The life and death of Christine McVie
Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie performing at the Werchter Boutique festival. Picture source: Raph_PH
Announced on the 30th of November 2022, the beloved member of 'Fleetwood Mac' Christine McVie passed away after a short illness at the age of 79 years old. Her talent as a songwriter and singer allowed Fleetwood Mac to push boundaries and gain a large amount of the following that they gained in the early 70s. From a backup keyboardist to a luminary of 70s rock music, her career and life history was nothing short of exceptional.
Born July 12th 1943, McVie’s earliest introduction to music was her father Cyril Percy Absell Perfect who was a concert violinist and music lecturer, who began her journey by providing piano lessons at the age of four. Despite this, she only began studying music properly when she was 11. At this time, McVie was training to be a classical musician like her father but soon found her love for rock music.
In 1967, Fleetwood Mac was formed by Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and Jeremy Spencer, who were soon joined by McVie’s then-husband John McVie. She later joined in 1970 after Peter Green quit leaving the band feeling empty and in need of unique musicians to fill out their sound. She became an integral member of Fleetwood Mac, composing many of their songs and performing as the keyboardist and vocalist. Before her contributions to the band, there were talks of a split due to creative differences and lack of inspiration, however, Christine’s bandmates described her as “the glue that held the band together".
In 1975, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were recruited into the band. McVie and Nicks immediately hit it off and discovered a natural harmony between each other in music and in life, which continued until the end of McVie’s life. Their friendship was likely often tested by navigating an industry that at the time was heavily led by men. But this was no issue for these strong women as they never felt as though they were in competition with each other due to their styles, personalities, and talents being entirely unique and different.
From left to right: Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.
They revealed that the key method to working with each other was sisterhood, with Nicks saying in an interview with Vogue in 2020: “She was my therapist and my go-to person for just about everything”. She revealed that it was her and McVie who actually kept the band together stating: “Christine and I kept the whole thing together by telling the three men, ‘You quit because we’re not stopping.’ Thank God I had her, but on the other side of that, thank God she had me.”
In her final months, Christine was still creating, performing, and doing incredible work for charities like MusiCares, a charity which seeks to provide help in health and welfare services for musicians all over the world.
She was so clearly loved by her fellow bandmates, with those who were able to write incredibly heartfelt statements on her passing on social media. Fleetwood Mac released this heart-breaking letter about Christine on her Instagram page which sums up her impact and contributions perfectly.