Stevie Nicks’ Songs Don’t Change for Her Once They Become Hits

Stevie Nicks has a deep connection with her songs. They’re a part of her and encapsulate moments in her life, some better than others. Still, Nicks knows she has a commitment to them and her fans to sing them as she did when they were hot out of the recording studio.

Stevie Nicks said her songs don’t change for her once they become hits

In an interview with the New Yorker, Nicks said her songs don’t change for her once they become hits. Her relationship with them doesn’t change.

“I can sing ‘Dreams,’ which was a huge hit, and I’ve been singing it ever since it came out,” Nicks explained. “And I can just go right back to what pushed me toward writing those words.

“And I always laugh because Lindsey [Buckingham]’s ‘Go Your Own Way‘ and my ‘Dreams’ are, like, counter songs to each other. I’m, like, ‘When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know,’ and he’s, like, ‘Packing up, shacking up’s all you want to do.’

“Both songs kind of mean the same thing—it’s really about our breakup. He’s looking at it from a very unpleasant, angry way, and I’m saying, in my more airy-fairy way, we’re gonna be all right. We’ll get through this.”

When Nicks sings her songs, she has to go back to the state of mind she was in while writing it

Nicks explained that when she sings songs like “Dreams,” she needs to be back where she was when she wrote it.

“That’s where you want to be when you sing that,” Nicks said. “You want to be in the story, because, once you’re not in the story anymore, that song goes. I mean, there’s certain songs that can never go out of the set even if you’re terribly tired of them.

“But there’s a reason they made it on those records. There’s a reason why that one was chosen. I have a really good memory of all that. I can just put myself right back in our first apartment.”

Some songs still make the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman cry a little when she performs them

If Nicks goes back to where she was when she wrote a song during any of her performances, what does she do when it’s a sad song? Nicks once said in an interview that she cries when she performs certain songs. In a 2011 interview, Nicks said that was still the case, sometimes.

“It does happen,” Nicks said. “I mean, I’m in a little better control now where I don’t just start sobbing, but my eyes fill up with tears lots of times that happens. Something will just strike me, you know, as I’m going through, and I’ll think of something, you know?”

So, Nicks is just as much in tune with her music as she’s ever been. Performing a song and returning to the place or state of mind when she wrote it makes her connection to her music stronger. Holding on to that connection has continued to make her performances special, year after year.

Who would see Stevie Nicks if she performed songs like “Edge of Seventeen” without any of the feelings she once had?