Tom Petty Realized That Being Stevie Nicks’ Producer Was a Nightmare for Him
When Stevie Nicks began working on her debut solo album, Bella Donna, she knew she wanted Tom Petty to be on the record. She wanted him to write her a song, but she also hoped he would help produce the album. Petty reluctantly agreed to a trial run, but he almost immediately realized that he wouldn’t be able to help her. The atmosphere that Nicks liked to work in was not one that he enjoyed.
Stevie Nicks wanted her debut solo album to sound similar to Tom Petty’s work
Nicks helped lift Fleetwood Mac to global success, but she was such a fan of Petty that she would have left the band if he’d asked.
“After I joined Fleetwood Mac, I started hearing Tom Petty on the radio,” Nicks said in the book Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes. “And I just fell in love with his music and his band. I would laughingly say to anyone that if I ever got to know Tom Petty and could worm my way into his good graces, if he were ever to ask me to leave Fleetwood Mac and join Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I’d probably do it. And that was before I even met him.”
The Heartbreakers weren’t looking for any new members, but that didn’t discourage Nicks.
“If I can’t be in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I want to make a record that sounds as much like T.P.’s as possible,” she told her manager.
He didn’t think he could work in that environment
Nicks’ manager, Irving Azoff, wanted to help Nicks achieve this vision. He reached out to Petty and asked if he would produce the album. Petty was reluctant — he was working on his own music — but he eventually agreed to a trial run. He quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“I tried but I couldn’t take it,” he told Mojo in 2006, per The Petty Archives. “It wasn’t like the Heartbreakers, there were so many hangers-on.”
He explained that he never had guests in the studio while he worked. Nicks, on the other hand, surrounded herself with a group of close friends wherever she went.
Petty told Nicks that he wouldn’t be able to produce her album. She was disappointed, but he told her he would recommend his producer, Jimmy Iovine, to her. Within a few weeks, Nicks and Iovine were dating and working together on her album.
Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty collaborated on ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ for her solo album
While Petty didn’t produce the album, he did work with Nicks on the song “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” Originally, he wrote the song for his own album and planned to give her the song “Insider.” When he realized he couldn’t give up “Insider,” he agreed to a trade after some prodding by Iovine.
“His comeback was like, hey, this is going to buy you a house,” Petty told NPR in 2017. “I’m like OK [laughter].”
Nicks’ song was a success, which was a bit frustrating for Petty, who had a record going out at the same time.
“It pissed me off because it became a huge hit,” he joked.
