Fleetwood Mac's 'Welcome to the Room...Sara' Was Inspired by a Stevie Nicks Rehab Stay

Stevie Nicks wrote Fleetwood Mac songs like “Sara” and the Tango in the Night track “Welcome to the Room…Sara.” Nicks even described “Welcome to the Room… Sara” as a song about an “ominous room” and her alter-ego. Here’s what we know about this song. 

Stevie Nicks wrote ‘Welcome to the Room…Sara’ for Fleetwood Mac

Nicks is one of the masterminds behind Fleetwood Mac’s most popular songs. She co-wrote “Dreams” and penned “Storms” about her relationship with Mick Fleetwood. Nicks also wrote “Welcome to the Room…Sara” for this rock band.

A few years earlier, Fleetwood Mac released their song “Sara,” also performed in part by Nicks. This song discussed a similar character — “a poet” in the narrator’s heart, who they hope will never change. 

More directly, “Sara” discusses the “comforting effect” of Fleetwood Mac following her breakup with her lifelong musical collaborator Buckingham. According to Song Facts, Sara is considered an alter-ego of Nicks. It could also be a nod to Nicks’ former best friend, who cheated with Fleetwood when he and Nicks were together.

“[Sara] likes to think it’s completely about her, but it’s really not,” Nicks said during a 1994 radio interview with Tommy Vance. “It’s about me, about her, about Mick, about Fleetwood Mac. It’s about all of us at that point.” 

What is ‘Welcome to the Room…Sara’ by Fleetwood Mac about?

“Welcome to the Room…Sara” was included in Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night. Remastered in 2017, the song currently has over 4 million Spotify plays. According to the songwriter, this track is considered a “secret” (and personal) song.

“’Welcome to the Room… Sara’ is very much a secret kind of song,” Nicks told Creem magazine in 1987, according to Music Spotlight Magazine. “I don’t really want anyone to know whether I’m going into her room or she’s coming into mine, or what’s in the room. This room is an ominous room.”

By the mid-1980s, most Fleetwood Mac members had a brush with unhealthy alcohol and drug consumption. As a result, “Welcome to the Room…Sara” is Nicks’ was inspired by Nicks’ 30-day stay at the Betty Ford Center, according to the same Song Facts page. 

“Well it’s a worthless thing, so take it all the way back home / Take it home,” the lyrics state. “Ooh, downstairs where the big old house is mine / Ooh, upstairs where the stars laugh and shine / Oh, oh, well I thought that you were mine / Well, I thought that you were mine. Welcome to the room, Sara, Sara.”

Is Stevie Nicks still touring in 2022?

Aside from her work with Fleetwood Mac and her time with the Buckingham Nicks duo, Nicks released music as a solo artist. That includes “Edge of Seventeen” and its remix with Miley Cyrus — “Edge of Midnight.”

Nicks continues touring through 2022, appearing at Sound on Sound Music Festival and Asbury Park’s Sea.Hear.Now Festival. Music by Fleetwood Mac is available on most major streaming platforms.

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