A gift and a “rainy day song”: How Stevie Nicks’ mother almost cost her a spot in Fleetwood Mac
In 1976, during the fraught recording sessions for Fleetwood Mac's *Rumours*, Stevie Nicks assigned the rights to her song "Silver Springs" to her mother, Barbara, hoping the royalties would provide her with a lasting income. However, Nicks did not tell her bandmates of this arrangement, and the plan was complicated when the track was ultimately dropped from the album, denying it the widespread airplay and earnings it might otherwise have generated.
Mick Fleetwood told Nicks there was no room for the four-minute song on the already lengthy record, and the rest of the band had reportedly decided to cut it before she was informed; she recorded the shorter "I Don't Want to Know" instead. "Silver Springs" was relegated to the B-side of "Go Your Own Way," and later, when Nicks wanted it included on her 1991 Greatest Hits set, Fleetwood again resisted, preferring to keep it for his own Fleetwood Mac box set. A subsequent standoff over the tapes led Nicks to quit the band, with Christine McVie departing alongside her in solidarity.
- Stevie Nicks gave "Silver Springs" royalties to her mother in 1976.
- Bandmates cut the song from *Rumours* without fully consulting her.
- A later tape dispute prompted Nicks and Christine McVie to leave the band.
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Fleetwood Mac were one of the biggest rock bands of the 1970s, and their 1977 album Rumours became one of the best-selling records of all time, made amid intense personal turmoil within the group. Stevie Nicks, one of the band's singers and songwriters, wrote "Silver Springs" during that period, but it was left off the album despite her wishes. Drummer Mick Fleetwood, a founding member and effectively the band's leader, was central to that decision.
The song mattered to Nicks partly because she had signed its rights over to her mother, Barbara, as a way of giving her a source of long-term income from royalties. Songs on hit albums can earn substantial money for years through airplay and sales, so leaving "Silver Springs" off Rumours affected how much it could earn. It ended up as the B-side to another single instead, meaning far fewer people would hear it.
Disagreements over the song resurfaced years later when Nicks wanted it included on a compilation of her solo work, and Fleetwood again wanted it kept for the band's own use. This dispute has often been cited as one of the flashpoints behind broader tensions in the band's line-up, including Nicks and fellow member Christine McVie stepping back from Fleetwood Mac.