Stevie Nicks took to social media last Tuesday (July 27) to reflect on her debut solo album Bella Donna on its 40th anniversary.

Nicks, who captioned the post, “From my journal….”, also gave a shout out to her collaborators Lori Perry-Nicks and Sharon Celani. Sharing her thoughts on what inspired her to create “Bella Donna,” she explained, “This song was written about my boyfriend’s mother who was involved with a man in Chile during the coup that happened there in 1973. The man she loved was banished to France. Banished – or imprisoned, that was the choice.”

“The love story never really ended, but she never saw him again,” Nicks added. “I was so touched by this story of lost love that I wrote ‘Bella Donna.’”

Nicks revealed that the moment she finished the song was the moment she knew she had the basis for her first solo record, which she believed in “from the bottom of my heart.” The story of her boyfriend’s mother changed the way she looked at love, a concept she would explore later throughout her first album.

“It defined how I would feel about love forever,” she said of “Bella Donna.” “It broke my heart and gave me the strength to fight for it.”

She added that the album “opened the doors” to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which “took my hand, and invited me in for my own work – for the women of the world. The thing I am most proud of.”

The success of Bella Donna cemented Nicks’ place as a solo musician but did not breakup Fleetwood Mac. “If anything, it kept us together,” she wrote.

From my journal. pic.twitter.com/GTFfuJWxLg

— Stevie Nicks (@StevieNicks) July 27, 2021

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