Fans are sharing an emotional moment from Stevie Nicks’ show in Tampa, Florida, after the singer briefly forgot the lyrics to Landslide during the final song of her hour-and-a-half set.
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The slip happened during one of the track’s most reflective passages — “Well, I’ve been ’fraid of changin’… even children get older, and I’m gettin’ older too” — with Nicks visibly moved, pointing to her head as she reached the line about ageing. The gesture left the crowd both nostalgic and, for some, a little worried, as the 77-year-old paused before collecting herself and finishing the song.
The emotional stumble came at the end of an otherwise powerful night. Earlier in the show, Nicks paid tribute to Tom Petty, arriving onstage to Runnin’ Down a Dream and later performing Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around with longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel handling Petty’s vocals. She revived her cover of Free Fallin’ to huge cheers, and fans were treated to a catalogue-spanning set that moved from Outside the Rain and Dreams to Stand Back, complete with the original cape she’s kept pristine for decades.
Her voice held strong across the night — warm on Bella Donna and commanding on Edge of Seventeen — and she shared light-hearted moments too, joking about Florida’s heavy rain and describing a “fantastic six-minute recording” she’d made of it from her hotel window.
But it was Landslide that lingered with the crowd. As images of Christine McVie appeared on the screens behind her, the song’s familiar reflection on time hit differently. One fan summed it up on social media: watching Nicks pause, recover, and carry on felt “like watching all of us grow older with her.”
Stevie Nicks rose to global prominence in the mid-1970s as a defining member of Fleetwood Mac, joining the band alongside Lindsey Buckingham in 1975 and helping transform it into one of the most successful acts in popular music history. Her distinctive voice, poetic songwriting and mystical stage presence became central to the band’s identity, particularly on albums such as Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, the latter going on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time.
As a songwriter, Nicks was responsible for some of Fleetwood Mac’s most enduring songs, including Landslide, Dreams, Rhiannon and Gypsy, tracks that blended confessional lyricism with mythic imagery and emotional vulnerability. Her work helped broaden the role of women in rock music at a time when the genre was still male-dominated, and her influence can be traced across generations of artists who cite her as a creative and stylistic touchstone.
Beyond Fleetwood Mac, Nicks enjoyed a hugely successful solo career, beginning with Bella Donna in 1981, which cemented her status as a star in her own right. Over the decades, she has remained a constant presence in popular culture, collaborating widely, touring well into her seventies and earning numerous honours, including being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with Fleetwood Mac and once as a solo artist — a rare distinction that underscores her lasting impact on modern music.
