Stevie Nicks and LeAnn Rimes share heartbreak in new duet

LOS ANGELES — Stevie Nicks cried on her living room floor when she first saw LeAnn Rimes perform “Borrowed” on her TV in 2013.

The song, about an intimate, yet fleeting romance between Rimes and her lover, came out on Rimes’ “Spitfire” album when Nicks became enamored with it. The Fleetwood Mac singer knew then that she wanted to sing it with Rimes someday.

“It was very easy for me to try to be in that same sad, deeply tragic, passionate place where she was when she wrote that song because I had been there. I had lived there for a long time,” Nicks said.

Nicks heard from mutual friend and producer Darrell Brown that Rimes was planning to touch up some of her hits for her “Re-Imagined” EP, and she jumped at the chance to record a duet version with Rimes.

“Being able to have another artist really kind of get you on so many levels in that authenticity and from that space is really magical,” said Rimes.

Even though Nicks has been singing and recording long before Rimes was on the scene, she said working with her is like going to singing college.

“She doesn’t brush over anything,” said 70-year-old Nicks. “You have to sing every single word with her; otherwise it won’t be a good duet because she would leave you in the dust.”

Rimes said she came up with the idea for the song during an emotionally troubling moment on an airplane when she noticed someone reading a tabloid magazine with her on the cover. She started to cry when the stranger’s husband came to her comfort.

“I honestly feel like that guy was an angel,” she said. “Some things came over me at that moment, and I just remember thinking that title [‘Borrowed’] to myself.”