Christine McVie was charmed with a remarkable life and career — and all while she preferred
to stay in the background. Still, that skyrocket to success also had its downsides.
Born on July 12, 1943, Christine McVie — then Christine Perfect — was raised in a musical
family. Her father was a concert violinist and music professor, and her grandfather was
a professional organ player. Naturally, young Christine started piano lessons at an early age,
though she wouldn't actively pursue music until much later. By contrast, her mother Beatrice was
a psychic, medium, and faith healer. And, as McVie told it, she was the real deal.
She told Robin Eggar in a 2004 interview for S Magazine that her mother healed a
wart on her nose overnight when she was 11, constantly received thank you calls
from the sick people she had healed and even joined a psychic research society. Sadly,
Beatrice Perfect passed away at a relatively young age.
Christine McVie rekindled her love for music soon after college. She joined a blues band
called Chicken Shack in 1967, singing and playing the keyboards nightly. In a 2022
interview with The Guardian, she explained that she met bassist John McVie when Chicken Shack
opened up for his band, Fleetwood Mac. Though he was engaged to someone else at the time,
the two fell in love, and he broke off the previous engagement and proposed to her.
Christine and John McVie married in 1968 with guitarist Peter Green — a founding member of
Fleetwood Mac — serving as their best man. As Christine explained to The Guardian,
they had a most unconventional honeymoon, booking a local hotel in Birmingham so they
could be close to her mother, who had fallen ill. By happenstance,
legendary blues singer Joe Cocker made an appearance that night. McVie told The Guardian:
"He was staying at the same hotel and he got plastered with us,
on our wedding night. Until we kicked him out."
After performing alongside and marrying a member of Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie was
well acquainted with the band's music. In fact, she was quite a fan. As she explained in a 1984
interview with Rolling Stone, she was especially fascinated by the antics of then-guitarist Peter
Green and then-vocalist Jeremy Spencer and would watch them play whenever she had time off work.
In 1970, Green unexpectedly left the band mid-tour following a negative experience with LSD that left
him permanently altered. The remaining members were left heartbroken — and desperate for a
worthy replacement. Luckily, one was already on hand. McVie recalled to The Guardian in 2022:
"They came out of the rehearsal room and said, 'Hey Chris, do you want to join?'
I couldn't believe my luck. I said: 'Are you serious?! I'm just a girl who plays piano.'"
She had just ten days to rehearse with the band before her first show in New Orleans. The first
Fleetwood Mac album to feature McVie as a full-fledged member was 1971's Future
Games. Adding McVie to the lineup did change Fleetwood Mac's sound, namely because they
replaced a guitarist with a keyboardist. But it only added to the band's commercial appeal.
According to Christine McVie's 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, drummer and band leader
Mick Fleetwood knew he wanted American guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham to join Fleetwood
Mac after hearing the Buckingham Nicks album. But Buckingham had one condition for joining
Fleetwood Mac. He insisted on bringing his other half — his vocalist and girlfriend
Stevie Nicks — along as well. Concerned that two women in the band could be problematic,
Fleetwood asked McVie to meet with Nicks and essentially interview her. The meeting's terms
were simple: If McVie didn't approve, Nicks would not be permitted to join Fleetwood Mac.
According to McVie in a 2021 radio interview with Johnnie Walker,
the legendary interview took place at a Mexican restaurant. McVie explained:
"It just so turned out that I really did like her. She had a great sense of humor,
and we got on really well. So, I said, 'Okay, my signature of approval.'"
Buckingham and Nicks joined the band the very next day on December 31, 1974, and the rest is history.
"And so that was the start of all that."
Christine McVie's piano ballad "Songbird" offers a tender moment on Fleetwood Mac's
iconic 1977 album Rumours and became a popular closing song at the band's live shows. But its
borderline supernatural creation process caused McVie to describe the song to The
Guardian as "a strange little baby." In a 2015 interview with Mojo Magazine, McVie explained:
"I had a little transistorized electric piano next to my bed
and I woke up one night at about 3:30 am and started playing it. I had all words,
melody, chords in about 30 minutes. It was like a gift from the angels."
Without a tape recorder to capture it, McVie furiously wrote the lyrics down and lay in
bed unable to sleep for fear she would forget the song. The next morning, she rushed into the
studio to record "Songbird." The final version was recorded at the University of California's
empty Zellerbach Auditorium in 1976, with McVie playing the piano alone to create the
impression that she was performing after everyone had left a concert. Regarding the song's meaning,
McVie told The Guardian in 2022 that it was "sort of like a little prayer for everybody."
By 1973, the McVies' marriage was strained by constant proximity due to sharing a band
as well as John's alcoholism. The McVies eventually called it quits mid-tour in 1975.
According to Rolling Stone, the pair divorced in 1976 but remained amicable as bandmates.
Christine then began dating the band's handsome lighting director, Curry Grant.
In her book, Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac,
Lindsey Buckingham's then-girlfriend, Carol Ann Harris, claims that Grant was
a notorious playboy who had focused his energy on Christine in the Rumours era. Nonetheless,
the two stayed together for three years, though it caused tension in the band. As
Rolling Stone notes, Christine wrote the hit song, "You Make Loving Fun," about Grant,
though she told John it was about her dog to keep the drama to a minimum.
"I'm a romantic person. I like to write about love."
Christine McVie eventually ended her relationship with Curry Grant and started a new relationship
with Dennis Wilson, the drummer for The Beach Boys. She told the BBC in 2017,
"He was a mess, but he was charismatic,
charming, and really handsome. He swept me off my feet big time."
McVie describes their romance as "a very rollercoaster affair," and,
in a 2004 interview with Robin Eggar for S Magazine, she stated,
"I found him insane. Because of that,
I found him very attractive. I found him funny ... but he was barking mad."
It was the ultimate case of opposites attracting and McVie admitted to "mothering" Wilson. He
would disappear for days at a time only to return. Each time, McVie would take care
of him and help him get sober. But then the cycle would repeat. According to The Guardian,
Wilson developed serious addictions to cocaine and alcohol and was frequently homeless. He
and McVie finally called it quits after years of tumultuous dating. The relationship had a bad end,
and McVie did not stay in regular contact with him. Just four years later in 1983,
Wilson died when he went diving in frigid waters while heavily intoxicated and drowned.
Christine McVie shocked the world in 1998 when she left Fleetwood Mac and essentially vanished.
"She ran away. She went back home.
What can you say? She's doing what she wants, and she's really happy."
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone,
she explained that her fear of flying had become a panic-inducing phobia,
which made touring difficult. She was also tired of the instability. She explained:
"I wasn't just burned out. But I was tired of traveling and living out of a suitcase.
I'm quite a domestic person by nature and the nomad thing had got a bit stale on me, really."
McVie moved back to England and worked on restoring her new house. Eventually,
she grew tired of the country, conquered her fear of flying through therapy, and returned to
Fleetwood Mac 16 years later. The band embarked on several reunion tours in 2014 and 2015,
but things kind of fell apart in 2018 when Lindsey Buckingham left the band. Amid discussions of a
farewell tour, McVie was faced with a new touring challenge: aging. She told Rolling Stone in 2022:
"I don't feel physically up to it. I've got a chronic back problem which debilitates me. I
stand up to play the piano, so I don't know if I could actually physically do
it ... The mind is willing but the flesh is weak."
While she took center stage for a few of her songs — like "Songbird" and "Everywhere" — Christine
McVie predominantly stood near the back playing her keyboards, synths, and organs. In fact,
according to a 1980 issue of Contemporary Keyboard, her set-up at one point included so
many instruments that she was nearly invisible on stage. Though she pared down her keyboard
array over the years, the fact of the matter was, she didn't mind being in the shadows.
McVie later admitted in a 2021 radio interview with Johnnie Walker that she had no desire to be
a front-person and instead preferred to be back with the rhythm section of the band. For her,
the enjoyment came from jamming with drummer Mick Fleetwood,
bassist John McVie, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham,
and the many other musicians she played with over the years. She told Rolling Stone in 2022,
"I've never felt like I was a solo artist. I always liked to be part of a group."
Despite being married twice, Christine McVie never had children, though she would have liked
to. McVie found that being a woman in music came with several alarming double standards. First,
few partners understood or accepted the demands of her profession. McVie and Stevie Nicks were
considered pioneers at the time, as in the 1970s and '80s, men dominated music,
and women were still expected to tend to their husband's needs at home. Second,
the rigorous nature of touring and performing made birthing and raising
a child nearly impossible. McVie told Robin Eggar in a 2004 interview for S Magazine:
"[B]oth Stevie and I, we were married to Fleetwood Mac. That was what we did and
it was a harsh marriage ... There was no time for relationships of our own."
Having given their 30s and 40s to the band, both Nicks and McVie ultimately sacrificed
their chances at motherhood. She told The Guardian in 2013,
"There were never any children [for me]. There was always a career in the way. It
was a case of one or the other, and Stevie would say the same. The lads
went off and had children but for Stevie and I, it was a bit difficult to do that."
While some of the band's more flamboyant songs like "Gypsy" and "Rhiannon" are attributed to
iconic frontwoman Stevie Nicks, most of Fleetwood Mac's sweet and catchy love tunes were written and
performed by the mellow-voiced Christine McVie. In fact, she sang lead on more songs than Nicks
or guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. A true artist and musician at heart,
McVie was skilled at crafting the perfect lyrics and melodies to accompany her piano
and keyboard arrangements. She told Robin Eggar in a 2004 interview with S Magazine:
"I'm a pretty basic love song writer. I've been
told that I have a way of saying the obvious in a non-obvious way."
Over the course of her career with Fleetwood Mac, McVie wrote or co-wrote 25 songs, eight of which
ended up on the band's popular 1988 album Greatest Hits. A few of her most beloved songs include:
"Don't Stop," "You Make Loving Fun," Over My Head," "Little Lies," and "Say You Love Me."
Sadly, McVie died on November 30, 2022, at age 79. But her brilliant musical offerings live on.
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