Welcome to the Room... Sara

Album: Tango In The Night (1987)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • By the mid-1980s, every Fleetwood Mac member had dealt with, or was dealing with, drug and/or alcohol problems. Stevie Nicks went through the worst – she was doing a lot of cocaine and a plastic surgeon warned her of severe health problems if she did not stop. After Nicks finished touring her solo album in 1986, she took herself into rehab to dry out. This fever dream of a drug addict hitting rock bottom was inspired by her 30-day stay at the Betty Ford Center.

    When you hang up that phone
    Well you cease to exist
    Welcome to the room Sara


    Nicks used the pseudonym "Sara Anderson" when she checked into the facility.
  • "Sara" is an alter-ego of sorts for Stevie Nicks and the name of a song she wrote and sang on Fleetwood Mac's 1979 Tusk album.
  • The "Tara" and "Scarlett" mentions in the lyric reference characters in the book and movie Gone with the Wind. "Tara" is the name of the plantation where the action takes place; Scarlett is the ambitious but conflicted female lead.
  • "Welcome to the Room... Sara" is one of three songs Stevie Nicks brought to the table for the Tango In The Night album, along with "Seven Wonders" and "When I See You Again." She was the least involved of the five members at this time. The band took some time off after their 1982 tour, then started working together, sans Stevie, at the end of 1985. A lot of the sessions took place at the home studio of Lindsey Buckingham, the band's guitarist and her ex-boyfriend. This was combustible, so Nicks avoided it, showing up only when needed. After the album was released, the band toured, but without Buckingham, who left the group rather than hitting the road.

Comments: 1

  • Claire from BifSara is in fact a woman called Sara Decor.... When Stevie had an affair with Mick Fleetwood, he broke her heart by dumping her for her best friend. The meaning of 'welcome to the room, Sara' is that her friend had now become part of the tumultuous relationships in this group. 'The first cut is the deepest one of all, and the second one...' Referring to the heartache from the relationships with Lindsay Buckingham, then Fleetwood. 'well, I thought that you were mine' self explanatory that one. And the last verse 'when you hang up that phone, you cease to exist, welcome to the room Sara', welcome,. Welcome everyone'. She's referring to a conversation she had with Mick Fleetwood and the end of the relationship after she found out about Sara. And now everyone knows .
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.