Some of the world’s greatest works of art are born from flashes of inspiration, come together in minutes, and become even more beloved with time. Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide” is one of them.
Though the song appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 self-titled album, it was written months before Nicks had even joined the group. At the time, Nicks was at a low but pivotal moment in her life. The personal decision she had to make in that moment inspired a universal masterpiece that has resonated with multiple generations, and it only took her five minutes to create.
The origin story of Stevie Nicks’ ‘Landslide’
Nicks wrote the song in 1973 in Aspen, Colorado, the only place she ever lived where it snowed. She shared with Performing Songwriter magazine that she and Lindsey Buckingham, her on-and-off love interest and future fellow Fleetwood Mac member, had just released their debut album, Buckingham Nicks.
“It was horrifying to Lindsey and I because we had a taste of the big time, we recorded in a big studio, we met famous people, we made what we consider to be a brilliant record and nobody liked it,” she said. Buckingham was on the road with The Everly Brothers, and Nicks was in Aspen with $40 and a dog, facing the possibility that their musical dreams weren’t going to work out.
“I had been a waitress and a cleaning lady, and I didn’t mind any of this. I was perfectly delighted to work and support us so that Lindsey could produce and work and fix our songs and make our music,” said Nicks. “But I had gotten to a point where it was like, ‘I’m not happy. I am tired.’ But I don’t know if we can do any better than this. If nobody likes this, then what are we going to do?’”
Making a decision at a life-changing crossroads
How long do you give it before giving up on your dream? At what point do you throw in the towel and say, “Yeah, this just isn’t going to work out”? So many people have hit that fork in the road, knowing that regret might be lurking down either path.
“I realized then that everything could tumble,” Nicks said in an In the Studio with Redbeard interview in 1992. She continued, “…and when you’re in Colorado, and you’re surrounded by these incredible mountains, you think avalanche. It meant the whole world could tumble around us and the landslide would bring you down. And a landslide in the snow is, like, deadly. And when you’re in that kind of a snow-covered, surrounding place, you don’t just go out and yell, because the whole mountain could come down on you.”
But something in that moment of fear and uncertainty solidified for Nicks. She described it as “looking up at those Rocky Mountains and going, ‘Okay, we can do it. I’m sure we can do it.’ In one of my journal entries, it says, ‘I took Lindsey and said, “We’re going to the top!”‘ And that’s what we did.”
In classic Nicks-Buckingham fashion, this moment was marked by relationship rockiness. Still, she was right about them going to the top. Fleetwood Mac called them a few months later, inviting them to join the band, and their self-titled album (often referred to as “the white album”) rocked the music scene in 1975. Nicks said it felt like they became rich overnight.
Why ‘Landslide’ has been beloved for four generations and counting
The genius of “Landslide” lives in how people personalize the song to their own story. They see themselves in lyrics like “I’ve been afraid of changing cuz I’ve built my life around you.” That “you” could be a lover, a friend, parents, children, a place, an identity, etc.
Some say the song is about Nicks’ relationship with her dad because she once dedicated a live version of the song to him. But that’s not the whole story.
“Everybody seems to think that I wrote this song about them,” Nicks shared on VH1 Storytellers in 1998. “Everybody in my family, all my friends, everybody… and my Dad, my Dad did have something to do with it, but he absolutely thinks that he was the whole complete reason it was ever written.”
The fact that Nicks wrote about something so personal to her, and yet created a song that feels personal to millions, is quite remarkable.
“When I’m really thinking about something—I mean when something’s really bothering me—again, the best thing that I can do is go to the music room, or to the office, where I can write,” Nicks told Redbeard. “Because once I put it down and I can read it back, and I can think about what I’m saying, then it makes sense to me. When I’m just thinking it in my head, it’s going around and around, and I feel like a little child unable to make a real, substantial decision. And we were talking about our lives… the rest of our lives.”
The way she captured the feeling of having to make a big life choice with poetic lyrics and a beautiful melody has given “Landslide” a timeless quality that resonates with every age group at every life stage.
Oddly, it was never a hit song in the traditional sense
Although the song has only grown in popularity, it wasn’t a hit when it came out. In fact, it wasn’t released as a single at all with the 1975 album.
However, “Landslide” landed on the pop culture radar in 1998 when a live, acoustic version was released with The Dance concert special and album. It’s been covered by a wide range of musicians, from The Chicks to Smashing Pumpkins to Harry Styles. In January of 2026, the original 1975 recording hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 41 after being featured in the Stranger Things series finale.
A true masterpiece remains a masterpiece for all time. The way “Landslide” is going, it will surely be beloved for countless generations to come.
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