SEPTEMBER 4 12:00 PM
SERGIO KLETNOY  | CULTURE NEWS | ELLE ONLINE

It’s a new song. Well, only sort of. “This is a song that has really stayed in my head all these years,” Stevie Nicks says of “Lady,” from her soon-to-be-released eighth studio album, 24 Karat Gold – Songs From The Vault, out October 7.

“Sometimes I’ll find myself humming it, or whistling it, and this has been going on since I wrote it…in 1971.” According to Rolling Stone, “Lady” was so sacred to Nicks that she buried the demo deep inside her mother’s vintage trunk for decades. Adding to its lore: Not a single one of her Fleetwood Mac bandmates had previously heard the final cut of “Lady,” or any of the tracks off the forthcoming EP. “Each song is a lifetime,” Nicks says of the tracks, all of which were written between 1969 and 1995. “Each song has a soul. Each song has a purpose. Each song is a love story. They represent my life behind the scenes, the secrets, the broken hearts, the brokenhearted, and the survivors.”

Of course, her bandmates will soon have the chance to get acquainted with the new material: On September 30, they’ll hit the road together as the originalRumours five (Christine McVie included), for the first time in 16 years, as part of the highly anticipated “On With The Show” tour.

Here, we deliver an exclusive first look at “Lady.”

And in the exclusive footage below, Nicks opens up about writing the song while living with bandmate and lover Lindsey Buckingham at legendary producer Keith Olsen’s house shortly after the couple moved to Los Angeles. According to Nicks, the song, in its original form, was “pretty perfect.” So what’s changed? “It’s just like, you know, better piano playing,” she says, her fingers effortlessly dancing to the melody that’s had her heart for 45 years. Magic.