Stevie Nicks Reflects on Writing ‘Landslide’ While Deciding Whether She and Lindsey Buckingham ‘Should Continue’

NEED TO KNOW

• On Oct. 27, 2026, Stevie Nicks reflected on the personal circumstances behind writing "Landslide" while attending the City of Hope 2026 Spirit of Life Gala

• The 78-year-old recalled how the Aspen landscape inspired the song

• Nicks was dealing with uncertainty not only in her romance with Lindsey Buckingham but in her career

Stevie Nicks recently revisited a time in her life filled with uncertainty, which ended up inspiring one of her biggest hits.

At the City of Hope 2026 Music, Film and Entertainment Industry (MFEI) Spirit of Life Gala, the Fleetwood Mac singer took the audience back to the origins of "Landslide," the enduring classic she wrote while questioning her career and the future of her relationship with longtime musical collaborator Lindsey Buckingham.

While their romance, which began in the early 70s before the pair joined Fleetwood Mac, eventually ended, their creative partnership continued to shape the band's legacy.

Introducing the beloved song at the Oct. 27 event, Nicks reflected on the decision that helped inspire it. "I wrote this song in Aspen, Colorado, when I was deciding whether or not Lindsey [Buckingham] and I should continue," Nicks, 78, said. "Well, it was a long time ago and 930,000 years later, we still continued."

During the event, Nicks explained that the song came together while she "was looking out over the snow-covered hills in this beautiful house" up in the mountains.

At the time, the people she was with had gone to dinner, and so she felt inspired to get creative.

"I'm like ok because I'm so poor that just sitting in this house when you're looking out at this view is so fantastic, I'm going to write a fantastic song," Nicks said.

"I just happened to bring my Goya [guitar], which I could hardly play, but I thought it looked good so I wrote this song," she added before jumping into the song.

The song's origins offer a glimpse into the uncertainty surrounding Nicks and Buckingham before their personal lives became intertwined with Fleetwood Mac's rise to superstardom. The two first met as high school students in California and began dating in 1972. They released their first album as a folk-rock duo, called Buckingham Nicks, in 1973, the same year they signed a record deal with Polydor Records.

However, the album was not a commercial success, and they were dropped by the label, leading to a period of uncertainty about whether or not they should continue working together.

Although Nicks picked up odd jobs to pay the bills, she kept making music, while Buckingham was invited to play guitar on tour with the Everly Brothers.

However, the pair connected with Mick Fleetwood in 1974 and later joined Fleetwood Mac, which also consisted of Christine McVie and John McVie. In 1975, Fleetwood Mac released Nicks' "Landslide," an instant hit.

Although Nicks' relationship with Buckingham ended in 1976, as the band recorded Rumours, the landmark album was shaped in part by its members' turbulent personal lives. Now, decades later, their connection continues to evolve.

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Speaking to E! News at Variety's Power of Young Hollywood event in August 2026, Buckingham revealed that he and Nicks are "talking all the time now." He also credited work on a Fleetwood Mac documentary with helping resolve lingering tensions.

"Fleetwood Mac has been working on a documentary. I think the process of making that has been a very circular healing process for all of us," Buckingham told the outlet. "What it has done, which is the most important thing… we had left things in 2019, maybe as far as I was concerned, not in a very good place for all the wrong reasons. No one was happy about it, and all of that has been healed and worked out."

Looking back on their complicated history, Nicks reflected on the bond that kept their musical partnership alive, telling the Song Exploder podcast: "Our relationship was up and down and up and down and up and down and difficult, but at the same time, fantastic."

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