Stevie Nicks Exposed Her Tumultuous Relationships In Her Biggest Songs Outside of Fleetwood Mac (2024)

Stevie Nicks is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Her ability to take her personal experiences and her tumultuous relationships and make them relatable to audiences both decades ago and today in her music is a testament to her talent.

While Nicks shot to fame with her time in Fleetwood Mac, she also saw success as a solo artist and eventually refused to make music with Fleetwood Mac due to financial loss. Nicks' fame was due to using the same formula she used to write with the band when releasing her debut album. As a result, Nicks had massive hits after she branched out on her own that remain as relevant then as they do now.

We will look at how Stevie Nicks' biggest songs outside of Fleetwood Mac expose her complicated relationships and career. Additionally, there will be insight as to how these songs were at times cathartic and how that helped Nicks to move on from not only heartache but grief that plagued Nicks for a portion of her career.

7 How Still My Love

Subject of Song: Lindsey Buckingham

"How Still My Love" is one of the "sexiest" songs that Nicks admitted to ever writing. The song is about someone that Nicks was having a romantic relationship with at the time that was very passionate but ultimately, did not work out.

Many people believed that the song was in part about Lindsey Buckingham when it was first released. But in reality, the song was inspired by two books that Nicks saw in her hotel room in conjunction with the individual she was having a tryst with. Those books were How Still My Love and In the Still of the Night, neither of which Nicks ever read.

6 The Circle Dance

Subject of Song: Bonnie Raitt's father

While Nicks had a hit with "The Circle Dance", she did not write it. The song was penned by Bonnie Raitt.

The meaning behind the song was one that Nicks connected with because of themes of love and loss. Raitt wrote the song about how her father was not there when she was younger but that she forgave him over the years. Nicks saw how the lyrics could be interpreted from a child and father standpoint but also wanted to interpret it about love later in life.

"I’ll be home soon, that’s what you’d say, and a little kid believes/After a while I learned that love must be a thing that leaves," was written from the standpoint of a child to her father. However, for those in relationships that continue to fail, Nicks saw there is meaning in the lyrics about how the failed relationships can be tied back to the first male role model in a child's life.

Given that Nicks has not been successful in love, it was from this view that she connected with the song.

5 Beauty And The Beast

Subject of Song: Mick Fleetwood

"Beauty and the Beast" was a song that Nicks admitted to writing about Mick Fleetwood. Her relationship with Fleetwood and the 1946 film, Beauty and the Beast by Jean Cocteau were all the inspiration that Nicks needed to write a song about how the two could never be together, a theme that is reminiscent in "Storms" that Nicks wrote about the secret affair while in Fleetwood Mac and ultimately slammed Fleetwood in it.

In the TimeSpace liner notes, Nicks explained whether she had ever identified who was the beauty and who was the beast in the relationship.

In typical Nicks fashion, she remained coy about who was who in the relationship. But, because Nicks believed that people could be both the beauty and the beast at any given moment, perhaps both she and Fleetwood took on each persona during their time together.

4 Edge Of Seventeen

Subject of Song: John Lennon and Stevie's Nicks' uncle, Jon

The "Edge of Seventeen" had several sources of inspiration that came to help Nicks write one of her most iconic songs as a solo artist.

The title of the song came from Tom Petty's wife, Jane, who had a thick accent. When she was talking about when she and Petty had met, she said, "at the age of seventeen" but it sounded like "edge of seventeen." This was a phrase that stuck with Nicks and later became the title of the song.

There were two people who inspired the song and those people were John Lennon, who was Nicks' boyfriend, Jimmy Iovine's best friend, and Nicks' uncle, Jon. The two passed away around the same time, with Lennon being murdered and Jon dying from cancer.

The pain felt from the deaths was palpable. But instead of wallowing in grief, Nicks wrote about it instead. In doing so, it became one of the most popular songs from Bella Donna.

3 Nightbird

Subject of Song: Robin Snyder Anderson

Unlike other songs written by Nicks being about her romantic relationships, "Nightbird" is about her friend Robin Snyder Anderson who passed away after a battle with leukemia. Anderson had known Nicks longer than anyone in her life, so the death was earth-shattering for Nicks.

Additionally, Anderson was pregnant when she got sick. Her son, Matthew was born prematurely. Two days after his birth, Anderson died.

During this period, Nicks and Anderson's widow were so lost that they decided the best thing to do was get married. The marriage only lasted three months after Nicks received a "sign" from Anderson that there was no love in the relationship but just two people coming together in grief.

Nicks went on to explain that when she saw the cradle still she took that as her friend making it loud and clear that Nicks needed to get out of the relationship. Nicks said the message of "Robin wants this to end – now" was received loud and clear, and was "felt as strongly as if she'd put her hand on my shoulder."

Nicks not only wrote the song "Nightbird" about Anderson but dedicated the entire album, The Wild Hearts, to her friend, as was reflected in the liner notes of the album.

More interesting still, "Nightbird" continues the song from "Edge of Seventeen" from where it was mentioned along with the white-winged dove. Both songs are about losing important people in Nicks' life, which makes sense that the two would share a theme recurring throughout the songs.

2 Blue Denim

Subject of Song: Lindsey Buckingham

The song "Blue Denim" is a song about a person that Nicks was in a relationship with. The song explains how the "denim blue eyes" that the person had were capable of making Nicks do anything he wanted her to do.

While the relationship was exciting at the time, Nicks realized that it could never last. Because of this, Nicks ended the relationship. After it was over, Nicks had regret about calling things quits but did not see a way to make things work by getting back together. As a result, the person in the song never knew how devastated Nicks truly was when the relationship came to an end.

Fans have speculated over the years that "Blue Denim" was about Buckingham, who blamed Fleetwood Mac for destroying his relationship with Nicks. This was later confirmed by Nicks , according to Stevie Nicks Info, who said that the song "was probably written about Lindsey’s blue eyes because he’s the only person I know that’s got the real blue denim eyes. So it must have been for Lindsey."

1 Rooms On Fire

Subject of Song: Rupert Hine

"Rooms on Fire" has two different meanings to it, according to what Nicks wrote in the TimeSpace liner notes. The first is about a life that Nicks never believed she would have with the husband that she loves more than anything and a child that she desperately wanted when younger. Nicks and this mystery man meet at a party and fall instantly in love. They are together for decades and he dies before she does. Because of this, Nicks is left longing for him for the rest of her life.

The other explanation for the song is that it is about Rupert Hine. Nicks and Hine had an instant connection. They lived in an old castle for months and then moved outside of London to record the album. It was during this time that Nicks said something happened to Hine and she had to leave him. What that was, was never disclosed. However, it changed Nicks from that relationship. But what it did not steal was her desire to find love.