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