Stevie Nicks and The Story of the Song, Landslide

Updated: March 14, 2020

Stephanie Lynn “Stevie” Nicks was born to a corporate executive father and a homemaker mother in 1948. Her love for music began very early in life, mainly due to the influence of her grandfather, Aaron Jess Nicks, who was then a struggling country music singer.

Throughout her high school and early college years, she sang with the music band called “The Changing Times”. In 1968, she decided to drop out of school to pursue a career in music with her new band, “Fritz”.

While the band became popular in the live music scene, “Fritz” never went beyond doing opening acts for famous musicians at that time and finally disbanded in 1972.

After that, Stevie Nicks, together with fellow band member and boyfriend, Lindsey Buckingham, decided to form the duo “Buckingham Nicks” in 1973 and landed a deal with Polydor Records. Unfortunately, their album failed to achieve commercial success and Polydor eventually dropped them from the label.

With no clear path for a music career, the couple supported themselves by doing a variety of jobs, including waiting tables and cleaning houses.

Her parents got in touch with her and advised to give herself six more months and if things didn’t work out, then she should go back to school and leave her music career behind.

It was during this tumultuous time of her life, that Stevie Nicks got the inspiration and wrote the song “Landslide”.

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

She says in an interview, “looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us… at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways.”

After much reflection, she decided that she cannot stop because she’s sure that they can do it. “I took Lindsey and said, ‘We’re going to the top!'” she writes in her journal.

Three months after, in December 1974, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were invited to join the band “Fleetwood Mac”.

Their second album with the band, “Rumours”, sold over 40 million copies worldwide, and is currently the ninth highest selling album of all time.

Stevie Nicks remains today as a popular solo performer. At present, she has eight solo studio albums. The last one entitled “24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault” which came out in 2014.

Meanwhile, the song “Landslide” has been covered at least four times already since 1974 and performed by various artists, including the Dixie Chicks, The Smashing Pumpkins, Stacey Kent, the cast of Glee, and Harry Styles.

Success and achievements which would have not happened for Stevie Nicks if she gave up on her dream.