Stevie Nicks posted a note to fans in commemoration of the 40th anniversary this week of her 1981 solo debut, Bella Donna. She wrote candidly about being inspired by her then-boyfriend, Fleetwood Mac assistant engineer, Hernan Rojas, whose family played a role in the album's title track: “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. I was so touched by this story of lost love that I wrote 'Bella Donna.'”
Nicks went on to explain, “The moment the poem and then the song was finished, l knew I had the basis for my first solo record. I believed in it deeply from the bottom of my heart. . . I never doubted for a moment that this song would be the title of the record and that it would change my life in so many ways — on so many levels. . . It defined how I would feel about love forever. It broke my heart and gave me the strength to fight for it.”
In recording the album, she recalled how she chose her longtime singing partners, “I chose Lori Perry-Nicks and Sharon Celani as my army to go on that journey with me. I wanted us to sound like the girl version of Crosby, Stills, & Nash. I did not want the record to sound anything like Fleetwood Mac — that would have defeated the dream.”