Tom Petty Got Back at Stevie Nicks by Stealing 1 of Her Songs
On Stevie Nicks’ debut solo album, Bella Donna, she turned a Tom Petty song into a hit duet. Nicks’ version of the song sounded little like Petty’s, and he felt a bit betrayed when he heard it. Several years later, though, he had a chance to get back at her. When Nicks struggled to record a song, Petty stepped in and took it. She was disappointed, but she understood.
Tom Petty took a song that was originally meant for Stevie Nicks
Nicks initially wanted the song “Insider” for her album, but Petty realized he liked it too much to give it up. Instead, he gave her “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” When he heard her version, though, he felt a bit betrayed. Producer Jimmy Iovine had reimagined the song into a duet that sounded little like his original vision. Its release was also a huge success, taking attention away from Petty’s album.
“Why couldn’t ‘Insider’ and ‘Stop Draggin’ have been on both Hard Promises and Bella Donna?” Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench said, per Louder Sound. “I guess back then that’s not the way it worked. I wish the song was more recognized as Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers with Stevie Nicks. But they sang so great together.”
Several years later, Petty got back at Nicks. After spending the night with Dave Stewart, he wrote her the song “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” reportedly based on something she told him in the morning. Petty came to help with the recording session.
Nicks left early after struggling to record. Petty stayed and recorded his own version of the song. It was good — better than Nicks’ version — and Petty convinced Iovine to let him have the song.
“Even though I was deeply hurt, I knew it was a great song and that Tom deserved to sing it,” Nicks said, per the book Mirror in the Sky: The Life and Music of Stevie Nicks by Simon Morrison. “He sounded great singing it, and I told him so. I said nothing about feeling wounded. I kept those feelings to myself.”
Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks proved their friendship transcended their fights about music
In their years of knowing each other, Petty and Nicks had a number of fights about music. She, for example, accidentally stole a song he wrote and tried to make it a hit for Fleetwood Mac. Still, Nicks and Petty remained friends for years.
They proved that their friendship could endure one of them succeeding at the expense of the other, at least to a certain extent. Petty continued to support Nicks in the studio and with her writing, and Nicks remained a solid figure in his life as his marriage fell apart. While music was one of the most important things in both of their lives, they didn’t let it get in the way of their relationship.
How did Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks meet?
Nicks and Petty met because she desperately wanted him to write her a song for Bella Donna. For a while, Petty didn’t know what to make of her.
“We were a little wary of Stevie,” Petty said in the book Conversations With Tom Petty (via American Songwriter). “We didn’t quite know whether to like Stevie or not, because we kind of saw this big corporate rock band, Fleetwood Mac, which was wrong, they were actually artistic people. But in those days, nobody trusted that sort of thing and we just kept thinking, ‘What does she want from us?’”
Nicks wanted to be friends with Petty, though. She persistently remained in his life, and eventually, he softened to her. They were close friends until Petty’s death in 2017.
