensive pieces of art looking at us—we were never alone,” recalled Nicks in the liner notes of her 1991 Best of Compilation Timespace. “It always seemed to me that whenever Rupert walked into one of these old, dark castle rooms, the rooms were on fire. There was a connection between us that everyone around us instantly picked up on, and everyone was very careful to respect our space… our ‘TimeSpace.’”
Once the album was mixed and finished, Nicks said their romance came to an end. “Then something happened to him that simply made it impossible for us to ever be together again,” recalled Nicks. “I left him there. The rooms were still burning, but the fire had been stolen from us. It wasn’t over love. In fact, it had nothing to do with love. It was just a bad situation.”
Nicks added, “I came back to Los Angeles, a very changed woman. And now, long nets of white cloud my memory. Now I remember the rooms, the music, and how truly magic the whole thing was.”
Videos by American Songwriter
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‘Every time that you walk in the room’
Once released, “Rooms on Fire” went to No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart.
“[‘Rooms on Fire’] is about when you’re in a crowded room and you see a kind of person and your heart goes, ‘Wow!’” said Nicks, describing the track. “The whole world seems to be ablaze at that particular moment.”
Somewhere out in the back of your mind (somewhere)
Comes your real life and the life that you know
It seems like it was the creation of some of those same old things
It seemed to be the only thing left out in the light
She had trusted many
But been unfamiliar with almost everyone but you
Well, maybe I’m just thinking that the rooms are all on fire
Every time that you walk in the room
Well, there is magic all around you
If I do say so myself
I have known this much longer than I’ve known you
She had trusted many
And then there would be someone who would enter into her presence
That she could sense for miles
She dreamed of her wanton luxury
And she laughed and she cried and she tried to taunt him
Self Reflective
Nicks also found a more personal impression in the lyrics, one describing her life. “‘Rooms on Fire’ is about a girl who goes through a life like I have gone through, where she finally accepts the idea that there never will be those other things in her life. She will never be married, she will never have children, she will never do those [that] part of life.”
The Other Side of the Mirror was another success for Nicks solo and reached the top 10 (at No. 10) of the Billboard 200.
Photo: Rupert Hine (l) with Stevie Nicks, 1989 (Tom Wargacki/WireImage)
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