“Destiny Rules” is Track 16 on Say You Will, Fleetwood Mac’s 17th studio album.
Lyrics
Maybe we were together in another life
Maybe we are together in a parallel universe
Maybe our paths are not supposed to cross twice
Maybe your arms are not supposed to go around me
I hear about you now and then
I wonder where you are and how you feel
Sometimes I walk by and I look up to your balcony
Just to make sure that you were real
Just to make sure that I can still feel you
When I see you again as I always do
It appears to me that destiny rules
That the spirits are ruthless with the paths they choose
It’s not being together
It’s just following the rules
No one’s a fool
Six weeks in a foreign country
How the time flew
I didn’t speak the language
But somehow I knew
That that would be the only time
That we could be alone and foolish
We said we’d never come home
When I see you again as I always do
It appears to me that destiny rules
That the spirits are ruthless with the paths they choose
It’s not being together
It’s just following the rules
No one’s a fool
I like the coastal cities
I like the lights
I like the way the city blends into the ocean at night
It’s like living on a working river
The coastline is glittering
Like a diamond snake in a black sky
When I see you again as I always do
It appears to me that destiny rules
That the spirits are ruthless with the paths they choose
It’s not being together
It’s just following the rules
No one’s a fool
We’re just following the rules
No one’s a fool
We’re just following the rules
No one’s a fool
We’re just following the rules
No one’s a fool
No one’s a fool
No one’s a fool
(Stevie Nicks) © 2003 Welsh Witch Music admin. by Sony/ATV Music Publishing (BMI)
About the Song
Stevie Nicks wrote “Destiny Rules” about her six-week trip to Chile (and other parts of South America) with engineer Hernan Rojas. They visited after Fleetwood Mac finished recording Tusk in 1979. Rojas worked on tracks during Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Tusk recording sessions and mixed “The Nightmare” from Nicks’s third solo album Rock a Little.
In 2024, Rojas confirmed the song’s meaning in the podcast Fairfax City Music: Interviews with the Best Musicians in the World. “I’m looking at the album Say You Will, and there’s a song that narrates the story of our trip to Chile and the song’s called ‘Destiny Rules.’ It doesn’t use my name, [but] people will realize, understand right away [what] it’s about. It’s like a postcard, like a mini-documentary of our the trip to Chile” (Bustamante, 2024). Rojas wrote extensively about this trip in his 2019 book Get Tusked: The Inside Story of Fleetwood Mac’s Most Anticipated Album, published with producer Ken Caillat.
Rojas’ mother inspired the song “Bella Donna,” which Nicks recorded as the title track of her debut solo album in 1981.
References
Bustamante, C. (Host). (2024, September 17). FairfaxCityMusic: Interviews with the best musicians in the world [Radio broadcast]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvrwgIaJ3o
Caillat, K. & Rojas, H. (2019). Get tusked: The inside story of Fleetwood Mac’s most anticipated album. Backbeat Books.