In 1982, Stevie Nicks used a song to say goodbye to her friend. Since then, it has been streamed 500,000,000 times

Stevie Nicks wrote Fleetwood Mac’s “Gypsy” in memory of her close friend Robin Anderson, who died of leukaemia before the band’s 1982 album *Mirage* was released. The song turns Nicks’s private grief and memories into a tribute that has resonated with listeners who have experienced loss.

Nicks said that Anderson was the song’s subject and that fragments of her friend appear in many of her songs. “Gypsy” was written amid tensions in Fleetwood Mac and Nicks’s difficult working relationship with Lindsey Buckingham; she was also building a solo career. The article reports that the song has since been streamed 500 million times.