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Taylor Swift’s friendship with Stevie Nicks over the years

Taylor Swift’s friendship with Stevie Nicks over the years

Taylor Swift's friendship with Stevie Nicks over the years
Amy Sussman/Getty Images; ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Taylor SwiftAdmiration for Stevie Nicks began long before losing its name on The “Tortured Poets” section.

The musicians’ shared history dates back to 2010, when they shared the stage together at the 52nd Grammy Awards. After their performances of “Today Was a Fairytale,” “Rhiannon,” and “You Belong With Me,” Nicks praised Swift’s “childlike nature” at the 2010 Grammy Awards. TIME 100 edition.

“It’s an innocence that is so special and so rare,” Nicks wrote. “This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John. She sings, she writes, she performs, she plays great guitar. Taylor can sing ballads that could be considered pop or rock and then switch back to country. When I turned 20, I had just made the serious decision that I would never be a dental assistant. Taylor just turned 20 and won four Grammys.”

Nicks praised Swift’s ability to write songs “for the universal woman and for the man who wants to know her,” adding: “The female rock’n’roll country pop songwriter is back and her name is Taylor Swift. And it’s women like her who are going to save the music business.”

More than a decade later, the Fleetwood Mac icon looked back on her illustrious career and the lessons she wanted to impart to younger artists like Swift.

“I never tell the truth. And I think if Taylor Swift, my girlfriend, got anything from me, it’s that,” she said in an interview with Today.com. “I never lie in my songs – if you broke up with me, I don’t write, I broke up with you. I always tell the truth.”

Scroll down to take a look back at Swift’s connection with Nicks over the years:

2010

The duo performed together at the Grammy Awards, and Nicks admitted she was initially hesitant about the collaboration. “She’s 20 years old, 6’1″ tall and slender; I’m 40 years older and, to be honest, neither of the other two things! I wasn’t planning on standing next to this girl on national television,” she wrote in an excerpt for the 2010 edition of “The 40 Years of Music.” TIME 100. “But her little face lit up like a star and I couldn’t say no.”

Taylor Swift's friendship with Stevie Nicks over the years
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

2014

Nicks spoke openly about what it’s like to take young artists under her wing, telling HuffPost, “They know they can call me. I’m never far away.”

She added: “I prefer to talk about a fairy godmother rather than a mother because I am not going to be their mother. They have mothers. They don’t need another mother, but maybe they need a fairy godmother.”

2020

Nicks admitted she is not a fan of social media and mentioned Swift in her statement. “I’m not really on the internet. … Taylor Swift talks about all the haters and that’s too much for me,” she said Fashion“I’m afraid that people will misunderstand everything I say, and I just can’t deal with that.”

2023

Less than a year after the death of her bandmate Christine McVie In November 2022, Nicks told fans that Swift’s song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” from her album midnight helped her with her grief.

“That’s how sad I feel,” she said onstage in Atlanta in May, noting that she and McVie had “never” had a fight in more than 40 years of friendship. “When it was just the two of us, we were both on our own, kids. We always were, and now I have to learn to be on my own, kid, on my own.”

Taylor Swift's friendship with Stevie Nicks over the years
Steve Granitz/WireImage; Kevin Winter/Getty Images

2024

When Swift published TTPD in April – which includes a tribute to Nicks in the song “Clara Bow” – fans found a poem written by Nicks in the CD and vinyl editions. “For T and me…” she dedicated the excerpt.

“He was in love with her / Or at least she thought so / She was heartbroken / Maybe he was too,” the poem began. “Neither of them knew / She was way too hot to handle / He was way too high to try / He couldn’t even see her.”

Referring to a relationship that was “almost a tragedy,” Nicks continued, “He really can’t answer her / He’s scared of her / He’s hiding from her / And he knows he’s hurting her.”

Weeks after the album’s debut, Nicks was spotted wearing a TTPD Bracelet at the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival in California.

2024

Nicks cheered Swift from the VIP tent at her third Epoch Tour Concert in Dublin in June. During the acoustic portion of the show, Swift performed “Clara Bow” live for the first time.

“I’ve never played this song live before and the reason I want to play it tonight is because I have a friend of mine here who watches the show and is really one of the reasons why I or any other artist can do what we do,” she said before performing a mashup of the TTPD Song and “The Lucky One” from her album Red. “She paved the way for us.”

Swift praised Nicks’ “rare” support for younger women in the industry, noting, “She’s a hero to me and also someone I could tell any secret to (and) she would never tell anyone. She’s really helped me through so much over the years. I’m talking about Stevie Nicks.”