Stevie Nicks’ Boyfriend Hid Her in the Basement When Tom Petty Came Over
Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty were close friends and confidants, but she still kept secrets from him. She started a relationship with a producer who worked with herself and Petty, one she knew Petty wouldn’t be happy to find out about. The producer, Jimmy Iovine, didn’t want Petty to find out either. Whenever the Heartbreakers’ frontman came over, Iovine would hustle Nicks in the basement to hide her.
Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty became close friends
Nicks was a tremendous fan of Petty’s music, even saying she’d leave Fleetwood Mac to join the Heartbreakers. Though this never happened, they did collaborate on her debut solo album, Bella Donna. From there, Nicks teamed up with Petty’s wife to figure out how to befriend the singer.
“Jane and I figured it out long before Tom had any idea that we were scheming. And we did scheme,” Nicks said, per the book Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters. “I knew we would be good together — I’m not joining the Heartbreakers or anything: I’m just a friend. But every once in a while we can start singing and give everybody a little extra magic. Because it kills me, so it’s got to have an effect on them.”
Eventually, it worked. Petty and Nicks formed a friendship that stretched 40 years.
“She came into my life like a rocket, just refusing to go away,” Petty said in Petty: The Biography.
Nicks’ boyfriend didn’t want Tom Petty to know they were dating
Before Nicks and Petty grew close, Iovine worked on both of their albums. Iovine knew Petty would want him to be fully invested in his album and would assume that the relationship with Nicks was a distraction. Even though Nicks had practically moved in with Iovine, they kept the relationship under wraps.
“So Jimmy had this house in Sherman Oaks,” Nicks said, per the book Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks by Stephen Davis, “and I was pretty much living there, but whenever Tom would come over I would hide in the bedroom downstairs. Jimmy didn’t even want to mention me to Tom.”
Iovine told a similar story to Howard Stern.
“‘The basement’s like a set-up basement — it’s nice. When he comes, just stay down there, you know?’” he recalled saying to her. “And she did!”
The secretiveness began to wear on Nicks, who said she started feeling like “a kept woman, locked down in a dungeon.” She made Iovine tell Petty the truth about their relationship.
Stevie Nicks kept one of her boyfriends a secret
Though Nicks didn’t appreciate being kept a secret, she did the same to a boyfriend years later. She met a server who was significantly younger than her.
“I was 50 and he was 30, and he was a very old 30 – he had two little boys and was a very nice man,” she told Rolling Stone. “And he really cared about me.”
Nicks explained that she found the relationship slightly embarrassing and tried to keep it quiet. The couple didn’t often go out together.
“I’m famous! I’m Stevie Nicks! Everybody’s gonna spend the whole time taking pictures of us,” she said. “And I can’t keep on making excuses about why you can’t go anywhere I can go. Like, can I take you to the Grammys? No. Can I go to the market with you? No. Can we go to a movie together in downtown Santa Monica? No. All we can do is stay in.”
When the relationship ended, Nicks decided that she was done dating younger men.
