Tom Petty on why it took a long time to warm to Stevie Nicks
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The song Bret Michaels wrote for Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks isn’t too proud to allow other artists to write songs alongside her, an act of collaboration that she has regularly followed throughout her entire solo career. Nicks famously worked closely with Tom Petty, and in the early 1990s, she decided to mix things up again.
In 1991, Nicks released Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks, which included three additional tracks. The Fleetwood Mac singer had seen a glam-rock takeover and wanted a piece of the pie. Jon Bon Jovi co-wrote the lead single, ‘Sometimes It’s A Bitch’, and Poison’s Bret Michaels assisted Nicks on ‘Love’s a Hard Game to Play’.
Nicks wanted to move with the times and feared being left behind by the newcomers. After seeing groups like Bon Jovi and Poison explode into superstardom, she wanted a piece of the glam-rock pie. Ultimately, the two creations she co-penned during this period were far from her best work and underwhelming, but it sparked a friendship with the Poison frontman.
In the liner notes to the album, Nicks explained how the song was created and revealed it was brought to her by the “most extraordinary young man.” Detailing further, she continued: “One of these men who has everything – beauty, sensitivity, warmth, and a love for life that I had not seen in a long time. I recorded his song, singing it for him to the best of my ability, hoping that the people would love the song as much as we loved doing it.”
Nicks also explained how she was thankful for Michaels coming into her life and claimed: “Finding someone like him seldom happens in one’s lifetime.”
The singer added: “But when it does there is nothing like it. He was happy because I believed in him. And he has brought something back to me that I thought I had lost… my laughter.”
Due to how Nicks spoke about Michaels, people assumed something romantic had occurred between the couple. However, in 2020, the Poison singer finally put these rumours to bed, although he did share his memories from the recording of ‘Love’s a Hard Game to Play’.
During an appearance on The Talk, Michaels explained: “I know where this is going. Number one, she is awesome. We wrote an incredible song together. But the night before, I came into town. We went out to dinner, had the best time. We laughed, closed the place down; we were up on Sunset Strip, a restaurant up there. The place closed down. We laughed, told stories. It was awesome. Next day, recorded the song. It was incredible.”
He added: “Sitting there the way you dream it to be — you know, playing music. She’s on the piano; I’m on the guitar. All great. But I say this with all respect — beautiful woman all the way around, but there was no ‘rock of love. It was good, though. There was tension. You know what I mean?”
Watch the footage below of Nicks performing ‘Love’s A Hard Game To Play’ at Arsenio Hall.
