The artist Stevie Nicks called her favourite writer: “I relate so easily”
Stevie Nicks has always held her words high above anything else in her arsenal of songwriting weapons. As much as people might fawn over the brilliant choruses in every Fleetwood Mac song, Nicks knew that if there wasn’t a great lyric to go with it, the entire song would collapse. Even though Lindsey Buckingham may have had a more difficult time coming up with lyrics than the other members of Fleetwood Mac, Nicks knew that she could always find inspiration by going back to some of her all-time favourite songsmiths.
Then again, Nicks was never that snobby when it came to purely rock and roll artists. There was plenty to be found in all flavours of music. Whether that was writing ‘Dreams’ on Sly Stone’s bed or listening to old Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell records, Nicks knew that there was something spiritual in rock and roll that no one else would be able to touch if they didn’t approach their songs the right way.
That’s most likely why her songs don’t always have that many strange chords laced throughout them. Nicks could have certainly sung any tune that came her way that she believed in, but she knew that when she wrote her own tunes, the chords were only a bed to put her melody upon. That’s not what was going on with all the music she was listening to, though.
Outside of his mystifying presence onstage, Nicks was still listening to the guttural side of rock and roll, and she fell in love the first time she heard Tom Petty’s music. She may have had her own sound at that point, but this was the perfect example of the kind of rockstar she wanted to be, with Petty leading the group behind him and having a certain nostalgic beauty for the glory days of rock and roll whenever he sang his material.
Although Nicks was a far different singer than Petty in many respects, there were also similarities that are easy to miss between both of them. Neither was known to be particularly fascinated by having multiple sections of their songs like Brian Wilson in the early days, but as both of them progressed, it’s easy to see Nicks’ sound coming through Petty’s music in some respects, usually capturing a feeling in between the notes rather than waiting around for a kickass guitar solo.
Even though thousands of artists have come and gone in rock music, Nicks still felt that Petty’s music was what she resonated with the most when covering songs like ‘Free Fallin’, saying, “It fits right in; that’s why Tom is my favourite writer. I kind of feel that if I had come into this world as a boy, I would have been him. I really do. I feel like there’s a part of Tom’s writing that I relate so easily to.”
Despite not being anything too flashy, it’s easy to see where Nicks is coming from. Whereas artists like Bob Dylan often felt like they were lecturing in some respects when they got on their soapboxes, Petty felt like any ordinary guy who happened to be talking about the pleasures of being a rock star half the time.
While Nicks would find time to jam with Petty as much as she could, it was never a case of them needing each other to write. The ‘Gold Dust Woman’ already had her sound down to a tee, but she did have a certain affection for music of the heartland when she was levitating off the stage.
