1982 Fleetwood Mac Signature Song Was Inspired by The ‘Queen of Rock and Roll’s’ Life

Written sometime between 1978 and 1979, “Queen of Rock and Roll”Stevie Nickspenned the song “Gypsy” based on her life before she catapulted to fame with the band Fleetwood Mac. Speaking at a concert in 2009, Nicks confessed that the song took her back to an earlier time after the band became “very famous, very fast” and that it helped bring her “back to the gypsy that I was.”

Nicks initially met musician Lindsey Buckingham at a high school party, but the two did not reconnect until they were in college at San Jose State University. The two entered a romantic relationship and started making music together, only getting by on Nicks’ income waiting tables and cleaning houses.

Because of this, they had a king-sized mattress on the floor with no bedframe that Nicks decorated with lace and flowers. According to Nicks, whenever she could feel the fame going to her head, she would pull her mattress off the floor to get back to her roots. She said, “To this day, when I’m feeling cluttered, I will take my mattress off of my beautiful bed, wherever that may be, and put it outside my bedroom, with a table and a little lamp.”

And thus, the lyrics behind “Gypsy” were born.

“Gypsy” was released as the second single from Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 album, Mirage. The song peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and took the number one spot on the US Contemporary Hit Radio.

Following the release of Nicks’ debut solo album, Bella Donna, she learned her dear friend Robin Anderson was dying of leukemia. As her friend was getting more and more ill and leading up to her death, Nicks would dedicate the song “Gyspy” to her during performances. Following Anderson’s passing, Nicks found performing the song extremely difficult.

Critics applauded the musicianship and lyrics of the song, with Billboardcalling it an “archetypal Stevie Nicks performance.” Sound & Visionmagazine ranked “Gypsy” as one of Nicks’ and Fleetwood Mac’s best songs. Both Pasteand The Guardianconcurred, each placing the track in the top 10 of their lists of the 30 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs from the band’s discography.

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