Hearing the news that Tom Petty died on October 2, 2017 was such a surreal moment. I remember sitting in my office in New York when a screech came from the cubicle down the line. “NO! Tom Petty is gone.” It was just a year prior that we lost Prince, and I remember our office was still in mourning from that. Petty was a deep loss—he’d been in my life since I was born. My uncle was obsessed with him, and I remember as a teen, he shared his sheet music with me when I desperately wanted to learn guitar. (Spoiler: I never caught onto that dream.)
It’s been eight years since we lost him, and so many artists have shared what that loss meant to them. One of the most deeply impacted was, without a doubt, Stevie Nicks. As a longtime fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers—and eventually a collaborator—Nicks recently paid a beautiful tribute to Petty at one of her shows.
@chelseamorning09 The adoration, affection and love was palpable. And I don’t think I took a breath for the entirety of the concert, it was THAT GOOD. Living legend. Icon. Goddess. @Stevie Nicks , thank you for a night I will carry in my heart forever. #stevienicks #portland #tompetty #tribute #magic
♬ original sound – chelseamorning
In her signature raspy voice, she performed a stunning rendition of “Free Fallin’,” moving the audience to tears. Behind her, images of Petty flashed from his times with her and the rest of the Heartbreakers, and the somber take on the song emphasized just how deeply he’s missed.
“He was up there singing right along with her,” one fan shared.
“She brought us all to tears—the whole concert was so good,” added another.
During her show, she also paid tribute to her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie in the same way, with a collage of photos behind her while performing her hit “Landslide.”
Related: One of the Most Iconic Duets In Rock History Almost Didn’t Happen
Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks‘ Rlationship
The love Nicks had for Tom Petty is well documented. When she began working on her first solo album Bella Donna, Nicks was adamant that she had to do a duet with Petty and his band. It was a pairing Petty was hesitant about at first.
“She was this absolutely stoned-gone, huge fan,” Petty once told Paul Zollo, author of Conversations With Tom Petty. “And it was her mission in life that I should write her a song. And we were a little wary of Stevie. 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?’”
But it was clearly a hurdle they overcame, as the two ended up duetting on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and went on to become close friends.
In fact, Nicks revealed that after her 1994 stint in rehab, she considered him one of her best friends. Feeling down about herself after that moment, she asked Petty to help her write a song. He refused, reminding her that she was one of the premier songwriters of their time.
“He said, ‘Just go to your piano and write a good song. You can do that,’” Nicks once told Rolling Stone. “When I walked out of the Ritz-Carlton, I had that feeling that he would be waiting to hear it. The song is called ‘Hard Advice.’ It ended up on 24 Karat Gold [Songs From the Vault]. The chorus goes, ‘Sometimes he’s my best friend.’ It was really ‘Sometimes Tom’s my best friend.’ I changed it because I knew Tom would not want me to say his name. That’s how well I know him.”
Nicks has said many times since Petty’s death that his loss deeply impacted her life.
“I lost one of the last people I could truly talk to… who understood who I was, and what I stood for,” Nicks wrote in a heartfelt letter after his untimely death. “One of the only people who truly had my heart and cherished it. A knight in shining armor. My world is just darker since he’s been gone.”
Stevie Nicks is currently on tour until early December where she’ll end in Hollywood, Florida.
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