It’s 1978, and Stevie Nicks is on a mission. She’s persistently hounding Tom Petty to write a song for her forthcoming debut solo album, Bella Donna, until he finally acquiesces. “She was this absolutely stoned-gone, huge fan,” said Petty on first connecting with Nicks. “And it was her mission in life that I should write her a song.”
At first, Petty was a bit wary of Nicks, coming from a “corporate rock band” like Fleetwood Mac, but still wrote the ballad “Insider” for her. After giving the song a trial run as a duet, Petty decided to use it on the Heartbreakers 1981 album Hard Promises instead. Nicks’ vocals still remained on Petty and the Heartbreakers’ recorded version of “Insider,” and she is also featured on the Hard Promises track”You Can Still Change Your Mind.”
When Petty circled back to Nicks with another song, he presented her with another song meant for the Heartbreakers, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” Co-written with Mike Campbell—who would continue collaborating with Nicks on her 1985 album Rock a Little, The Other Side of the Mirror (1989), Street Angel (1994), Trouble in Shangri-La (2001), In Your Dreams (2011), and 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault (2014)—”Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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‘The Wild Heart’
The duet was an unexpected sensation and forged a lifelong friendship between Petty and Nicks. As she began working on her second solo album The Wild Heart, Petty showed up with another song he wrote solo, “I Will Run to You.” Though it was never released as a single from The Wild Heart, “I Will Run to You” still made its way into the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 35.
“I don’t really know why Tom wrote this song for me because it’s not like he had to, or not like I called him up and asked him to do it,” said Nicks. “But for some reason, he wanted to write me something really pretty, and he did, and we worked real hard. We recorded in New York, and we didn’t get it.”
Nicks continued, “Then we went to Caribou [Ranch] and recorded but still came back without what we thought was a real lead vocal from either of us. Finally, we did it in L.A.”
Spiritual Signs
Petty’s lyrics open the song to some spiritual interpretation, of looking to God, a higher power, or a close friend or confidante for guidance.
Your eye is on the sparrow
And Your hand, it comforts me
From the ends of the earth to the depth of my heart
Let Your mercy and strength be seen
You call me to Your purpose
As angels understand
For Your glory, may You draw all men
As Your love and grace demands
And I will run to You
To Your words of truth
Not by might, not by power
But by the Spirit of God
Yes, I will run the race
‘Til I see Your face
Oh, let me live in the glory of Your grace
“Tom and I love to sing together, and we’ve really developed this relationship, and I’m not really very interested in developing relationships with other men singers, because this is just perfect,” said Nicks of her collaborations with Petty. “We sing well. We have a great time. We complement each other. I love his songwriting—perfect, why bother?”
She added, “Whatever the hassles that be that make it difficult–and believe you me the hassles that be are everywhere to stop Tom and I from ever doing anything together, my relationship with him is more important. Anyway, the song’s fabulous. It’s beautiful, and I’m very honored that he even cared enough to write it for me.”
“Hard Advice”
In 2014, Nicks released a song she had written for Petty, “Hard Advice,” on her 2014 album 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault. The song was written years earlier about a time Petty left a profound impact on her after one of their talks.
“It’s a lecture Tom Petty gave me one day about something that was going on in my life,” recalled Nicks of the song. “I’d asked him to write a song with me—this was about two months after I came out of rehab for [addiction to] Klonopin. I was still in a fragile state, after 48 days of hell in rehab. And Tom said, ‘You don’t need help to write a song. You just need to get over this experience that bummed you out so bad. The relationship you were in is over, it was over a long time ago, and you need to move on.’ And I went home and wrote this song.”
Photo: Tom Petty (l) and Stevie Nicks at NBC Studios in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, 1982. (Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images)
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