Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks sang their huge 1981 hit “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” together on July 9, 2017, when they last shared the stage.
The concert, at London’s Hyde Park, was announced in December, 2016. It was reportedly only the Heartbreakers second U.K. visit in the past 18 years and their only 2017 European or U.K. date.
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were celebrating their 40th anniversary on a lengthy tour which began several months earlier, on April 20. The tour was extended several times and concluded with three shows in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl in September.
The classic rock titans collaborated on the 1981 #3 hit and performed together numerous times. The Heartbreakers’ last U.K. visit in 2012 included a headlining appearance at the Isle Of Wight Festival and two shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall. (Bestclassicbands)
Through her boyfriend at the time, producer Jimmy Iovine, Nicks was granted her wish, but upon meeting Petty, his keyboardist Benmont Tench and guitarist Mike Campbell, she wasn’t faced with the geniality she might have expected. It seems they were nowhere near as excited to work with her as she was to work with them. (Faroutmagazine)
“We weren’t really welcoming to her when she first started coming around,” Petty was quoted saying in Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes. “It wasn’t like she received a lot of warmth. We weren’t impressed by superstars. It just wasn’t in our nature. Maybe if it had been Elvis.”
At around the same time as Nicks met Petty, she also met Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics after his performance at Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Nicks went backstage after the show, and after getting on like a house on fire, she took Stewart home for a romantic encounter, as he documented in The Dave Stewart Songbook.
The next morning, Nicks kicked him out of bed, and he flew to San Francisco for the next Euruthmics tour stop. After the show, Stewart used his Portastudio to record a new song using a drum machine, synthesiser and a sitar. “I really liked Stevie, and she seemed vulnerable and fragile when I was leaving that morning. I was thinking about that and the situation she was in, and I started singing, ‘Don’t come around here no more,'” Stewart remembered.
Not long after, Stewart was staying with Jimmy Iovine, who was producing Nicks’ Bella Donna. Stewart played Iovine his ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’ demo, and they started re-writing the song for Nicks to use in her solo project. At the time, Stewart wasn’t aware that Nicks and Iovine had previously dated, and when she dropped by to record the song, tensions boiled over, and she walked out in a sour mood.
A couple of years later, Stewart found himself working with Tom Petty during a hiatus away from the Heartbreakers, and since Nicks hadn’t used ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’, he offered it to Petty. Petty duly recorded the single with Stewart and included it on his 1985 album with the Heartbreakers, Southern Accents, which was co-produced by Stewart and Iovine.
The psychedelic, electric sound of the single was a departure from Petty’s usual style. Nevertheless, it was a critical and commercial success and is now seen as one of Petty’s finest and most enduring classics.
RELATED: Stevie Nicks Reveals she would have Left Fleetwood Mac for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
The topic recently arose during an interview with Nicks and Mike Campbell on Campbell’s monthly SiriusXM show, The Breakdown with Mike Campbell, on Tom Petty radio.
Campbell, of course, was a member of the Heartbreakers and co-wrote a number of Petty’s hits, including “Refugee” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.
“Stevie really had Jane in her corner,” Petty explained. “Because Stevie would indulge her, it took me a long time to realise how genuine and good Stevie was. She was doing a lot of drugs — and she’d be the first to tell you that — but we didn’t at the time. We weren’t Boy Scouts, but I was afraid of that. Jane embraced it in a big way when Stevie showed up.”
Despite Petty’s discomfort and suspicion, Nicks’ determination paid off, and Petty’s hostility abated. “She came into my life like a rocket, just refusing to go away,” Petty said. As Zanes noted, “Nicks would finally be one of the few human constants in his life outside of his band, management, and crew.”
The pair became close friends and dependable confidantes for each other right up until Petty’s death in 2017. “He was the kind of person who said, ‘Here’s my advice. If you take it, great. If you don’t, that’s fine too,’” Nicks told Rolling Stone. “He was never going to shake a finger in your face and make you feel bad if you didn’t take his advice.”
Watch Stevie Nicks join Tom Petty on stage for a rendition of ‘Learning to Fly’, live from Gatorville in 2006, below.
Clarkson is no stranger to Nicks covers on the show either, she covered “Edge of Seventeen” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” and “The Chain” last year. She also sang Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”
