The band that showed Stevie Nicks her future
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Stevie Nicks regrets not performing with Prince
Prince and Stevie Nicks might seem quite far removed in terms of artistry, but in reality, the two share many similarities and a deep connection. They’re two of the most inventive songwriters of their generation, and both have expertly blended image and musical aptitude to create a product that millions from many different walks of life find solace in.
The pair were such kindred spirits that they directly inspired each other to write some of their most beloved songs, tying their stories together forever. Famously, Stevie Nicks wrote her 1983 single ‘Stand Back’ after hearing Prince’s classic cut ‘Little Red Corvette’.
That year, she married Kim Anderson, and shortly after tying the knot, the pair were in the car when they heard the aforementioned Prince track for the first time, and both were blown away. Little did she know at the time, this experience was to inspire one of her greatest pieces to date.
“All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I’m singing along, going, ‘Stand back!’ I’m like, ‘Kim, pull over! We need to buy a tape recorder because I need to record this'” Nicks explained later. “And so we do – we careen off the freeway to find a radio, record shop or something, and we go in and we buy a little tape recorder.”
The Fleetwood Mac singer continued: “We get the song, and I’m basically using Prince’s instrumental melody,” Nicks said. “What I’m singing along is very, very different from what he’s singing. I’m singing in and out of all of the holes.”
How did the typically prickly Prince feel about this? After Nicks called him for his help to finish the song, he arrived at the iconic Los Angeles recording studio, Sunset Sound, within 20 minutes, which you can take as his glowing endorsement.
Nicks said that ‘Stand Back’ “belongs to Prince” in her eyes and recalled just how brilliant he was in the studio: “He spoiled me for every band I’ve ever had because nobody can exactly re-create — not even with two piano players —what Prince did all by his little self”.
Whilst Nicks and Prince shared a bond, crystallised by him giving her one of the highlights of her solo career, in a 2016 interview with Billboard, the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman revealed that she is “brokenhearted” that the pair never performed together when Prince was alive.
“Had I ever in a million years thought that we would lose him, I would have made sure that that would have happened,” she expressed. “And it didn’t. So that’s just one of those things in your life where you so say, ‘I really missed out.’ Because he should have. That should have happened.”
