Stevie Nicks Was Ready To Leave Fleetwood Mac To Break Hearts With Tom Petty

Fleetwood Mac represents a perfect storm of dysfunction coming together to create something timeless. In fact, some of the discord between the members inspired some of their most celebrated songs. But singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks came very close to jumping ship – before the SS Fleetwood even set sail – in favor of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Joining Fleetwood Mac was not initially on her career’s to-do list; she and Buckingham were operating as a duo under the name Buckingham Nicks, when Fleetwood, who had become drummerless not long before, heard “Frozen Love.” They approached Buckingham, who famously agreed only if his girlfriend would be brought into the fold too. This put all the pieces in position for pyrrhic success, enough so that Nicks nearly ended up elsewhere entirely before the dust settled – especially with Petty finding his place in the echelons of music greatness with a style that Nicks could appreciate.

Stevie Nicks wanted to leave Fleetwood Mac to join Tom Petty

By 1975, Nicks was part of Fleetwood Mac proper and around that time, Petty became a household name. He had “Here Comes My Girl” and “Refugee” to his name; Damn the Torpedoes cemented Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as a must-see act. Nicks agreed with this general consensus.

RELATED: Stevie Nicks Shares The True Story Behind Heartbreaking Song, ‘Landslide’

“I started to prefer Tom Petty’s music to Fleetwood Mac’s music at the time,” she admitted, “If they had told me to leave Fleetwood Mac and join them, I would have gone out with them.”

Was that on anyone else’s radar besides hers? Well, Nicks had ways of making her interests very much known, like recruiting producer Jimmy Iovine to put together her debut solo album, Bella Donna. Of course, Petty can be heard on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” putting some of her dreams into reality. But Petty was relatively receptive to her ambitions and they ultimately met in the middle.

Stevie Nicks and the Heartbreakers

Nicks and Petty’s careers did end up intertwined, though not how Nicks – or probably fans of Fleetwood Mac – anticipated. To consider the breakup – and reunion and breakup and so on – of Fleetwood Mac is to explore a thicket of drama, love, despair, betrayal, and some very deep-cutting songs. In all that time, Nicks did not shy away from cultivating her own career as a solo artist and along the way, she and Petty did develop a rapport.

The two even appeared live to cover the song “Needles and Pins” together. Although Nicks never fully joined Petty, she was nominally inducted into his group.

“Tom made me a little platinum sheriff’s badge that had 24-karat gold and diamonds across the top and said ‘to our honorary Heartbreaker, Stevie Nicks,'” she recalled. “On the back, it says, ‘To the only girl in our band’. I keep it on my black velvet top hat. It goes with me everywhere. It’s probably the most beautiful piece of jewelry a man has ever given me.”

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers stayed active from ’76 to 2017. Tragically, Petty died that October at the age of 66. Would you have wanted to hear more from these two?