A recording of Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream” brought Stevie Nicks onstage last Sunday night—and fittingly so. It was Petty, Nicks told a crowd of 15,000, who gave her a big single, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” that launched her career.
The 77-year-old songwriter wedged the 1981 hit between an effortlessly cool medley of “Outside the Rain” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” at Benchmark International Arena where longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel handled the late Petty’s vocals with ease.
Nicks evoked the Gainesville icon’s memory again in reviving her cover of “Free Fallin’.” The recorded version from a “Party Of Five” soundtrack is fine, but it was more than a singalong last Sunday, with Nicks’ clarion call of a vocal enchanting the sold-out arena…