Stevie Nicks tearfully remembers Tom Petty: ‘My heart will never get over this’

NEW YORK — Legendary rockers Fleetwood Mac scored another first on Friday night, becoming the first-ever band to be honored by the Recording Academy charity MusiCares as the organization’s Person of the Year.

At the Person of the Year celebration in New York, where artists including Miley Cyrus, Lorde and Keith Urban performed covers of their hits, frontwoman Stevie Nicks took a moment during her acceptance speech to honor Tom Perry, with whom she had been on tour just one week before his death in October 2017.

“The loss of Tom Petty has just about broken my heart,” she said. “He was not only a good man to go down the river with, as Johnny Cash said, but he was a great father, and a great friend. My heart will never get over this.”

As Nicks pointed out, Petty was honored by MusiCares last year with the same award, having been named their 2017 Person of the Year.

“He did the MusiCares tribute last year, you probably know that,” she said. “And he spent a lot of time after that night talking to me about how important it was to him. And maybe he was talking about it because Tom was ill. He was not well. And he fought his way through that tour. He should have canceled, and he should have gone home, and gone to the hospital, but not Tom. He was going to go down that river. And so God bless him, he finished the tour at the Hollywood Bowl, three shows, and one week later he died.”

“But he got down the river. So, Tom, I know you’re standing next to me, because you always have been for so many years,” she finished, her voice breaking into tears.