The devastating news of Christine McVie’s death came Wednesday afternoon, and we’re still processing it along with Fleetwood Mac fans around the world. “We were very lucky to have a life with her,” Fleetwood Mac said in a statement from the group. “Individually and together, we loved Christine deeply and are grateful for the incredible memories we have. She will be greatly missed.”
When Rolling Stone spoke with McVie in June, she was excited about her new LP Songbird (A Solo Collection) but very skeptical that she would ever go back on the road with Fleetwood Mac. “I don’t feel physically ready for it,” she said. “I’m in very bad health. I have a chronic back problem, which makes me weak. I get up to play the piano, so I don’t know if I could really do it physically. What does that mean? The mind is ready, but the flesh is weak.”
McVie’s last tour with Fleetwood Mac took place between 2018 and 2019, although Lindsey Buckingham was out of the band at the time and Neil Finn and Mike Campbell played in her place. Just a year earlier, McVie recorded an album with Buckingham and took it on tour with him. “I had a great time with him on the road and making this record,” he told Rolling Stone in 2018. “I was shocked to hear the news. [Buckingham was leaving the band] for it was after he returned to London that the decision was made. But life goes on and I wanted to continue with these guys.”
The tour was a huge financial success, and McVie became close to the new band members. “These guys were great,” he said earlier this year. “We used to have a great time with them, but now we’ve broken up, so I hardly ever see them.”
Trend
McVie’s only appearance on stage after the final date of Fleetwood Mac’s final tour took place on 25 February 2020 at the London Palladium. It was a tribute show to Fleetwood Mac founding guitarist Peter Green with Pete Townshend, Noel Gallagher, David Gilmour, Kirk Hammett, Steven Tyler, Billy Gibbons, Bill Wyman, Jeremy Spencer, Neil Finn and Mick Fleetwood. In a video of the performance, McVie sings Fleetwood Mac’s 1968 classic “Stop Messin’ Around” with Tyler, Fleetwood and several other guests from the night.
McVie had no way of knowing that this concert would mark the end of his performing career, but it seems only fitting that he came out paying tribute to the early days of Fleetwood Mac. She’s been a huge part of their sound for the past five decades, and it’s hard to imagine them going on without her.