“My heart comes out of my body”: The most emotional stage experience Stevie Nicks ever had
It takes a lot of guts to release a song about your experience of heartbreak. To funnel all of those complex feelings into guitar strums and emotionally raw lyrics, to hone in on them with producers and bandmates, to expel them in the studio, hear them recounted on the radio and perform them live on stage. It takes even more guts, as Stevie Nicks knows all too well, to do all of those things in a band with the subject of your heartbreak.
Bitter break-ups are as essential to Fleetwood Mac’s story as the soft rock genre or the use of drugs. Their music may have sounded like a more tender take on rock, but it was driven by the relationship dramas ongoing behind the scenes, particularly on their magnum opus, 1977’s Rumours. The entire band had been hit by a wave of heartbreak, and Nicks was no exception.
Nicks had been dating Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, long before the duo even joined the band. They started out playing together as Buckingham Nicks in the early 1970s, combining romance and professionalism early on, before they were eventually recruited by Mick Fleetwood. By 1976, their relationship had run its course, but Nicks and Buckingham still had to co-exist within Fleetwood Mac.
But both Nicks and Buckingham were songwriters at heart, which made things a little awkward in the year that followed. Inspired by their break-up, they each began to pen songs about one another, channelling their anger into the studio. Nicks sang backing vocals on Buckingham’s bitter ‘Go Your Own Way’, while he provided guitars for ‘Dreams’.
But perhaps the most striking song penned during this period of unrest between Nicks and Buckingham was ‘Silver Springs’. The track may have been cut from the final tracklisting of Rumours for time, but this certainly wasn’t a reflection of its quality or impact. It was intense and embittered, with Nicks casting a spell on Buckingham, assuring him that he would never forget her.
Penning ‘Silver Springs’ and working alongside Buckingham to bring it to life must have been difficult enough, but then Nicks had to perform it live on-stage, with her ex standing just a few feet away from her. It was this experience that Nicks recalled as her most emotional moment on-stage during a conversation with Maclean’s.
After she finished singing ‘Silver Springs’ with Buckingham, Nicks recalled how Christine McVie took her hand. “We walk off and we never let go of each other until we get to our tent,” she remembered, “In that 30 seconds, it’s like my heart just comes out of my body.” It’s easy to see why Nicks felt so emotionally overwhelmed by this experience.
Reliving those feelings of heartbreak while the subject of them stands beside you strumming an acoustic guitar can’t be an easy experience. Fortunately, Nicks had the support of McVie waiting for her on the other side of the stage, a hand to hold as she allowed herself to feel those emotions as her heart beat out of her chest.
It’s easy to imagine how Buckingham might have experienced similarly intense feelings while singing ‘Go Your Own Way’, remembering the pain of their breakup, or even while listening to Nicks expelling her own emotions on stage.
