Highlights
- Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks shared a beautiful friendship and supported each other through thick and thin.
- Despite previous strains, their bond grew stronger over the years.
- McVie kept her health struggles private, until after she died of Cancer.
Throughout music history, few bands have been as successful as Fleetwood Mac. On top of that, Fleetwood Mac has an incredibly unique legacy as the band is also remembered for the years of infighting with band members taking shots at each other in public.
Despite all the drama, Christine McVie was so beloved by fans and her bandmates that Fleetwood Mac reportedly disbanded after her passing. Part of the reason why McVie’s passing hit everyone so hard is that it was unexpected since she didn’t even tell her best friend, Stevie Nicks, that she was sick.
Were Stevie Nicks And Christine McVie Friends?
Throughout Fleetwood Mac’s long and dramatic history, there were only two members that never departed, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. Given that Fleetwood Mac was so monumentally successful, it certainly seems like any musician would want to stick it out with the band.
As anyone familiar with Fleetwood Mac history will likely already know, however, there is a very good reason why bandmates came and went.
Within Fleetwood Mac’s legendary lineup, several of the members fell in love and later broke up often in an explosive manner. That tension led to years of infighting and members of the band taking shots at each other privately, in public statements, and in song lyrics.
Given all the legendary stories about Fleetwood Mac feuding, it can be easy to assume that every member of the band fought and feuded. In reality, however, it seems like Fleetwood Mac’s two famous female members shared the kind of friendship that is truly beautiful.
In 2020, Stevie Nicks was interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning, and she spoke about the friendship she shared with Christine McVie. According to Nicks, she and McVie had a pact to always be there for each other.
During the interview, Tracy Smith asked Nicks about her relationship with McVie. “You two stuck together through thick and thin and really had each other’s backs.” In response, Nicks spoke about the bond she and McVie shared.
“Yeah, we did. And Christine and I, we made a pact at the very beginning that if we were ever in a room of super famous guitar players that didn’t treat us with the respect that we thought that we deserved, that we would just stand up and say, ‘This party’s over,’ and we would walk out.”
While speaking to The New Yorker in 2022, Nicks spoke about how quickly her bond grew with McVie once they were bandmates.”First of all, to be in a band with another girl who was this amazing musician—she kind of instantly became my best friend.”
Like most friendships, Nicks and McVie’s relationship was tested in the past. In 1984, McVie told Rolling Stone Magazine that her friendship with Nicks was strained because they were in very different places. “She seems to have developed her own fantasy world, somehow, which I’m not part of. We don’t socialize much.”
Fortunately, Nicks and McVie would reunite, and it seems like their friendship became stronger than ever. In fact, after McVie left Fleetwood Mac behind, she returned to the band and told The New Yorker that she only did so for one reason. “I’m only here for Stevie.”
In 2014, McVie also spoke about the friendship she had with Nicks while speaking to Rolling Stone Magazine. During the interview, McVie spoke about how Nicks wound up joining Fleetwood Mac because the two women liked each other immediately.
“Mick came to me and said, ‘They have a girl involved here. You’re gonna have to meet her and see if you like her.’ And we met and I instantly liked her. She and I are not competitive in any way at all. We’re totally different, but totally sympathetic with each other. We are dear, dear friends. We don’t have any competition on stage. She is who she is. I am who I am. Easy, easy, easy.”
Why Did Christine McVie Keep Her Health Struggles A Secret From Stevie Nicks?
On November 30th, 2022, the world got a little less beautiful when Christine McVie passed away. It later was revealed that McVie had metastatic cancer and suffered a stroke which took her life. After decades of performing for adoring fans, McVie’s millions of devotees publicly expressed the grief they felt that she was suddenly gone.
While it was beautiful to see so many people paying tribute to McVie, some posts were something special. A perfect example of that is the fact that Nicks’ Instagram post about her friend passing away had many fans remembering their bond.
“A few hours ago I was told that my best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975, had passed away. I didn’t even know she was Ill… Until late Saturday night. I wanted to be in London; I wanted to get to London — but we were told to wait.”
Nicks’ Instagram post continued, “So, since Saturday, one song has been swirling around in my head, over and over and over. I thought I might possibly get to sing it to her and so, I’m singing it to her now. I always knew I would need these words one day.”
Following McVie’s passing, Nicks also paid tribute to her during a concert. In March 2023, Nicks’ performed her song “Landslide” as photos documenting her friendship with McVie played on the screen. The concert where this happened was Nicks’ first performance after McVie’s passing.
Given how close they were, that begs an obvious question, why didn’t McVie tell Nicks that she was suffering from metastatic cancer? While McVie is the only one who could definitively answer that question, it appears like she liked to keep her struggles very private.
Since there was so much gossip about Fleetwood Mac, some fans may assume that McVie was a very open person about her personal life. However, according to what Nicks told Rolling Stone Magazine in 1977, McVie was “very private, very much to herself”.
It also is worth noting that according to McVie’s family, she wasn’t sick for very long before her passing. When McVie’s family announced her passing on Instagram, they wrote that she’d suffered a “short illness”. From the outside looking in, it seems like Nicks didn’t know about her friend’s cancer battle due to a combination of McVie keeping her cards close to her chest and not being sick for long.
The post Christine McVie Kept Her Tragic Illness From Stevie Nicks Despite Being Her Best Friend, Here’s Why appeared first on Crypto New Media.
* This article was originally published here
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