Stevie Nicks shares surprise message for Taylor Swift on The Tortured Poets Department

Fleetwood Mac star has praised Swift’s songwriting talents in the past

Stevie Nicks has written a poem to accompany Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Society.

The legendary singer-songwriter’s words are included as a prologue for the pop star’s 11th studio album, which is already receiving early rave reviews from critics.

The poem reads, in part: “He was in love with her / Or at least she thought so / She was broken hearted / Maybe he was too / Neither of them knew,” Nicks writes.

“She was way too hot to handle / He was way too high to try...

“He really can’t answer her / He’s afraid of her / He’s hiding from her / And he knows that he’s hurting her / She tells the truth / She writes about it / She’s an informer / He’s an ex-lover...

“There’s nothing there for her / She’s already gone / There’s nothing that can stop her.”

The poem concludes: “She was just flying / through the clouds / When he saw her / She was just making her way / to the stars / When he lost her…”

Nicks has expressed her admiration for Swift on a number of occasions, including at the climax of her set at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA, as she paid tribute to her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie.

Stevie Nicks thanked Taylor Swift for writing ‘You’re on Your Own, Kid’ (Getty)

“Thank you to Taylor Swift for doing this thing for me, and that is writing a song called ‘You’re on Your Own, Kid’,” Nicks told the audience.

“That is the sadness of how I feel. As long as Chris was, even on the other side of the world, we didn’t have to talk on the phone. We weren’t really phone buddies.

“Then we would go back to Fleetwood Mac, and we would walk in and it would be like, ‘Little sister, how are you?’ It was like a minute had never passed, never an argument in our entire 47 years.”

She continued: “So, when it was the two of us, the two of us were on our own, kids, we always were. And now, I’m having to learnt to be on my own, kid, by myself. So, you help me do that. Thank you.”

Nicks echoed these comments when she discussed the future of Fleetwood Mac after Christine McVie’s death last October.

“When I think about Taylor Swift’s song ‘You’re on Your Own, Kid’ and the line ‘you always have been’, it was like, that was Christine and I,” she told Vulture.

“We were on our own in that band. We always were. We protected each other.”

Swift and Nicks also appeared together at the Grammy Awards in 2010, performing Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” and Swift’s “You Belong With Me”.

Stevie Nicks wrote a poem for Taylor Swift’s album, The Tortured Poets Department (Getty)

“Taylor reminds me of myself in her determination and her childlike nature. It’s an innocence that’s so special and so rare,” Nicks wrote in a piece for Time published shortly after the ceremony, where Swift won Album of the Year for her second record, Fearless.

“This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John. She sings, she writes, she performs, she plays great guitar,” Nicks continued.

“Taylor can do ballads that could be considered pop or rock and then switch back into country. When I turned 20 years old, I had just made the serious decision to never be a dental assistant. Taylor just turned 20, and she’s won four Grammys.”

Read The Independent’s review of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department here.

Follow live updates on Taylor Swift’s album and the reactions so far here.