Revisiting Stevie Nicks’ Close Friendship With Christine McVie: From Fleetwood Mac to Final Days

Steve Nicks and Christine McVie instantly connected when they joined Fleetwood Mac.

“To be in a band with another girl who was this amazing musician – [McVie] kind of instantly became my best friend,” Nicks said in a February 2022 interview with the New Yorker. “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.”

Christine joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970 after she married band member John McVie two years prior. Four years later, Nicks joined the group alongside her at-the-time boyfriend, guitarist and colead vocalist Lindsey Buckingham. The couple replaced Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. (Fleetwood Mac also included Mick Fleetwood.)

As Nicks and Christine’s time in Fleetwood Mac progressed, both musicians ended things with their respective partners in 1976. While their love lives were changing, the women vowed that their friendship would remain the same.

“We made a pact, in the very beginning, that we would never be treated with disrespect by all the male musicians in the community,” Nicks told the outlet. “And we really stuck to it. I think we did the pinky swear thing that, if we ever feel like we’re being treated like that, we would just get up and walk out — and we did.”

Nicks and Christine’s bond hit a rough patch in the ‘80s as the singer struggled with addiction. Nicks ultimately sought out treatment and patched up her friendship with Christine. The women remained close until Christine’s death in November 2022.

Keep scrolling to look back on Nicks and Christine’s touching friendship:

1974 – 1975

Nicks and Buckingham officially joined Fleetwood Mac on New Year’s Eve in 1974. During Nicks’ first year with the band, she and Christine instantly grew close.

“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 said of her and Christine’s early days to the New Yorker in 2015. “Because we knew immediately that Fleetwood Mac was going to be huge.”

1976

Both Christine and Nicks went through heartbreak. The keyboard player filed for divorce from John while in the middle of the band’s tour. Around the same time, Buckingham and Nicks called it quits as well. Nicks later opened up about how she and Christine bonded over the simultaneous breakups.

“She was my therapist and my go-to person for just about everything. We had each other to get through that really difficult situation where no one was gonna quit the band,” Nicks reflected in a 2020 interview with Vogue. “Christine and I kept the whole thing together by telling the three men, ‘You quit because we’re not stopping.’ Thank God I had her, but on the other side of that, thank God she had me. We really were a force of nature.”

1982

Fleetwood Mac went on a brief hiatus and both Nicks and Christine released solo albums.

1984

While Nicks found success in her solo career, she also struggled with addiction. While Nicks battled her demons, Christine confessed that the women had grown apart.

“Ten years ago, she really had her feet on the ground, along with a tremendous sense of humor, which she still has,” Christine said of Nicks in a 1984 interview with Rolling Stone. “But she seems to have developed her own fantasy world, somehow, which I’m not part of. We don’t socialize much.”

Two years later, Nicks went to rehab and, sometime after, the women patched up their friendship.

1991

Nicks left Fleetwood Mac while Christine stayed with the band for four more years. After her exit, Christine continued to make minor contributions with background vocals and keyboard.

2013

During a September concert in London, Nicks dedicated her performance of Fleetwood Mac’s song “Landslide” to Christine.

“This is for my mentor,” she told the crowd. “Big sister. Best friend.”

Later that year, Christine and Nicks sat down with The Guardian to reflect on their days as bandmates and how their friendship formed.

“It was critical that I got on with her because I’d never played with another girl,” Christine confessed. “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.”

2015

One year after Christine rejoined Fleetwood Mac, Nicks decided to come back in part because she missed her pal.

“When we went on the road, I realized what an amazing friend she’d been of mine that I had lost and didn’t realize the whole consequences of it till now,” Nicks said in an interview with The Minnesota Star Tribune. “She brings the funny back into Fleetwood Mac. Before, it was just a boys’ club. With her back, there’s more of a feminine touch to the whole thing. 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.”

2022

Christine died of a stroke in September 2022 at 79 years of age. It was later revealed that at the time of her death she was also battling metastatic cancer. After learning about Christine’s passing, Nicks paid tribute to her longtime friend.

“A few hours ago I was told that my best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975, had passed away,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “I didn’t even know she was ill … until late Saturday night.”

Nicks shared that she wanted to travel to Christine’s home in London and see her but was “told to wait.” She paid tribute to Christine with lyrics from Haim’s song “Hallelujah,” which reminded her of her late pal.

“I had a best friend but she has come to pass / One I wish I could see now,” read the lyrics Nicks shared in her post. “You always remind me that memories will last / These arms reach out /You were there to protect me like a shield / Long hair, running with me through the field / Everywhere, you’ve been with me all along.”

Nicks concluded her post by promising she would see Christine “on the other side.”

2023

Nicks continued to honor Christine as she grieved the death of her friend. While on stage in Atlanta in May 2023, Nicks confessed that Taylor Swift’s track “You’re on Your Own, Kid” helped her get through the tough time.

“That is the sadness of how I feel,” Nicks said to the crowd before reflecting on her and Christine’s long-distance friendship. “Even on the other side of the world, we didn’t have to talk on the phone. We really weren’t, you know, phone buddies. We’d go back to Fleetwood Mac, and we’d walk in and just be like, ‘Little sister, how are you?’ It was like never a minute had passed. Never an argument in our entire 47 years — never.”

The Grammy winner shared that without Christine by her side it felt like she had to “learn to be” on her own.

The following month, Nicks shared she saw “no reason” to continue Fleetwood Mac without Christine.

“I felt like you can’t replace her. You just can’t. Without her, what is it? You know what I mean?” she said in an October 2023 interview with Vulture. “She was like my soulmate, my musical soulmate, and my best friend that I spent more time with than any of my other best friends outside of Fleetwood Mac. Christine was my best friend.”

2024

Nearly two years after Christine’s death, Nicks opened up about learning of her friend’s condition moments before her passing.

“It was all stunningly strange, because there wasn’t any lead up to it. We got a call, and I was going to rent a plane and go see her, but her family said, ‘Don’t come, because she may not be here tomorrow.’ And the next day, she passed away,” she said to Mojo. “I wanted to go there and sit on her bed and sing to her – which definitely would have made her pass away faster but I needed to be with her. And I didn’t get to do that. So that was very hard for me. I didn’t get to say goodbye.”