Stevie Nicks says Fleetwood Mac is done without Christine McVie
Stevie Nicks says Taylor Swift's "You're On Your Own, Kid," sums up her friendship with Christine McVie
Music News Stevie Nicks
Fleetwood Mac is officially over, because “you can’t replace” Christine McVie, says Stevie Nicks. “Without her, what is it? You know what I mean?” the legendary rock star questions in a new interview with Vulture. McVie had left the band for more than a decade starting in 1998, and “we became much more of a hard-rock band,” Nicks recalled, saying McVie “wrote all those really super pop hits” that no one else in the band could recreate.
“She was like my soul mate, my musical soul mate, and my best friend that I spent more time with than any of my other best friends outside of Fleetwood Mac. Christine was my best friend,” Nicks says. “When I think about Taylor Swift’s song ‘You’re on Your Own, Kid’ and the line ‘you always have been,’ it was like, that was Christine and I. We were on our own in that band. We always were. We protected each other.”
Nicks’ previous song choice to dedicate to McVie was Haim’s “Hallelujah,” which includes a verse dedicated to a deceased friend of Alana Haim’s. After McVie’s death, Nicks posted on social media, “[Since] Saturday, one song has been swirling around in my head, over and over and over. I thought I might possibly get to sing it to her, and so, I’m singing it to her now. I always knew I would need these words one day. (Written by the Ladies Haim). It’s all I can do now…”
To Vulture, Nicks says, “Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be there behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”
Mick Fleetwood said something similar in an interview with The Los Angeles Times: “I think right now, I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with the loss of Chris,” he shared. “I’d say we’re done, but then we’ve all said that before. It’s sort of unthinkable right now.”
20 Comments
I’ve always disliked Fleetwood Mac…except for McVie. I always felt her songs were just a bit better and after reading Dennis Wilson’s bio she came off as a really great, caring person.
Danica Patrick has entered the chat!
About a decade ago, I saw Fleetwood Mac at Jazz Fest in New Orleans (yes, yes, Jazz Fest isn’t really a jazz fest), and it was essentially three straight hours of massive hit after massive hit. I didn’t even realize I knew that many of their songs. They played one new song and even that was decent.
It was an absolutely great show (I’m glad I decided to skip Phoenix to see them). I’ve become an even bigger fan in the years since.
Ha, yeah “Jazzfest” is one of the biggest misnomers in music. Copy/paste of the top of the 2023 lineup:Ed Sheeran, Lizzo, Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, Santana, Jon Batiste, Jill Scott, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Kane Brown, H.E.R., Steve Miller Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gary Clark Jr., Leon Bridges, Farruko, Ludacris, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Kenny Loggins, Wu-Tang Clan + The Soul Rebels, The Revivalists, Jazmine Sullivan, Herbie Hancock, NE-YO, Big Freedia, Tom Jones, Buddy Guy, Irma Thomas, Melissa Etheridge, Galactic featuring Anjelika ‘Jelly’ Joseph, Mavis Staples, Jamie Cullum, Tab Benoit, Taj Mahal Quartet, Marcus King, Cory Wong, Los Lobos, Keb’ Mo’, Preservation Hall Jazz Band…A few NO jazz acts in there, but generally about as varied a slate as you’ll find.
They’re a terrific band live. I’ve been lucky to see them three times with three different line ups (a four-part in 2009 without Christine, the full Rumours-era line-up in 2015 and the Buckingham-less version featuring Neil Finn in 2019).It’s amazing the energy with which they played. The other cool thing given the different line-ups was how different each of the set-lists were for each of those performances.
I hope the band can reunite with Lindsay and come back for another tour to honor Christine. That would be the best concluding chapter of Fleetwood Mac.
Reunite with the member that can’t accept that Stevie Nicks’ star is brighter than his? In the absence of the member Stevie Nicks considers irreplaceable? Did you read the piece?
I have a different take than you. I hope all egos can be put aside to honor Christine and the music.
The problem is, and has always been, that Lindsey is 100% ego.
A belated thank you for making this point crystal clear!
The best concluding chapter for Fleetwood Mac was made impossible when Lindsey A) couldn’t stop being a dick, B) got fired for being a dick, C) lied about being a dick, and D) blamed everyone else for thinking he was being a relentless dick. They put the biggest ego aside when they fired him.
I think it’s the type of thing they might be able to talk themselves into trying, only to accept two weeks in that it was a terrible idea.
Buckingham is talented, but toxic, as he would still undermine Stevie Nicks constantly, and everyone seemed to feel better after he was gone. It may not have been the full “classic” lineup (even if Fleetwood Mac had a few of them over the decades), but the remaining members then had some degree of a satistifying relationship, without much conflict. Same thing happened to New Order without Peter Hook and The Attractions/The Imposters without Bruce Thomas.Regarding honoring Christine, Stevie Nicks basically says that she was the glu that held everybody together. Retiring the band because she’s dead is then much more fitting as a tribute than booking an arena tour where people who obviously don’t want to be in the same room play in front of an audience for $200 a seat at least.
Exactly. Folding the band IS honoring her. It is the highest honor really, to say openly, “You were so important that this cannot exist without you.” Like Zeppelin after Bonham died. Anyone advocating for them to do a tour anyway is almost certainly a fan who is really just speaking to their own self-interest (namely, that they want to see the band live again).
This is not quite as bad as Rush without Neal Peart, but it’s close. You can’t have Fleetwood Mac without McVie even existing, just like you can’t have Van Halen without Eddie. Her songs were always my favorite, and I’m so glad she existed.
Or the Velvet Underground without Lou Reed and…wait, they tried that?
Reinvention is one of Fleetwood Mac’s calling cards. Go back to being a blues band. Get that Joe Boner-massa to front the band
As a guitarist, I know I’m supposed to love the guy but MAN do I hate Joe Bonersmoker
I don’t actually know any guitarists who give a shit about Jub Bananamister.
He’s only tolerable when he talks about old gear. I always call him the cat who can play anything, as long as he heard someone else play it first.
Fleetwood Mac was done when Peter Green left, as any true rock music fan knows.