Christine McVie

After the recent death of Fleetwood Mac's songbird and peacemaker, music writer Cameron Adams charts her tumultuous life

- By Cameron Adams

It was an offer Christine McVie could refuse. Back in 2013, Stevie Nicks asked her long-time but semi-retired friend to re-join Fleetwood Mac after a 16-year hiatus. Rock icon Nicks dangled a $US5 million dollar carrot to the renowned singer, songwriter and keyboardist, saying she’d happily pay it out of her own pocket to get the band back together. McVie’s reply: “Is that all? I’m only worth $5 million?”

McVie would indeed re-join Fleetwood Mac, in 2014 – reuniting the classic line-up that created one of the highest-selling albums of all time in Rumours – for a 15-month world tour that grossed close to $US200 million. It was the happy ending fans thought they’d never witness from one of the world’s most dysfunctional bands.

The story ended tragically eight years later when, on November 30, 2022, McVie died in England after a short illness, aged 79.

Nicks called McVie her “best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975”; drummer Mick Fleetwood said part of his “heart had flown away”, and singer and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham called her a “musical comrade, a friend, a soulmate, a sister”. Artists from Harry Styles to Keith Urban paid tribute by performing her songs live.

McVie was both hit maker and, just as crucially, peacemaker in Fleetwood Mac – a remarkable feat considering the drugs, drama and divorce that fuelled their biggest records.