The one musician Stevie Nicks considered her best friend: “All of a sudden, she’s gone”
The relationship between Stevie Nicks and her bandmates wasn’t something that she ever took for granted.
The fact that she could make beautiful music while shouting at Lindsey Buckingham in between takes was practically a miracle, but the idea of getting her own band together meant having people who respected where she was coming from every single time she played. But even when shuffling through her solo career and her time with Fleetwood Mac, there are certain musicians who seemed to understand her music perfectly whenever she sang.
But when ‘The Mac’ first scouted Nicks and Buckingham for the first time, they weren’t necessarily going to be joining together. ‘Frozen Love’ was what got Buckingham’s foot in the door, but since they were both known for writing songs together, the guitarist knew that he couldn’t watch her leave every single time he made a record. He and Nicks were a package deal, and even if she wasn’t everyone’s first choice, she was the best that could have happened to the band.
Despite being one of the most engaging performers that the band ever had, her voice was what tied a lot of their hits together. Her backing harmonies were always perfect when working off Buckingham, but when you look at a song like ‘Rhiannon’, the song practically lives and dies on how much energy she’s putting into every single vocal riff, especially live, where she sounds like she’s about to start levitating off the stage at any given point.
She was the shot in the arm that the band needed, but it was about much more than Mick Fleetwood giving them the go-ahead. The rest of the band needed to find their footing with two new members, and especially since Christine McVie was already one of their main songwriters, she was going to be keeping a watchful eye on Nicks in the first few weeks of her joining the group.
There was never any sense of competition, but if there were two women in the band, Christine wanted to make sure that both of them had the right attitude going into everything. Even if the rest of the world hadn’t come around to the idea of women being able to play rock and roll, Nicks never forgot the moment when she and McVie made a pact to carry themselves with as much respect as every single male rock and roll star that came before them.
They were on a mission to be the biggest rock stars in the world, and even when Christine stepped aside to retire for a few years, Nicks never forgot the power that they had playing together, saying, “You never want to say it’s better without her because, of course, it’s not better without her. She is my best friend. From the day I joined Fleetwood Mac, she has been there and all of a sudden, she’s gone. So that has not been good for me. There is a feminine power that I really miss.”
And while it might have been great to see Christine back behind the keyboards in their later years, the fact that she’s longer with us is really what sealed the deal for Fleetwood Mac going their separate ways. She was the glue throughout some of their biggest moments, and even if she had moments where she took a step back, the thought of continuing and going out on tour without playing tunes like ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Songbird’ just feels a little bit too wrong half the time they perform.
Could ‘The Mac’ still make a ton of money if the band decided to go back on the road for one last big tour? Of course, but at this point, it wouldn’t be the same without having everyone from the classic lineup there. Christine was too big for anyone to replace, and even if they tried to make do without her a few times, there was always going to be a gaping hole at the side of the stage if they decided to continue on.
