Iovine assembled an all-star cast of musicians to work on the record, including E Street Band pianist Roy Bittan, Elton John’s guitarist Davey Johnstone, Linda Ronstadt’s drummer Russ Kunkel, bassist Lee Sklar and guitarist Waddy Watchel. They stood behind me at the piano, and when I heard their three voices together it was just: ‘Wow’, goosebumps.” At the drop of a hat they’d break into a cappella versions of old songs like 'Chapel Of Love.' They loved each other and loved to harmonize. Lori and Sharon were so instinctive and so intuitive. “I think she had enough for her first three solo albums and beyond. “It was song after song after great song,” Tench said. “It was one of those real rock ’n’ roll experiences that you can never forget.” “We were like Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills And Nash, living in this great house and making music,” is how Nicks recalls the sessions. With Jimmy Iovine onboard as producer, Nicks teamed up with her best friends and backing vocalists, Lori Perry and Sharon Celani, along with keyboardist Benmont Tench of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, and set off on creating a Stevie Nicks solo album. “Some of my favorite songs wouldn’t get used.” Songs that often got lost in the Fleetwood Mac recording shuffle: “When we’d do an album, they’d hear fifteen of my songs and invariably pick the two that were my least favorite,” she once groused. And we’ve fought through every single record we have ever made.”ĭriving Nicks' desire to make a solo record was a passion to share her songs with the world. Whenever we get back into a room together and start working, we don’t agree on a lot of stuff. “In Fleetwood Mac there’s always a chaos,” Nicks said in 2003 (via Loudersound). After the Tusk tour wrapped up with a show at the Hollywood Bowl on September 1, 1980, Nicks set her mind to embarking on a solo career. The massive success of the 1977 followup, Rumours, and the drama surrounding 1979 double-LP Tusk (and the ensuing tour) was more than enough to push Nicks over the edge.

It was the arrival of Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham on the band's eponymous 1975 album that launched Fleetwood Mac into the upper echelons of rock superstardom. By the fall of 1980, Stevie Nicks needed a break from the relentless Fleetwood Mac machine.

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