Christine McVie dead latest: Fleetwood Mac legend dies aged 79 as bandmate Stevie Nicks says she lost 'her best friend' | The Sun
FLEETWOOD Mac legend Christine McVie has died following a short illness at the age of 79, her family have confirmed.
British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, founded in London in 1967, sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the most successful groups ever.
A statement from songwriter and key member Christine McVie's family confirmed she "passed away peacefully at hospital" on Wednesday following a "short illness".
Meanwhile, heartbroken bandmate Stevie Nicks posted on Instagram: "A few hours ago I was told that my best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975, had passed away. I didn't even know she was ill… until late Saturday night. I wanted to be in London, I wanted to get to London – but we were told to wait.
"So, since Saturday, one song has been swirling around my head, over and over and over. I thought I might possibly get to sing it to her, and so I'm singing it to her now. I always knew I would need these words one day…It's all I can do now."
Read our Christine McVie blog below for the latest tributes…
- Joseph Gamp
Rock band HAIM remembers Christine McVie
In their own post on Instagram, Haim said the "sisterhood" of McVie and Nicks had been "so vital to us growing up".
"We write this with tears in our eyes and all over our faces" they said.
"The sisterhood Stevie and Christine had was so vital to us growing up. Seeing two strong women support each other in our favorite band has had such a huge impact on us throughout our lives.
"From playing 'say that you love me' in rockinhaim since 1999 to seeing Christine sing 'over my head' live in 2015, she has been a constant inspiration. Rip beautiful songbird."
- Joseph Gamp
Bill Clinton says he'll 'miss' Chrsitine McVie
Former US president Bill Clinton said that the band's track Don't Stop, written by McVie and used as his 1992 campaign song, had "captured the mood of a nation eager for better days".
"I'm saddened by the passing of Christine McVie," he wrote.
"Don't Stop was my '92 campaign theme song – it perfectly captured the mood of a nation eager for better days.
"I'm grateful to Christine & Fleetwood Mac for entrusting us with such a meaningful song. I will miss her."
- Amanda Castro
'This one really hurts'
Actress Lydia Cornell also took to Twitter to pay her respects to Christine McVie following the announcement of her death.
Lydia tweeted: "This one really hurts. I've always loved Christine McVie since the original Fleetwood Mac. One of the coolest voices and best songwriters of all time. Rest in peace Songbird. My heart goes out to all your bandmates, family and loved ones."
- Amanda Castro
Bette Midler says Chritsine lef behind 'memories and joy'
Singer and actress Bette Midler shared a tribute to the late Christine McVie after the announcement of her death.
Bette wrote: "#ChristineMcVie has left us. What memories, what joy, and what a legacy…"
- Amanda Castro
Eddy Quintela and Christine McVie's relationship
In 1986, Eddy Quintela and Christine exchanged vows, and they divorced in 2003.
There isn't much information about their relationship, but it is known that they wrote songs for Fleetwood Mac, including 1990 single Save Me and the 1987 song Little Lies.
- Amanda Castro
McVie's last tour with Fleetwood Mac
In spite of the fact that Lindsey Buckingham had left the group by that point and Neil Finn and Mike Campbell took his place, McVie's final tour with Fleetwood Mac took place between 2018 and 2019, per Rolling Stone.
McVie and Buckingham had just finished recording an album together, which they then took on tour.
“I had a great time with him on the road and making that record,” she told Rolling Stone in 2018.
“I was surprised to hear the news [Buckingham was leaving the band] because it happened after I went back to London that the decision was made. But life moves on and I wanted to carry on with these guys.”
- Joseph Gamp
Mick Fleetwood says 'part of his heart has flown away'
Co founder Mick Fleetwood said that McVie had “left us earthbound folks to listen with bated breath to the sounds of that ‘songbird’ … reminding one and all that love is all around us to reach for and touch in this precious life that is gifted to us.
"Part of my heart has flown away today.”
- Amanda Castro
Christine McVie's best songs
After her death, Rolling Stone released a list of the best Christine McVie songs. The list includes:
- When the Train Comes Back
- I'd Rather Go Blind
- Show Me A Smile
- Spare Me a Little of Your Life
- Say You Love Me
- Over My Head
- You Make Loving Fun
- Don't Stop
- Songbird
- Think About Me
- Over and Over
- Hold Me
- Got a Hold on Me
- Little Lies
- Everywhere
- Feel About You
Peter Green's most famous songs
Some of Fleetwood Mac's most beloved songs were the product of Peter Green.
Santana, a blues-rock icon, finally recorded a cover of Black Magic Woman in the 1980s.
In 1969, he also wrote Albatross, one of Fleetwood Mac's instrumental masterpieces that eventually peaked at number one on the UK singles charts.
Along with many other huge songs, he was also responsible for I Need Your Love So Bad, Oh Well, and Man of The World.
- Amanda Castro
When did Peter Green join Fleetwood Mac, continued
Despite rumors that Peter had started abusing a lot of LSD, the singer-songwriter battled schizophrenia during his time in the spotlight and was also afflicted by health problems.
He departed Fleetwood Mac in 1970 after his battle with mental illness after ingesting LSD at Highfisch-Kommune in Munich, which his bandmates claimed he "never really came back from."
In the middle of the 1970s, Peter was given a schizophrenia diagnosis, and he spent time in several mental hospitals and got therapy.
Peter started to contribute to his bandmate's songs in the 1980s before starting his own splinter group, Peter Green's Splinter Group, which performed well into the 1990s.
- Amanda Castro
When did Peter Green join Fleetwood Mac?
With his old Bluesbreaker bandmate Mick Fleetwood and Jeremy Spencer, Peter Green formed Fleetwood Mac in 1967.
Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac was the group's initial name.
The group's 1967 self-titled first album Fleetwood Mac spent more than a year in the UK album charts.
However, the band was led by Green's innovative compositions in 1968, when they recorded Mr Wonderful, moving away from traditional blues covers.
- Amanda Castro
Who was Peter Green?
British band Fleetwood Mac was started by guitarist and blues rock singer-songwriter Peter Green.
On October 29, 1946, he was born in Bethnal Green, east London.
He was renowned throughout his career for inspiring the UK's second wave of blues music.
Early in his career, in 1965, he was given the chance to step in for Eric Clapton for four gigs with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.
He took Clapton's place in 1966, but a year later, Fleetwood Mac brought him to international popularity.
Green's family solicitors revealed on July 25, 2020, that the musician had passed away quietly in his sleep at the age of 73.
- Amanda Castro
Members of Fleetwood Mac
British-American rock group Fleetwood Mac was established in London in 1967.
Before bassist John McVie joined the group for their self-titled debut album, guitarists Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, and Mick Fleetwood formed Fleetwood Mac.
In 1968, Danny Kirwan came on as a third guitarist.
In 1970, McVie and Christine McVie, a keyboardist and singer who played as a session musician beginning with the second album, joined.
- Amanda Castro
What Christine McVie was worth
McVie's net worth was assessed by Celebrity Net Worth to be $105million.
With more than 22million Spotify subscribers, Fleetwood Mac is the 160th most popular artist worldwide.
The late guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood, and guitarist Jeremy Spencer formed the group.
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were major additions, and John McVie subsequently joined on bass.
- Amanda Castro
Did Christine McVie have children?
McVie did not have any children, and in an interview with The Guardian, she said: "There were never any children [for me]. There was always a career in the way. It was a case of one or the other, and Stevie [Nicks] would say the same," the singer said.
"The lads went off and had children but for Stevie and I it was a bit difficult to do that. So that was never able to happen. And I never found the right man. Not through want of trying."
- Amanda Castro
Christine's relationship timeline
Christine married John McVie in 1968 with Peter Green serving as best man.
Instead of traveling on their honeymoon, they had a celebration at a hotel in Birmingham with Joe Cocker, who just so happened to be staying there, before splitting up and starting their respective bands.
The couple separated in 1976, although they remained friends and continued to work together professionally.
She had an affair with Fleetwood Mac's lighting designer Curry Grant while Rumors was being made; this romance served as the basis for the song You Make Loving Fun.
She dated Beach Boys member Dennis Wilson from 1979 to 1982.
On October 18, 1986, McVie wed the musician and lyricist from Portugal, Eddy Quintela. Together, Quintela and McVie worked on several tracks, including Little Lies. Quintela passed away in 2020 after their divorce in 2003.
- Amanda Castro
Christine and the Chicken Shack
Andy Silvester and Stan Webb, two of Christine's former bandmates, announced in 1967 that they were starting a blues band called Chicken Shack and were looking for a pianist. She asked them in a letter to join.
She was welcomed and given the chance to play the piano and keyboards and to sing background vocals. The first single from Chicken Shack, It's Okay With Me Baby, was written by and featured Christine.
She remained with Chicken Shack for two albums, during which time both her genuine "bluesy" voice and Sonny Thompson-style piano playing demonstrated her true blues sensibility.
I'd Rather Go Blind by Chicken Shack, which featured McVie on lead vocals, became a smash.
In both 1969 and 1970, Christine won a Melody Maker prize for female vocalist. She left Chicken Shack in 1969 following her marriage to John McVie a year earlier.
- Amanda Castro
Christine once aspired to be a teacher
Christine spent five years majoring in sculpture at Birmingham's Moseley School of Art with the intention of teaching art. She made a number of new friends in Britain's blues community around that period.
She first entered the music industry after becoming acquaintances with Stan Webb and Andy Silvester, members of the band Sounds Of Blue. They invited Christine to join because they recognized her musical talent.
She frequently performed alongside Spencer Davis. By the time McVie finished from art school, Sounds of Blue had broken up.
Unable to afford to break into the art world, she relocated to London and took a short-term job as a department shop window dresser.
- Amanda Castro
Growing up and getting into music, continued
Although Christine was taught how to play the piano when she was four years old, she did not begin studying music seriously until she was 11 years old.
Philip Fisher, a local musician and John McVie's older brother's school friend, reintroduced music to Christine.
When her brother John brought home a Fats Domino songbook, Christine, who had continued her classical studies up until the age of 15, decided to turn her musical attention to rock and roll.
The Everly Brothers were among other early inspirations.
- Carsen Holaday
Mick Fleetwood shares tribute
In a separate Instagram post from Stevie Nicks‘ and the band’s tribute, Mick Fleetwood shared a heartbreaking tribute of his own to his “sweet friend.”
“This is a day where my dear sweet friend Christine McVie has taken to flight,” the drummer wrote.
“And left us earthbound folks to listen with bated breath to the sounds of that ‘song bird,’ reminding one and all that love is all around us to reach for and touch in this precious life that is gifted to us.”
He continued: “Part of my heart has flown away today. I will miss everything about you Christine McVie.
“Memories abound…they fly to me.”
- Amanda Castro
Growing up and getting into music
McVie was raised in the Bearwood neighborhood of Smethwick, a town close to Birmingham, and was born in the Lake District village of Bouth, Lancashire.
Her father, Cyril Percy Absell Perfect, taught violin at St Philip's Grammar School in Birmingham and was a concert violinist and music lecturer at St Peter's College of Education in Saltley, Birmingham.
Beatrice Edith Maud Perfect, McVie's mother, was a faith healer, medium, and psychic. McVie's grandfather was an organist at Westminster Abbey.
- Amanda Castro
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction
As a member of Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and honored with the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
She chose to leave the band that year after over 30 years of service and lived in semiretirement for about 15 years.
In 2004, she issued a solo album.
She first performed live with Fleetwood Mac in September 2013 at London's O2 Arena before reuniting with them in 2014 ahead of their On with the Show tour.
- Joseph Gamp
Sheryl Crow says the world 'feels weird' without Christine
Sheryl Crow said the "world feels weird" without Christine McVie, as she paid tribute to the Fleetwood Mac star.
"I am so sad to hear of Christine McVie going on to heaven," the US musician wrote on Twitter.
"The world feels weird without her here. What a legend and an icon and an amazing human being. RIP."
- Joseph Gamp
Stevie Nicks pays tribute to her 'best friend in the whole world'
Stevie Nicks has shared a personal tribute to Christine McVie, describing her as "my best friend in the whole world".
The US singer and fellow Fleetwood Mac member said she had not known McVie was ill until Saturday night, and had wanted to visit her in London.
"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, in a post on Instagram.
"I didn't even know she was ill … until late Saturday night. I wanted to be in London, I wanted to get to London – but we were told to wait.
"So, since Saturday, one song has been swirling around my head, over and over and over. I thought I might possibly get to sing it to her, and so I'm singing it to her now.
"I always knew I would need these words one day…It's all I can do now."
Nicks then shared lyrics to the song Hallelujah by Haim, handwritten, adding: "See you on the other side my love. Don't forget me. Always, Stevie."
- Amanda Castro
Everything to know about Christine McVie
Christine Anne McVie was an English musician who played the piano and sang for Fleetwood Mac. She was born on July 12, 1943, and she passed away on November 30, 2022.
Three solo albums were also released by her. Her lyrics, which were clear but moving, were about relationships and love.
The 1988 Greatest Hits CD by Fleetwood Mac featured eight of her songs, including Don't Stop, Everywhere and Little Lies.
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