Stevie Nicks said giving her song “The Chain” to Fleetwood Mac was a “take one for the team” moment and that she was glad she did it.

In a new interview with Variety, she said she had her own ideas for what might happen to the song, which was originally laid down as a solo demo at home.

“I was in the car waiting for my assistant to get something a couple of days ago, and a version of ‘The Chain’ came on,” Nicks said. “I’m like, what is this? And it was ‘The Chain’ before Lindsey [Buckingham].”

She recalled that Buckingham had asked her, "You know that song that you wrote about 'If you don’t love me now, you will never love me again” — can we have that? Because we have this amazing solo that’s at the end of it, when John McVie comes in. … We have that, and it’s amazing, but we don’t really have a song. Would you consider letting us have that song that I know you have, because I’ve known you a long time and I’ve heard it?’”

Listen to Stevie Nicks' Original Demo for 'The Chain'

Nicks said she thought to herself, "Well, okay. I will take one for the team here. And I will give you the song with all the words and the verses and everything, so you can use your solo."

She recalled "listening to [the demo] and it was just me singing. … And I thought, Wow, I had full-on plans for the original ‘Chain’ song before I gave it to Fleetwood Mac. I mean, I’m really glad that I gave it to Fleetwood Mac because it turned into one of the best songs. But it was holding its own before they recorded it.”

Listen to Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain'

Nicks reflected that the incident was “a good way to see where songwriters go, you know, and how they can have something that’s really pretty on its way to being complete, and then something else comes along and they need part of it.”

She noted: "If you’re in a band, you’re part of a team, so you willingly say, ‘Of course, you can have it.’”

 

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