"Landslide"

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham scrimped and saved and busted their asses to record their very first album, a record they called Buckingham Nicks.  They had agreed that Stevie would be the breadwinner holding down a job as the hostess at a Bob’s Big Boy so that Lindsey could focus on their music and build his skills as a guitarist.  So when Polydor Records said yes and set them up in a studio to record that first album, they thought all their hard work and sacrifice was paying off.

Imagine what a blow it was when Polydor didn’t promote the record…and then cancelled their recording contract due to lack of sales, killing their hopes of making a second album.

Even before that happened, all the dues they were paying were taking their toll.  Stevie said she had already been “thinking of quitting it all and going back to school because I was sick of being miserable.  And I hate being poor.”

To help make ends meet, Lindsey took a gig to tour with Don Everly (singing Phil Everly’s parts).  In preparation, the couple relocated to Aspen for Lindsey’s two weeks of rehearsals.  It turned out that one of Stevie’s girlfriends lived there.  So when Lindsey went out on the road, she stayed in Colorado and tried to figure out what she wanted to do.  Should she go back to school?  Or was it worth it to keep struggling to make a career in music?

“I am not happy,” she thought to herself.  “I am tired.  But I don’t know if we can do any better that this.  If nobody likes this, then what are we going to do?”

While she sat there in Aspen staring out the windows at the Rocky Mountains, she was acutely aware of how her life could come tumbling down around her like an avalanche.  But the time she spent reflecting on her situation actually gave her a moment of inspiration.  Gazing at those “snow covered hills,” she came up with the song “Landslide.”  It was a burst of creativity that assured her that it was worth trying.  Because she might try and still not make it.  But if she didn’t try, she definitely wouldn’t make it.