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McVie and Nicks: the connection that buoyed Fleetwood Mac

Throughout the varied private turmoils for which the members of Fleetwood Mac are recognized, one relationship buoyed the band for many years: the friendship between its two frontwomen, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. McVie joined the band in 1970 throughout one in every of its early lineup adjustments and for years was its solely girl. When Nicks was added to the lineup in 1975, the 2 grew to become quick associates. Theirs was not a aggressive relationship, however a sisterly one – each girls had been gifted songwriters liable for crafting most of the band’s best-known tunes. Though the 2 grew aside within the Eighties amid Nicks’ worsening drug dependancy and the band’s rising inner stress, they got here again collectively when McVie returned to Fleetwood Mac in 2014. At a live performance in London, shortly earlier than McVie formally rejoined the band, Nicks devoted the music “Landslide” to her “mentor. Big sister. Best friend.” And on the present’s finish, McVie was there, accompanying her bandmates for “Don’t Stop.” “I never want her to ever go out of my life again, and that has nothing to do with music and everything to do with her and I as friends,” Nicks informed the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2015. On Wednesday, McVie, the band’s “songbird,” died after a short sickness at age 79. Below, revisit McVie’s and Nicks’ years-long relationship as bandmates, greatest associates and “sisters.”

McVie and Nicks hit it off from the beginning

The story of Nicks becoming a member of Fleetwood Mac is legend now: Band founder and drummer Mick Fleetwood wished to recruit guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who stipulated that he would solely be a part of if his girlfriend and musician Nicks might be a part of, too. McVie forged the deciding vote, and the remaining is historical past. “It was critical that I got on with her because I’d never played with another girl,” McVie informed the Guardian in 2013. “But I liked her instantly. She was funny and nice but also there was no competition. We were completely different on the stage to each other and we wrote differently too.” Throughout the band’s many private problems – McVie married and divorced Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie and had an affair with the band’s lighting director, whereas Nicks had rollercoaster romances with Buckingham and Fleetwood – they had been one another’s middle. “To be in a band with another girl who was this amazing musician – (McVie) kind of instantly became my best friend,” Nicks informed the New Yorker earlier this 12 months. “Christine was a whole other ballgame. She liked hanging out with the guys. She was just more comfortable with men than I had ever been.” The two protected one another, Nicks stated, in a male-dominated business: “We made a pact, in the very beginning, that we would never be treated with disrespect by all the male musicians in the community. “I would say to her, ‘Together, we are a serious force of nature, and it will give us the strength to maneuver the waters that are ahead of us,’” Nicks informed the New Yorker.

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