Stevie Nicks Wrote ‘Landslide’ After Her Dad Gave Her an Ultimatum

Stevie Nicks wrote “Landslide” during an uncertain time in her life. Before she joined Fleetwood Mac, she and Lindsey Buckingham struggled to make a living. She was questioning whether she should keep pursuing her musical career. What added to the pressure was an ultimatum her dad gave her that placed a timeline on her career goals. 

Stevie Nicks said she wrote ‘Landslide’ after her dad pressured her to go back to school

Following an entertainment career is a considerable risk as there are no guarantees it will lead to stability. In the early 1970s, Nicks and Buckingham recorded several demos together that led to them getting signed by Polydor Records, where they released their 1973 album, Buckingham Nicks. However, they were shortly dropped by the studio due to poor sales. 

Nicks had been working as a waitress and cleaning lady to support her and Buckingham’s musical ambitions, but she was starting to doubt if her dreams were achievable. In a 1998 interview with VH1 Storytellers, Stevie Nicks said her dad gave her an ultimatum that added pressure and pushed her to write “Landslide”. The deal was that she would pursue music for six more months, and if it didn’t work out, she’d return to school.

“My Dad did have something to do with it, but he absolutely thinks that he was the whole complete reason it was ever written. I guess it was about September 1974, I was home at my Dad and Mom’s house in Phoenix, and my father said, ‘you know, I think that maybe… you really put a lot of time into this [her singing career], maybe you should give this six more months, and if you want to go back to school, we’ll pay for it and uh, basically you can do whatever you want and we’ll pay for it ~ I have wonderful parents ~ and I went, ‘cool, I can do that.’”

Nicks wrote the song while living in Aspen

Shortly after her dad presented her with this deal, Nicks and Buckingham traveled to Aspen, Colorado. She lived there for three months, where she contemplated what her next step would be. While looking over the “snow-covered hills,” Stevie Nicks was inspired to write “Landslide.”

“[Then] Lindsey and I went up to Aspen, and we went to somebody’s incredible house, and they had a piano, and I had my guitar with me, and I went into their living room, looking out over the incredible, like, Aspen skyway, and I wrote ‘Landslide,'” Nicks said.

Fortunately, everything worked out as Mick Fleetwood invited the duo to join Fleetwood Mac. shortly after she wrote “Landslide”. She did not go back to school and beat her dad’s timeframe by three months. The song debuted on the band’s 1975 self-titled album and remains one of their most iconic tunes today. 

“Three months later, Mick Fleetwood called,” Nicks shared. “On New Year’s Eve, 1974, called and asked us to join Fleetwood Mac. So it was three months, I still had three more months to go to beat my six-month goal that my dad gave me. So that’s what Landslide is about.”