Stevie Nicks has lent her creative genius to Taylor Swift for the singer’s highly anticipated album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
The Fleetwood Mac alum, 75, penned a moving poem about heartbreak that serves as a prologue on the 14-time Grammy winner’s 11th studio album, which dropped on Friday and was unveiled as a double album in a 2 a.m. surprise announcement to fans.
“He was in love with her / Or at least she thought so / She was broken hearted / Maybe he was too / Neither of them knew,” Nicks writes, in part.
“She was way too hot to handle / He was way too high to try… He really can’t answer her / He’s afraid of her / He’s hiding from her / And he knows that he’s hurting her / She tells the truth / She writes about it / She’s an informer / He’s an ex-lover.”
“There’s nothing there for her / She’s already gone / There’s nothing that can stop her,” the “Edge of Seventeen” hitmaker continues.
“She was just flying / through the clouds / When he saw her / She was just making her way / to the stars / When he lost her…”
Swift’s admiration for the “Dreams” singer has long been known since the pair took the stage together at the Grammys in 2010.
The duo performed Swift’s “You Belong with Me” and Nicks’ hit track “Rhiannon,” after which Swift gushed over the “fairytale” experience.
Nicks, for her part, praised Swift’s “determination” and “childlike nature” at the time, adding that “this girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John.”
“Taylor reminds me of myself in her determination and her childlike nature. It’s an innocence that’s so special and so rare,” Nicks wrote for Time magazine shortly after Swift won Album of the Year for her second album, “Fearless.”
“This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John. She sings, she writes, she performs, she plays great guitar,” Nicks went on.
Here's what to know about Taylor Swift's new album 'The Tortured Poets Department':
- The 14-time Grammy winner released her highly anticipated 11th studio album “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday.
- Swift sent her fans into a frenzy at 2 a.m. after revealing the record is a double album. Titled “The Anthology,” Swift’s late-night surprise includes 15 bonus tracks, bringing the total song count to a whopping 31.
- Swift initially unveiled her 16-song album at midnight, including collaborations with Post Malone and Florence Welch on two tracks. There are also four bonus tracks, “The Manuscript,” “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog” that are featured on various vinyl versions of the album. The four tracks, as well as 11 new songs, are included in “The Anthology.”
- A poem about heartbreak that serves as a prologue for the album was written by Fleetwood Mac alum Stevie Nicks.
- There are several celeb names peppered throughout the album’s lyrics. The mention of singer Charlie Puth’s name took some Swifties by surprise.
- While some of Swift’s exes aren’t spared on “TTPD,” the singer, 34, does seemingly reference her current beau Travis Kelce on the new album’s track “The Alchemy” in a loving way.
- As for her exes, 1975 frontman Matty Healy is reportedly referenced throughout the 31-song-strong record. In fact, Healy — who, before their summer split, was a rebound romance for the pop superstar following her breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn after six years — appears to be the subject of the vicious takedown “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.” Other fans, however, may speculate the “sparkling summer” line is about Alwyn. There are also hints that “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” — gotta love that title — might be about 35-year-old Healy.
- As for Alwyn, Swift dropped hints about the pair’s ill-fated six-year romance for a good — or for him, not so good — part of the album. Check out the 10 Alwyn-related references we’ve spotted.
- Read The Post’s review of “The Tortured Poets Department” here.
- Shop special-edition vinyls of Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” at Target.
- Buy “The Tortured Poets Department” Ghosted White 2 LP special edition set now.
“Taylor can do ballads that could be considered pop or rock and then switch back into country. When I turned 20 years old, I had just made the serious decision to never be a dental assistant. Taylor just turned 20, and she’s won four Grammys.”
Nicks previously gushed over the 34-year-old singer during her set at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga., in May 2023.
“Thank you to Taylor Swift for doing this thing for me, and that is writing a song called ‘You’re on Your Own, Kid’,” Nicks told the crowd.
“That is the sadness of how I feel. As long as Chris was, even on the other side of the world, we didn’t have to talk on the phone. We weren’t really phone buddies.”
“Then we would go back to Fleetwood Mac, and we would walk in and it would be like, ‘Little sister, how are you?’ It was like a minute had never passed, never an argument in our entire 47 years,” she went on.
“So, when it was the two of us, the two of us were on our own, kids, we always were. And now, I’m having to learnt to be on my own, kid, by myself. So, you help me do that. Thank you.”
