1981: Stevie Nicks Performs “Edge Of Seventeen” Live On Stage

1981: Stevie Nicks Performs “Edge Of Seventeen” Live On Stage | Society Of Rock Videos

Youtube / Deizulhesque

Nicks grieves Lennon and another song is born

I was in Australia when John Lennon was shot. Everybody was devastated. I didn’t know John Lennon, but I knew Jimmy Iovine, who worked with John quite a bit in the ’70s, and heard all the loving stories that Jimmy told about him. When I came back to Phoenix I started to write this song.

As soon as Nicks got to Phoenix, her uncle got cancer, and got sick very fast, Stevie recalled. He died in a few short weeks.

My cousin John Nicks and I were in the room when he died. It was just us. That was part of the song when I went running down the hallways looking for somebody – I thought where’s my mom? Where’s his wife and the rest of the family?”

Stevie immediacy went back to her piano and finished the song.

To Nicks, the white-winged dove had two meanings. A dove for John Lennon that represented the dove of peace, and a dove for her uncle that lived in the saguaro cactus.

“Every time I sing this song I have that ability to go back to that two month period. I’ve never changed it, and I can’t imagine ending my show with any other song. It’s such a strong, private moment that I share in this song.”

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