(Credits: Far Out / TIDAL)
Tue 11 November 2025 12:06, UK
Throughout her time with Fleetwood Mac and her solo career, Stevie Nicks has infused her musical output with witchy wonder. It has undoubtedly become a major part of her charm. Nicks wasn’t just a singer; she felt akin to a soulful siren, draped in lace and drenched in mystery.
From ‘Seven Wonders’ to ‘Edge of Seventeen’, her words and vocal delivery contain an indescribable magic. It’s like a chemical reaction. It fizzes and spurts with smoke with every note. Inspired by her own experiences and emotions, each song tells the story of an individual moment, feeling, or character, enhanced by soft-rock instrumentals.
But Nicks isn’t an entirely confessional songwriter. Though notably inspired by Joni Mitchell, and Mitchell’s own lyrical exploration of her life, Nicks has always been happy to explore the literary side of her life and allow the narrative storytelling within her creativity to come to the fore.
Nicks’ love for literature has fuelled her poetic lyricism, with many of her tracks taking inspiration from books she has read and loved. Before Fleetwood Mac took off, Nicks had originally planned to become an English teacher, so it’s no surprise that her love of fiction has bled into her discography.
‘Rhiannon’ is just one example of how literature has inspired Nicks’ writing. Written after Nicks had read Triad by Mary Leader, it told the story of the title character, a woman taken by the wind, like a cat in the dark. Nicks also later connected the song to a series of writings by Evangeline Walton, The Prince of Annwn, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon and The Island of The Mighty.
Stevie Nicks performing in 1989. (Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
According to Nicks, they were sent to her several years after the song had been released. She said: “Someone sent them to me back in 1978 because I’d written a song called ‘Rhiannon’ five years earlier. Walton started her work around 1934 and finished in 1974, which was right around the time that I wrote ‘Rhiannon’, so I felt like when her work ended, mine began.”
‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ is another of Nicks’ songs inspired by a work of literature, the novel of the same name by Jean Rhys. After Nicks saw the film adaptation, she was inspired to pen a song after it: “Jean Rhys wrote this book as a precursor to Jane Eyre because of her love for the Brontë novel,” she explained. “I saw the film adaptation of the book in the early 1990s and it inspired me to write the song of the same name on my album.”
Perhaps Nicks’ most surprising ode to literature came in the form of ‘Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)’, a song which featured on her seventh solo record, In Your Dreams, in 2011. Rather than looking to classic literature for inspiration, the song was written about Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon, the second entry into the Twilight series.
‘Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)’ combined Nicks’ love for the story with her own experience, connecting the relationship between Edward and Bella with her own turbulent relationship with Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham.
Nicks once explained the track to Spinner UK, noting that the first and third verses were written in the 1970s about her relationship with Buckingham, while the second verse and the chorus were written after she had seen the movie. She notes how the two relationships intertwine in the song, explaining: “‘He loves her, but he loves his life alone as well’ – people would think that was written about Edward, but it was written about Lindsey. So this really is an ancient song that encompasses my strange and everlasting relationship with Lindsey Buckingham, and Bella and Edward, all mixed into one.”
Nicks’ discography often combines her own experiences and emotions with works of fiction, forging her own sonic short stories. From Rhys to Meyer, her lyrical love of literature has endured and it has undoubtedly enriched her career, setting her apart from other singers and marking Stevie Nicks as one of the of the most well-read performers around.
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