Stevie Nicks Reveals She Almost Left Fleetwood Mac for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Did you know: Stevie Nicks almost joined Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers?

The topic recently arose during an interview with Nicks and Mike Campbell on Campbell’s monthly SiriusXM show, The Breakdown with Mike Campbell, on Tom Petty radio.

Campbell, of course, was a member of the Heartbreakers and co-wrote a number of Petty’s hits, including “Refugee” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.”

During the conversation, Nicks talked about almost leaving her band Fleetwood Mac for Petty’s group. The question arose from a friend in the business about her going solo, after potentially leaving Fleetwood Mac.

That’s where Nicks shared her thoughts with Campbell.

“I said, ‘Well, basically I just wanna make a girl Tom Petty record.’ And I said, ‘Unless there’s some way that I could be, maybe I could be a member or maybe I could like talk to them,” Nicks told Campbell. “Maybe they need a girl singer.’ And he’s like, he looks at me and he is like, ‘You’re joking, right?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I’m kind of joking, but not, not completely.’ [Laughs] And he goes, ‘You’d leave Fleetwood Mac for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.’

“And I said, ‘I might. [Laughs] I might.’ And so he’s like, ‘Okay, well that’s not gonna happen. So moving on, what’s your next thing?’ And I said, ‘Well, who produces Tom Petty?’ And he said, ‘Jimmy Iovine.’ And I said, ‘Well, can I like talk to Jimmy Iovine?’ And he goes, ‘Okay.’ He says, ‘I can set you up for a dinner with Jimmy.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay. Dinner with Jimmy. When?’

“So he says, ‘Okay, I’m calling him now. All right, you’re doing this Friday. You’re seeing him on Monday night.’ So I told Jimmy, I said, ‘What I really wanna do is I want to do a, I kind of wanna do a girl version of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.’”

As any Petty and Nicks fans know, the two worked often together, including on Petty’s fourth album, Hard Promises, which included his first duet, “Insider,” with Nicks. The two also worked on songs like, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

Check out that song and the clip of Nicks talking with Campbell below.

Stevie Nicks (Photo: Primary Wave)