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It seems like the frozen love has thawed. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were on the show “Song Exploder” guest to talk about the creation of “Frozen Love” to talk – and it seems as if the two are talking to each other again.
The ex-partners and bandmates reflected on the track, which was released on the reissued Buckingham Nicks album, in apparently separate interviews. However, Nicks admits in her portion of the interview that the two are on friendly terms again.
Recalling the moment they met in 1966, when they were students at Menlo-Atherton High School in the Bay Area, Nicks said, “Lindsey and I were talking about it last night. It all really seems like yesterday to us.”
The first years: From high school to Fritz
Nicks and Buckingham describe their origin story as they attended a youth meeting and Nicks supported Buckingham at California Dreamin’. But they didn’t officially meet until a few years later, when they joined the band Fritz.
With Fritz they had success opening for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, but producer Keith Olsen told them they would be more successful as a duo. “Keith supported us a lot, but Fritz never got a record deal,” remembers Buckingham. Nicks adds that it was “terrifying” for her. “We loved those guys. So we weren’t happy about it at all, but there was nothing we could do…It was our first big disappointment in the music industry.”
But Nicks also looks back with gratitude: “It was an invitation to something big, and we both knew it.”
Nicks says that she and Buckingham probably wouldn’t have gotten together if they hadn’t lost Fritz. “It brought us together because we just couldn’t find a solution,” she said. “And then we fell in love, and that was it.”
They set about writing Buckingham Nicks and reflected on the creation of the final track, Frozen Love.
“Frozen Love”: A Modern Tragedy
“The song is about two people who loved each other, who had a lot of differences and saw the world a little differently, but had this relationship that seemed like a gift,” Nicks said. “I like to think of it like Wuthering Heights or Great Expectations – a modern love story, a tragedy. Because nobody really loves happy songs. I certainly don’t, and neither does Lindsey.”
After the song was written, Nicks gave it to Buckingham to work on. Buckingham added: “I don’t think she needed my input in that regard, any more than I needed her input in terms of the production or the instruments. She understood that I was transforming things for her, and I understood that I couldn’t have transformed anything without the beautiful core that she gave me.”
“Our relationship has been up and down, up and down, up and down and difficult but amazing at the same time,” Nicks said. “And what we did was so amazing that it was worth enduring the trials and tribulations of a difficult relationship.”
Nicks also joked that the line “Hate gave you me for a lover” was unintentional and was originally written as “Fate gave you me for a lover.” “When I hear myself singing that line, it sounds like I’m saying ‘hate,'” she said. “That’s not good. I’m sorry, Lindsey. I’ll call him later.”
The Road to Fleetwood Mac
Buckingham Nicks was a commercial flop – but it became their ticket to Fleetwood Mac. The Song Exploder episode ends with Buckingham remembering the moment he was at Sound City and heard Frozen Love blaring from the studio.
“I thought, ‘What the hell?'” he said. “So I opened the door and walked in. I saw this big guy standing there listening to ‘Frozen Love’ and he was just rocking out to that song. And I thought, ‘What’s going on?’ When the song was over, Keith said, ‘Oh, Lindsey, that’s Mick Fleetwood.'”
Is there hope for a reunion?
Last fall, Nicks told Rolling Stone that she last spoke to Buckingham at Christine McVie’s memorial service — and that she would never consider a proper Fleetwood Mac farewell tour.
“The only time I spoke to Lindsey was there, for about three minutes,” she said. “I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could. You can’t say I didn’t give him more than 300 million chances.”
Maybe with “Rumours” celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2027, a reunion is in the air after all.