Fleetwood Mac has been a nigh-constant presence in the rock and roll world since the band’s formation in 1967. Over the years, the band has gone through some lineup changes and soldiered on. However, when Christine McVie died in 2022, Stevie Nicks believes the band died as well.
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Recently, Nicks sat down with Vulture to discuss the future of Fleetwood Mac and the new Barbie modeled after her. During the chat, the iconic vocalist said that she’s ready to walk away from the band.
Nicks noted that Fleetwood Mac went on tour for a year and a half without Lindsey Buckingham. They tapped Mike Campbell and Neil Finn to replace the guitarist. However, there is no way to replace McVie. “We had a really great time and it was a huge tour,” she said of the 2019 outing. “But, when Christine died, I felt like you can’t replace her. You just can’t. Without her, what is it? You know what I mean?”
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Nicks added, “She was like my soul mate, my musical soul mate, and best friend that I spent more time with than any of my other best friends out of Fleetwood Mac. Christine was my best friend.”
The legendary lyricist looked to a more contemporary songwriter to sum her feelings about McVie. “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,” Nicks explained. “We protected each other.”
Then, Nicks went on to describe why McVie is irreplaceable. “Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”
McVie retired for 18 years before returning in 2014. Back then, the band was able to go on. However, they had to change their live shows considerably. Notably, they removed many of the songs that McVie wrote for the band. They removed classics like “Don’t Stop,” “You Make Loving Fun,” “Hold Me,” and more from the setlist.
“Christine was the pop star,” Nicks admitted. “She wrote all those really super pop hits. None of the rest of us could write those songs. What would happen is we’d have to take the songs out like we did when she actually retired for 18 years. We couldn’t re-create those songs,” she added.
While Nicks sees no reason to tour with Fleetwood Mac without McVie, she’ll be on her headlining solo tour into 2024.
Witness music history live! Reserve your tickets now for Stevie Nicks’ 2024 tour and experience her iconic performances!
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