Wild Heart

[On how The Wild Heart differs from Bella Donna] It's like Bella Donna's heart is wild all of a sudden. It has that James Dean/Natalie Wood feeling to it. It's just Bella Donna a little more reckless. She's just more sure of herself now, so she's taking a few more chances. I'm very pleased with the album because there are no holds barred on it. It's real strong and emotional. ~Stevie Nicks, Rock Magazine 1983

The song the Wild Heart is kind of an abstract song....Wild Heart, the Where is the reason/ Don't blame it on me/ Blame it on my wild heart, that was written in New York, Quogue. I mean at the same time that Enchanted was written. A long, long time ago, right at the same time that Bella Donna came out [1981].

The verses, the Something in my heart died last night/ One more chip off an all ready broken heart/ I think the heart broke long ago/ That's when I needed you, the second verse, I run around like a spirit in flight/ Fearlessness is fearlesness/ I will not forget this night/ Dare my wild heart, that was written a good year later. Probably, what I'm saying ~ One more chip off an all ready broken heart ~ is probably saying that some of the love that I probably search for always, was what I needed when Lindsey and I were in love. You know, thats when I needed to know it was all right. That's when nobody told me. ~Stevie Nicks, Jim Ladd Innerview, 1983

When I say, Wild in the darkest places of your mind/That's where I needed you, I mean the things that you think about in the wildest places of your mind, that you don't ever tell anybody about. Uh, only the children lie hopelessly enchanted. That's how we are. Hopeless-ly enchanted. Wild in the darkest places of your mind/Don't blame it on me/Blame it on my wild heart. Yeah, that's those places that many people don't even have. But you see, my audience has it. ~Stevie Nicks, Jim Ladd Innerview, 1983

[The title track the Wild Heart says] 'don't blame it on me, blame it on my wildness.' It's real black-hearted; it has an air about it that's so intense that it just wrenches your heart. ~Stevie Nicks, Interview, 1983

The Wild Heart…that song is a demo, recorded in Dallas with my songwriter friend Sandy [Stewart]…and a kid named Brad who's incredible, and the three of us girls sing it live; and it's the title track of the album, and certainly nobody, not one of us, ever believed that this would see the light of day. But I said, if this record is going to be called The Wild Heart, then the Wild Heart song has to be a killer, or I'll have to change the title…But Wild Heart is wild and it's exactly what I wanted it to be: the Wild Heart is all the darkest places of your mind, it's a real intense song…I played it for Tom Petty and he said, 'this is an epic', and that's just what it is, the real story of what we all go through, everybody ~of how wild our hearts really are, and we can't help it; because this is just the way it is. ~Stevie Nicks, The Wild Heart Press Kit, 1983

The [title of the song] Wild Heart probably came - I don't know where it came from - it just came out of the air, but before Bella Donna. …[Singing] Something in my heart died last night. That was all written January, February of ~ I don't know ~ last year when I first moved into my horrifyingly bad, awful, terrible house in the Pacific Palisades. That ~ and I was all alone with no phones and like a mountain woman you know ~ no fire no heat, no cooling and alone right after the Bella Donna tour. So I freaked out and wrote Sable on Blond and the verses to Wild Heart. Me and my piano. ~Stevie Nicks, WBNC Boston radio interview, July 5, 1983

It was born in New York, and it's just intense, there are some wild words in it that just sort of popped up. I think that people are gonna love 'Wild Heart'...it's the one song that I go back to time and time again and listen to. There's something about the vocal that just gives me shivers, because it's just so real. People will understand that probably more than a lot of other things, because it definitely takes you through your nervous breakdown, and through your recovery and it takes you through your survival.

And everybody's heart is wild, so it's not like I've got any kind of hold on it, 'cause this entire album was written for everybody, and their wild heart. This was very much meant to be shared and given to people, to have them just love the idea that they have wild hearts, 'cause I love that, I love that... ~Stevie Nicks, on the song Wild Heart, The Wild Heart Press Kit, 1983