Stevie Nicks Reveals the Eagles’ Joe Walsh Dumped Her Because He Thought 1 of Them Would Die
Stevie Nicks called Joe Walsh the “great, great love” of her life, so why did the Fleetwood Mac and Eagles members break up? Here’s why Nicks thinks that Walsh initiated the breakup, and which other famous musician she called a “great love.”
How long did Stevie Nicks date Joe Walsh? It was love at first sight
Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks has dated many famous musicians, including multiple members of the Eagles. But she fell hard for singer and guitarist Joe Walsh. Nicks and Walsh were in a romantic relationship between 1983 and 1986.
“My great, great love was Joe Walsh,” Nicks told the Telegraph in September 2007, adding that she fell in love with Walsh at first sight when they met in 1983.
“I guess in a very few rare cases, some people find someone that they fall in love with the very first time they see them… from across the room, from a million miles away,” Nicks wrote in the liner notes of her TimeSpace album (per Songfacts). “Some people call it love at first sight, and of course, I never believed in that until that night I walked into a party after a gig at the hotel, and from across the room, without my glasses, I saw this man and I walked straight to him.”
During an October 2012 conversation with Interview Magazine, Walsh was asked what he thought of the Fleetwood Mac singer saying he was the “great, great love” of her life.
The Eagles star laughed and said, “I’m very humbled by it. She’s a great songwriter, a great singer, and a great person.”
Nicks put her songwriting talents on display with the 1986 song “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?” The song draws inspiration from the death of Joe Walsh’s daughter, Emma.
What happened to Stevie Nicks and Joe Walsh?
Although Stevie Nicks and Joe Walsh shared a great love, the Fleetwood Mac star revealed that drugs destroyed their relationship. Their drug abuse got so bad together that the Eagles’ guitarist feared one of them would die if they continued dating.
“Joe and I broke up because of the coke,” she told Q Magazine. “He told my friend and [backing] singer Sharon, ‘I’m leaving Stevie because I’m afraid that one of us is going to die and the other one won’t be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this, so the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.’”
The Fleetwood Mac singer once called another famous musician ‘a great love’
The Eagles’ singer Joe Walsh wasn’t the only great love of Stevie Nicks’ life. She also referred to her Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Mick Fleetwood, as “one of [her] great, great loves.”
“And then I fell in love with Mick [Fleetwood]. And that went on for two years,” Nicks told Spin Magazine in October 1997. “Never in a million years could you have told me that would happen. That was the biggest surprise. Mick is definitely one of my great, great loves.”
Similarly to what happened with Walsh, Nicks said drugs damaged her relationship with Fleetwood. “The drugs didn’t help, needless to say. We did a lot of blow. I don’t remember how much we did; we spent an awful lot of money on it.”
Stevie Nicks has long been open about her experiences with love and drugs. It’s what has endeared her to fans for decades and inspired countless iconic songs. Her relationship with Joe Walsh was relatively brief, but it left a lasting impact on the Fleetwood Mac singer’s life and career — both of which Nicks credits Walsh with preserving.
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
