Genesis Fleetwood Mac’s most notable line-up depended on Christine McVie liking Stevie Nicks. By 1974, McVie had been in the band for several years, joining soon after she married founding member John McVie. She was the only girl in the all-male band, a dynamic she was used to.
Mick Fleetwood was the first member of the band to hear a song by Buckingham-Nicks and suggested that they invite Lindsey Buckingham as their new guitarist. But Buckingham told the crowd that he and Nicks were a package deal.
“Mick came up to me and said, ‘They’ve got a girl here.’ You have to meet her and see if you like her,” McVie said in a 2015 interview with her. Rolling stone. “And we met and I liked her right away.
Nicks and Buckingham would officially join the band on New Year’s Eve, a life-changing decision for the entire group. From 1975 Fleetwood Mac on the band would become one of the biggest in the world. At the helm were three vocalists, each unique in their performance style and songwriting methods, but united in creating soulful, soulful rock music with a pop sensibility that would see them top the charts for over a decade until their first proper split. at the end of the eighties.
Fleetwood Mac would fall apart and return to each other, thanks to their decadent, drug-and-alcohol-fueled tours and dramatic double breakups that would inspire 1977. A rumoran album so enduringly popular that it went to the top Billboardrock list at the end of the year this year.
McVie and Nicks persevered through it all, a united feminine force in the face of rock’s overwhelmingly masculine energy, both of the time and of their band. To be a woman in music is to be constantly compared and only held against other women in music No matter the genre, female performers are seen as competing in a tight competition where few are destined to succeed, even if they all bring something unique to the table.
But McVie and Nicks found the secret, reveling in the fact that there was strength in the sisterhood. They didn’t see each other as competition, mostly because they were both so different from each other in almost every way. On stage they gave such a unique energy and in the studio their styles were almost completely different. Together, they were able to play their different personas in each other’s songs, providing the yang to the other’s yin, depending on the song or the day. They were not only musical allies but best friends, finding camaraderie and trust in each other as their relationship with their ex/bandmate threatened to derail everything.
“We were cool on stage,” Nicks recalled Rumors era change in a joint interview with McVie in 2013. “But offstage everyone was pretty angry. Most nights, Chris and I just went to dinner on our own, down at the hotel, with security at the door.”
At the heart of Fleetwood Mac’s success was the couple’s love and respect for each other. Nicks reiterated that McVie was her best friend in a heartfelt, handwritten tribute following McVie’s sudden death this week. Over the years, Nicks has praised and celebrated what McVie was able to provide her, especially in the early days of the band. Five years apart, McVie had experience and wisdom that she readily imparted to Nicks. And they provided important emotional support during the most difficult times.
“She was my therapist and my go-to person for just about everything,” Nicks said Vogue in 2020. “We needed each other to get through this really tough situation where nobody was going to leave the band. Christine and I held it all together by saying to three people, “You stop because we’re not stopping.” Thank God I had her, but on the other hand, thank God she had me.”
While Fleetwood Mac’s history has caused romantic turmoil throughout the ages, it gave us one true, great love story. It was the love between two best friends, an unbreakable bond that made everyone around them even stronger.
As Nicks put it, “We really were a force of nature.
