While Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were the turbulent storm at the center of Fleetwood Mac, The Guardian deemed keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie “the quiet pillar” of the soft-rock legends. In 1970, she joined husband John McVie in the band, replacing founding member Peter Green. Christine McVie would go on to pen some of Fleetwood Mac’s seminal tunes, such as “Little Lies,” “Everywhere,” and “You Make Loving Fun.” On this day in 2022, she died of a stroke at age 79, effectively ending all hopes of a Fleetwood Mac reunion.
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McVie was born Christine Anne Perfect on July 12, 1943, in Greenodd, Lancashire, England. Her father was a concert violinist and music lecturer, while her organist grandfather once performed at the storied Westminster Abbey. Following in her family’s musical footsteps, Christine McVie began studying classical piano and cello at age 11. Four years later, her brother’s Fats Domino songbook inspired a genre shift to rock and roll.
McVie fell into the British blues scene while studying sculpture at Moseley School of Art in Birmingham, spending brief stints in the bands Sounds of Blue and Chicken Shack. It was while touring with the latter that she met Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie, as the two bands often played the same venues. They married in 1968 with Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green as best man. Christine left Chicken Shack to spend time with her husband, but two years later, John persuaded her to come aboard after Green’s departure.
[RELATED: On This Day in 1990, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks Broke up With Fleetwood Mac]
Christine McVie Welcomed Stevie Nicks With Open Arms
In 1974, drummer Mick Fleetwood decided to invite Lindsey Buckingham into the fold after hearing Buckingham Nicks’ “Frozen Love.” However, Buckingham insisted on bringing along his girlfriend and bandmate, Stevie Nicks. The rest of Fleetwood Mac agreed that Nicks could join only if Christine McVie, then the group’s lone female member, gave her stamp of approval.
Fortunately, McVie and Nicks “instantly” clicked. “She was funny and nice but also there was no competition,” McVie later recalled. “We were completely different on the stage to each other and we wrote differently too.”
The women’s friendship lasted until Christine McVie’s death on Nov. 30, 2022, at a London hospital.
“She was my big sister; she was five years older than me, and she filled my heart always, and she made me laugh; she was very funny,” Nicks told People two years after McVie’s death. “And so it’s a great loss for me — it’s a big empty hole. The great thing is that our experiences were so strong and so vivid that she’s hard to forget, you’ll never forget her, I’ll never forget her. I miss her very much.”
Featured image by Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images
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