How Tom Petty encouraged Stevie Nicks to work again after a “terrible record”
Although we can now comfortably call Stevie Nicks one of the greatest rockers of all time, there were parts of her life where she questioned which would give her more gratitude—drugs or commercial success. Thankfully, the latter ultimately prevailed, but it would be ignorant to overlook a significant chapter in her life when her aspirations almost fell down.
Nicks toyed with cocaine recreationally in the early days of her career, but it was after she was allowed into Fleetwood Mac with her then-partner Lindsey Buckingham that things took a turn for the worse. Even more surprising was the fact that engaging in a group coke session before shows became a ritualistic event, and the fascination became so strong that it was almost something they idolised, like it was some sort of higher being.
Naturally, however, the consequences of addiction caught up with the star, and she found herself entering an even deeper pit of reliance long after Fleetwood Mac disbanded. “All of us were drug addicts, but there was a point where I was the worst drug addict,” Nicks would later recall. “I was a girl, I was fragile, and I was doing a lot of coke. And I had that hole in my nose. So it was dangerous.”
In her effort to move away from the drug and get better, Nicks was prescribed Klonopin, which helped to an extent, but ultimately ended up pushing her into another unwelcomed pattern of addiction, one that would last seven years. When Nicks released her fifth album, Street Angel, its failure weighed heavy on her heart because suddenly—she could no longer handle the feelings of regret.
“Even though I thought it was a terrible record, I loved the songs,” the musician told Barnes and Noble. Nicks has always been proud of her work, even if it occurred during times when she felt the most distance between who she seemed to be and who she really was. “The songs were my children, you know. And I was very much grieving about the Klonopin and the Prozac, because I had done many things in that eight years that I was not proud of, that were not me, things that I would never do,” she said.
At the same time, she met up with Tom Petty at the Ritz-Carlton, and he helped her re-ignite her long-lost fire. “He said, ‘You know what? Everybody makes mistakes. Certainly, you can’t blame yourself for the Klonopin and the Prozac; you didn’t go out on the streets looking for that. That’s just a nasty thing that happened to you, so now get over it.'”
Petty’s pep talk continued, “‘You’re upset ’cause you’re 20 pounds overweight -lose it, you can do it. That’s not your problem. Your problem is knowing and remembering that you’re a great songwriter, Stevie. I’m not going to help you write songs, I don’t have to help you. You need to go home to your piano and sit down and do what you love to do.'”
According to Nicks, Petty reminded her that “your love is songwriting”, which followed the stern but necessary question: “What in the world is up with you telling me that you need me to help you write songs?” After their dinner, Nicks felt motivated to get back to herself and go home, as Petty suggested. “That was just that little kick in the butt that I really, really needed from somebody that I totally respect, that always has my best in mind,” she said.
Her following album, Trouble in Shangri-La, was her greatest success since 1983’s The Wild Heart. As her way of thanking Petty, she included the song ‘That Made Me Stronger’, showing that she finally found herself again and needed no one to help her get there except Petty’s affirmations.
