A Look Back At Stevie Nicks And Christine McVie's Life-Long Friendship

The enduring friendship between band members Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie is as legendary as Fleetwood Mac itself, with the two immediately sparking upon meeting in 1975. The band wanted Lindsey Buckingham to join after hearing the "Buckingham Nicks" album, but the talented guitarist famously set the condition that either he came as a package deal with Nicks, or not at all. "And so Mick [Fleetwood] came to me and said, 'They have a girl involved here. You're gonna have to meet her and see if you like her,'" McVie shared in a recently surfaced 2014 interview with Rolling Stone. "And we met and I instantly liked her. She and I are not competitive in any way at all. We're totally different, but totally sympathetic with each other. We are dear, dear friends."

With persisting drama akin to a soap opera, including the decades-long feud between Nicks and Buckingham that inspired the volatile relationship between Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne in the best-selling novel and hit television adaptation of "Daisy Jones & the Six," the female friendship between Nicks and McVie was central to keeping Fleetwood Mac on track. In fact, Nicks sadly revealed that the accomplished songwriter's death in 2022 is the reason Fleetwood Mac is over for good.

Although the band replaced various members throughout the years, with McVie herself even taking a 15-year hiatus from the spotlight to live in the British countryside before rejoining the group in 2014, the "Dreams" singer insisted this time is different. "This was my music soulmate, my best girlfriend. We kept that band afloat, the two of us, by keeping the peace, no matter what," Nicks told Rolling Stone. "We were the keepers of Fleetwood Mac, and that is why we cannot replace her."

Stevie Nicks described Christine McVie as her "best friend in the whole world" to Rolling Stone in an interview that rocked the boat during a 2014 Fleetwood Mac tour. McVie was the only band member to consent to a secondary interview after Nicks agreed to pose for the cover alone, and she described how their special bond worked despite their differences. "I'm a tomboy, hanging out with the guys. I love men. I love hanging around with men. And Stevie is kind of a girly-girl. She loves hanging out with her girlfriends."

As the only two female members in the history of Fleetwood Mac, Nicks and McVie vowed to stick together. "We made a pact, in the very beginning, that we would never be treated with disrespect by all the male musicians in the community. And we really stuck to it," Nicks said in a 2022 interview with The New Yorker.

Unsurprisingly, McVie's death hit Nicks hard. "There's really not much to say," she told the crowd during her first performance since her bandmate's passing. "We just pretend that she's still here, that's how I'm trying to deal with it." The "Silver Springs" singer has publicly credited Taylor Swift with helping her grieve, citing the song "You're On Your Own Kid" as describing how it feels to lose her lifelong friend. "Thank you to Taylor Swift for doing a favor for me, and that is, writing a song called 'You're on Your Own, Kid. That is the sadness of how I feel," she told fans at a 2023 concert in Atlanta, GA. McVie may be gone, but she will continue to be celebrated through the music she left behind, as well as through Nicks' memories of their iconic time together.