Christine McVie. Desiree Navarro/WireImage
Fleetwood Mac singer Christine McVie realized loads about love and loss earlier than her dying.
The keyboardist bought her begin within the blues band Rooster Shack earlier than starting to work with Fleetwood Mac as a session musician in 1968. She married the band’s bass participant, John McVie, that very same 12 months and later grew to become an official member of Fleetwood Mac, contributing to among the group’s largest hits.
In line with the 2024 biography Songbird, author Lesley-Ann Jones recalled having a candid dialog with Christine about her previous marriages.
“Being in the identical band as your companion kills a relationship,” Christine stated. “Being in a distinct band out of your companion would kill it simply as absolutely. As a result of the street takes you in numerous instructions, and the temptations of the street are too nice. Which is worse? I couldn’t say. All I do know is that John and I have been in one another’s faces 24/7. Ultimately, you get to some extent once you wish to homicide them, in the event that they don’t attempt to kill you first.”
The stuff of legend. Fleetwood Mac’s historical past of breakups, affairs and lineup modifications is so well-known that their identify is now synonymous with rock ‘n’ roll drama. Based in 1967 by Peter Inexperienced, Jeremy Spencer and Mick Fleetwood, the group initially began as a blues band earlier than pivoting to a rock-forward sound within the early […]
The couple confronted their fair proportion of challenges whereas working and touring collectively, together with John’s consuming. Earlier than ending their marriage, Christine and John have been “joined on the hip.” Per Songbird, “Their incapability to spend adequate time aside was the first killer of their relationship.”
Christine was married as soon as extra following her break up from John — and like different members of Fleetwood Mac, she had a number of now-infamous affairs. The songwriter died at age 79 in November 2022 after struggling a stroke.
Scroll down for a glance again at Christine’s love life:
John McVie
“John and Christine have been married on Saturday, 3, August 1968 on the register workplace in Oldbury close to Birmingham. There was no protection within the press, neither bride nor groom having but hit the massive time. … [Fleetwood Mac founder] Peter Inexperienced was the couple’s greatest man,” Jones wrote in Songbird. “Awks. As a result of Chris had had a crush on McVie’s bandmate for so long as she may keep in mind.”
In line with Jones’ biography, Inexperienced referred to as Christine one evening earlier than the ceremony and instructed her to not undergo with the marriage. The warning didn’t take, and Christine tried to be “the mannequin housewife” to John earlier than turning into the rock star followers know and love. The pair by no means welcomed youngsters and ultimately divorced in 1976.
Martin Start
Within the early ’70s — forward of her break up from John — Christine sparked an affair with Start, Fleetwood Mac’s sound engineer who was additionally married on the time.
“She satisfied herself that she had fallen in love with him, and made her emotions recognized. … Though loyal servant Birch had engineered 5 albums for the band, Mick and John ruthlessly ejected him. What was that about? Not one of the males on this set-up was any angel,” Jones wrote in Songbird.
Talking to Jones in regards to the affair years later, Christine stated the romance felt “actually seedy” and “dented my self-respect.” She added, “I didn’t like myself throughout that complete interval. I sank very low. I beloved John, too, in fact I did, although a part of me actually loathed him.”
Curry Grant
Whereas producing 1977’s Rumours, Christine discovered herself concerned with Grant, a lighting engineer. Their relationship impressed Christine to write down “You Make Loving Enjoyable.”
“That is an aural, choral flirtation together with her new lover, Curry Grant, and the which means is apparent. She’s getting lighthearted, no-strings ardour from this attractive man, and it’s as a lot as she needs,” Jones wrote in her 2024 guide. “To keep away from recrimination and blood-letting, she instructed her outgoing partner [John] that she had penned it about her canine. Candy, fantastic you.”
Dennis Wilson
Christine fell head over heels for the Seashore Boys drummer post-divorce and post-Rumours. “Identical to each different feminine who had fallen for Dennis earlier than her, [Christine] was smitten and he or she didn’t care who knew it,” Jones wrote.
The pair’s romance reached its peak when Fleetwood Mac was recording Tusk. “In a beat, the pair had develop into rock’s final energy couple, the trade’s best love affair,” per Songbird.
Christine was briefly engaged to Wilson, however the twosome went their separate methods in 1982 after Wilson had an affair. Wilson by chance drowned one 12 months later and died at age 39.
Steve Nicks and Christine McVie immediately related after they joined Fleetwood Mac. “To be in a band with one other woman who was this wonderful musician – [McVie] form of immediately grew to become my greatest good friend,” Nicks stated in a February 2022 interview with the New Yorker. “Christine was a complete different ballgame. She appreciated hanging out […]
Eddy Quintela
Whereas engaged on her eponymous solo album, Christine met Quintela, a keyboardist and composer from Portugal. “He bought below her pores and skin, paradoxically, in a manner that won’t have occurred had she not nonetheless been pining for Dennis,” Jones wrote, noting that Christine was “acutely acutely aware of her motherless standing” after turning 40 in 1983.
Christine and Quintela tied the knot in October 1986. None of Christine’s Fleetwood Mac bandmates have been current for the ceremony, and in response to Songbird, Quintela hoped Christine would depart the group for good. “Her insistence on making her personal selections and doing as she happy was the supply of mounting battle between the 2,” Jones wrote.
The previous couple divorced in 2003, and Quintela died in 2020.