“She loves to write”: the singer who gave Stevie Nicks the greatest compliment ever
I will always remember Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ as being one of the first songs I ever heard – ringing through my childhood kitchen, Lindsey Buckingham’s simple but heartfelt riff married up with Stevie Nicks‘ brutally tender storytelling to become something of an emotional anthem for me.
Back then, I didn’t even understand its context, but felt its wisdom. Nicks’ existential questioning of the passage of time and how it affects the children we once were is undeniably profound and serves as a perfect guideline for anyone, from any era, cobbling their way through the struggles of modern life.
Despite all Nicks has achieved in music over the last 50 years, ‘Landslide’ feels like the perfect sonic representation of her timelessness as an artist, and once the drama and specificity of Rumours is stripped away, you’re still left with a musician whose writing can cut right to the heart of human existence, regardless of era or age.
So it’s unsurprising that Nicks is heralded as a guiding light for a generation of modern artists – Florence Welch, Haim and Lana Del Rey all cite the great songwriter as a creative north star, whose unwavering strength in pursuing her own artistic voice has served as a template for those pursuing a career fraught with setbacks.
Because Nicks’ own career had plenty, whether it was the brutal break-up of her romantic relationship, the financial perils of being a struggling artist, or simply experiencing the thinly-veiled misogyny that has always been rife in the music industry. Through it all, Nicks has always endured and done so by relying on the strength of her songwriting.
So it comes as no surprise to us that modern artists look to her career inspiration, but to Nicks, it always seems to be a source of surprising privilege that only goes to show how heartfelt she is as an artist. And there was one occasion, where a truly global mega star came up to her to remind her of this, that the weight of her impact truly revealed itself to her.
She explained, “After the Grammys, not this year’s Grammys’s but last year’s Grammys – I went to an after party. Lady Gaga came up and sat right down next to me in her little Statue of Liberty outfit, and I have to say, she just looked stunningly beautiful. She said to me, ‘You know, sometimes when I’m working on something and I just don’t know exactly what to do with it, I think ‘Well, what would Stevie do?'”
Nicks continued to process the privilege of being a muse for one of pop’s biggest stars. But in a bid to understand it, she turned to the one facet of her artistry that she’s always believed in, and more importantly, always believed artists should prioritise.
Concluding, “And I thought that was the sweetest of all compliments to say that, because she’s a writer and she loves to write. She loves to write, you know? That’s always going to win out in the end, if you’re a good writer, because a good song, a really great song, is going to push through no matter what.”
