The most “brutally honest” musician Stevie Nicks ever worked with taught her a lot: “There’s not a fake bone in his body”

Stevie Nicks said Tom Petty’s candid advice helped her while making her first solo album, *Bella Donna*. Their story shows how honest feedback from a trusted collaborator can help an artist make difficult choices and stay confident in their own abilities.

Nicks met Petty through producer Jimmy Iovine, and the pair gave her “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”, which Petty had written with Iovine and Mike Campbell. When Nicks worried that including a song she had not written would leave less room for her own material, Petty and Iovine told her the album needed a single. Nicks later valued Petty’s frankness and friendship, including his encouragement after her 1994 stay in rehab; she wrote an unreleased song about their bond before his death in 2017.