 Jane said they met "at the age of seventeen", but her strong Southern accent made it sound like "edge of seventeen" to Nicks.She liked the sound of the phrase so much that she told Jane she would write a song for it and give her credit for the inspiration.Although Nicks had originally planned to use the title for a song about Tom and Jane Petty, the death of her uncle Jonathan and the death of John Lennon during the same week of December 1980 inspired a new song for which Nicks used the title.