Stevie Nicks said not having kids with Don Henley saved Fleetwood Mac’s career.
“I got pregnant and it was like, ‘Why? I have an IUD. I am totally protected. I have a great gynecologist. How come this has happened? What the heck?’” the singer told CBS Sunday Morning about her pregnancy after Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ album.
She added, “I’m like, ‘This can’t be happening.’ Fleetwood Mac is three years in. And it’s big. And we’re going into our third album. It was like, ‘Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.’”
Also, she explained that “having a child with Don Henley would not have gone over big in Fleetwood Mac.” This was after her breakup with bandmate Lindsey Buckingham a few years before she started dating Henley.
Nicks added, “It would’ve been a nightmare scenario for me to live through.” However, the rocker said she doesn’t mind if ‘people want to be mad,’ stating, “Had I made the other choice, had I gone the other way, I’d have been a great mom. I went this way, and I’ve done great.”
At the time, Nicks was dating Henley. Their on-and-off relationship lasted about two years, but Stevie’s pregnancy came at a bad time since both were busy with their bands. They decided it would be better for their careers to have an abortion, and shortly after, they broke up.
When Fleetwood Mac released the song ‘Sara’ from the 1979 album ‘Tusk,’ it was created around the same time as Stevie’s abortion. There has been much debate about the song’s meaning. In the early ’90s, Stevie said it was partly about her friend and bandmate Mick Fleetwood’s wife, Sara.
Henley thought the song was for someone else. He said Stevie had wanted to name their unborn child Sara, and the song was written in memory of that baby. He explained, “Stevie had named the unborn kid Sara, and she had an abortion. She then wrote the song of the same name and dedicated it to the spirit of the aborted baby.”
Mick Fleetwood agreed with Stevie about the song ‘Sara.’ He said it could be for his wife and Stevie’s friend, Sara. Later, Stevie talked about the song again and considered what Henley said. She noted that if she had married Don and had a daughter, she would have named her Sara. There was also another woman named Sara who later became Mick’s wife.