“I Was Very Aware That They Didn’t Need Another Girl”: How Christine McVie Welcomed Stevie Nicks With Open Arms

Years before Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac, John McVie, and Christine McVie already had a good thing going. Joined by fellow band members Bob Welch and Mick Fleetwood, Fleetwood Mac was already on their way up. However, in 1974, when Bob Welch left the group, the band was in search of a new lead guitarist. This was when they discovered the young and hungry Lindsey Buckingham. However, Buckingham said he’d only join the band if his then-girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, could join.

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Given McVie’s role as the lead singer, Fleetwood Mac wasn’t looking for, nor needed a new lead singer. Though, given that they really wanted Buckingham, they were willing to make an exception. An exception that Stevie Nicks is seemingly forever grateful for, and it was made possible thanks to Christine McVie.

Stevie Nicks Knows She Was Not Needed

Given that the lead singer role belonged to McVie, Nicks worried about her encroaching entry into the band. Nicks’ entry meant she would fulfill a role similar to McVie’s, thus, she thought there would be some antipathy brewing inside McVie. Though there was none. In retrospect, Nicks actually admitted that if she was in McVie’s boat, she would not have reacted as kindly.

In an interview with Off the Record With Joe Benson, per The Nicks Fix, Nick divulged how McVie’s maturity and selflessness made her integration into the band seamless. She stated in the interview, “I was very aware that they didn’t need another girl.”

” I mean, I understood that, I mean it was like, if I had been Christine, I would have said, ‘Well I’m not too crazy about that idea myself, actually, but, you know, I’ve been in this band for a hundred years and there’s this little, you know, 27-year-old girl that’s gonna walk—come walking out—and be the lead singer, basically, because that’s where she stands,’” continued Nicks.

What Stevie Nicks outlines in her comments is seemingly a very real concern. However, it wasn’t for McVie, as she allowed Nicks to waltz in and accepted her with open arms. “Christine is a very mature and very unjealous person” and “If she ever did feel any jealousy, she never let me know it,” attested Nicks.

So, in a situation where pride and ego would have seemingly taken over the majority of people, McVie proved that she wasn’t like most. Thank goodness for Christine McVie and her kind-hearted character.

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