One of the Most Iconic Duets In Rock History Almost Didn’t Happen originally appeared on Parade.
While still actively in Fleetwood Mac, 44 years ago on August 6, 1981 rock goddess Stevie Nicks debuted her first solo album Bella Donna. The now legendary album that launched her solo career featured several iconic hits including “The Edge of Seventeen” and a Don Henley duet “Leather and Lace.” But perhaps one of the most legendary hits from the album was the Tom Petty ballad and duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” and believe it or not, it almost never existed.
As a huge fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Nicks approached the legendary artist three years before Bella Donna‘s debut with a request to write a song with her. Petty once told Paul Zollo, author of the book Conversations With Tom Petty, wasn’t exactly jumping at the opportunity at first, according to American Songwriter.
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“She was this absolutely stoned-gone, huge fan,” he told the author. “And it was her mission in life that I should write her a song. And we were a little wary of Stevie. We didn’t quite know whether to like Stevie or not, because we kind of saw this big corporate rock band, Fleetwood Mac, which was wrong, they were actually artistic people. But in those days, nobody trusted that sort of thing and we just kept thinking, ‘What does she want from us?’”
Though he was eventually persuaded, Petty originally wrote the ballad “Insider” for her. After singing on it together, Petty decided that he wanted to keep the song for his band and included it on The Heartbreaker’s 1981 Hard Promises album. It was their mutual producer Jimmy Iovine who convinced Petty to give her “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” after snatching the other piece from her, despite The Heartbreakers fully recording it for their album.
Clearly all of the hesitation was a waste of time, as the song rocketed to the #3 spot on the Billboard charts and jumpstarted a lifelong friendship between the two icons.
The gravity of the situation was not lost on Nicks. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Nicks once told Rolling Stone magazine that she owed a lot to Petty.
“[Petty] gave me ‘Stop Dragging My Heart Around,’” Nicks told Rolling Stone. “Had he not given me that song, let me candidly tell you, Bella Donna might not have been a hit. That song kicked Bella Donna right into the universe.”
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One of the Most Iconic Duets In Rock History Almost Didn’t Happen first appeared on Parade on Aug 6, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
