Surprise! Stevie Nicks plays a special role on Taylor Swift's new album, “The Tortured Poets Department”

The singers have a history leading up to their latest collaboration.

Just call them the Chairmen of the Tortured Poets Department.

For the first time ever, someone other than Taylor Swift has written the prologue to a Taylor Swift album. In this case, it's none other than music icon — and fellow tortured poet — Stevie Nicks.

That's right: When fans crack open their vinyl or CD copy of The Tortured Poets Department, they will be treated to an introductory poem by the Fleetwood Mac legend in its insert.

Addressed "For T — and me," the handwritten poem is like Swift's prologues before it, with Nicks' elegant words setting the stage for what will follow: more songs about heartbreak. It reads:

He was in love with her
Or at least she thought so
She was brokenhearted
~Maybe he was too~
Neither of them knew.
She was way too hot to handle
He was way too high to try —
He couldn't even see her
He wouldn't open his eyes
She was on her way to the stars
He didn't say goodbye

She looked back from her future
And shed a few tears
He looked into his past
And actually felt fear.
For both of them
The answers ~ would never be ~
Ever clear —
Don't ask questions now
Do that later —
She brings joy
He brings Shakespeare —
It's almost a tragedy —
Says she "don't endanger me —
[Pause] Don't endanger me"

He really can't answer her
He's afraid of her —
He's hiding from her
And he knows that he's hurting her
She tells the truth
She writes about it
She's an informer
He's an x-lover
There's nothing there for her
She's already gone
There's nothing that can stop her —

She was just flying —
Thru the clouds ~
When he saw her...
She was just making her way —
To the stars ~
When he lost her...

This departure from Swift's previous releases (and the fabulous cameo!) will shock some fans. But fret not — a poem written by Swift herself closes the insert of the album, which is also a first in the Swiftie Universe.

But there's more: Nicks' name pops up again in the album, in the track "Clara Bow." She is one of the "It" girls its subject is compared to: "'You look like Stevie Nicks / In '75 / The hair and lips / Crowd goes wild at her fingertips / Half moonshine / A full eclipse."

So how exactly did this collaboration come to pass? Swift and Nicks are still mum on the details (so far), but the two have a long history of supporting each other.

The artists performed on stage together at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards in 2010, singing Fleetwood Mac's classic "Rhiannon" and Swift's "You Belong With Me." In a Time magazine dedication that same year, Nicks wrote that Swift reminded her of herself, giving her this high praise: "Taylor is writing for the universal woman and for the man who wants to know her. The female rock-'n'-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business."

Last year, Nicks revealed during a performance for her tour that Swift's Midnights track "You're on Your Own, Kid" provided her comfort as she grieved her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Christine McVie. “Thank you to Taylor Swift for doing this thing for me, and that is writing a song called 'You're on Your Own, Kid,'" Nicks said at the time. "That is the sadness of how I feel."

Last October, not long after she wrote her poem for TTPD, Nicks opened up to Today about what she thinks Swift has gained from her body of work.

“I never don’t tell the truth. And I think that’s something that if Taylor Swift, who is my friend, if Taylor got anything from me, that’s what she got,” Nicks told the outlet. “I don’t ever lie in my songs — if you broke up with me, I don’t put I broke up with you. I tell the truth, always.”

Perhaps prophetically, in that same interview Nicks teased that she has a secret book of poems that never became songs, which she plans to release someday.

But for now, Nicks has cemented her place in Swiftian lore. And she feels right at home.

The Tortured Poets Department is out now.

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