Fleetwood Mac is featured in the April 24th issue of Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands on Friday.
The new feature promotes Fleetwood Mac’s upcoming North American tour, the first with returning member Christine McVie since 1998.
Fleetwood Mac’s reunion tour kicks off in Minneapolis on September 30. The band has tentative plans to follow up the North American tour with shows in Australia and Europe, depending on bassist John McVie’s health. McVie has been battling cancer since last year when his diagnosis become known to the public, causing the cancellation of Fleetwood Mac’s Australian tour. According to members of the band, McVie has been recovering well from chemotherapy treatments, which started in December.
Fleetwood Mac perform live in concert at the O2 in Germany (Photo: WENN)
After 15 years, Christine McVie is to rejoin Fleetwood Mac ‘where she belongs.’
FIFTEEN years ago I was on a flight, going to a gig somewhere, when my dear friend and virtual sister, Christine McVie, presented me with a very special silver key. A memento, given as a token of our long friendship, that key doubled as a sentimental talisman, meant to keep me safe on all my travels.
The other day, I found the key, tucked away in the fold of my passport case. Remarkably, it had been there for the entire duration of Christine’s hiatus from Fleetwood Mac. Now that she is joining us again, the symbolism is not lost on me. Once again we will be on tour, flying all over the world together. How perfect that this magic key should choose now to make its reappearance.
Christine admitted to me that when she and I first met, she was quivering in her boots, completely intimidated by me when I walked into her dressing room all those years ago at the Marquee Club. The irony being, of course, that my outward appearance, that of a bombastic madman, trapped in a 6ft 7ins frame, in no way mirrored my inner self. There is a reason why kids start crying when they see my giant body and long beard!
How was I to know at that first meeting that Christine would play a major role in my life, both as one of the integral members of Fleetwood Mac and as one of my greatest friends? At the time we met, it was our music that attracted Christine; she would come and see our shows and her band, Chicken Shack, would often be billed on the same night. As the story goes, she had a crush on Peter Green at first but then she got to know John McVie, with whom she fell in love, and married. Christine joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970, when Peter left the band.
Fifteen years ago, Christine sacrificed her touring life with Fleetwood Mac because of her fear of flying.
Fifteen years ago, Christine sacrificed her touring life with Fleetwood Mac because of her fear of flying. She retired to her home in England.
I myself am all too familiar with the crippling effects of fear. Some time ago, I had a profound battle with stage fright, an issue which was obviously hugely problematic for me. I’ve learned to deal with it although, to some extent, I still have a certain amount of fear each time I step on stage which I must conquer.
The pay-off, because whenever a person prevails over fear there is always a tremendous pay-off, is when I land in the “Zone”. Then I can really enjoy the show and forget about the fear. Similarly, it transpired that in Christine’s life she’s managed to wrangle that fear. She can now get on a plane and be OK; she can play music again and travel.
In fact, she’s just come back from an African safari, travelling around in single engine planes no less! There is a perfect example of being scared and doing it anyway.
Christine is back, writing new songs, experimenting in the studio. It started with her playing Don’t Stop at the O2 in London last autumn. The song bird has found her way home where she belongs, and the amazing story of Fleetwood Mac continues…
Christine McVie is ready to tour again with Fleetwood Mac (Photo: Matt Mindlin)
‘I had some deluded idea that I wanted to hang out with my dogs and bake cookies. I don’t know what I was thinking’
The return of Christine McVie to Fleetwood Mac has been a poorly kept secret over the past few months, but it’s still shocking to hear her voice on the phone for an interview about the group’s upcoming reunion tour entitled On With the Show. She’s the songwriter and vocalist on some of Fleetwood Mac’s most enduring hits – including “Don’t Stop,” “Little Lies,” “Everywhere” and “You Make Loving Fun” – but she quit the group in 1998 and disappeared completely from the scene. The remaining members said over and over again that she’d never return.
Rolling Stone spoke with her about leaving the band, what she’s been up to during the past two decades and what the future holds for Fleetwood Mac.
Let’s go back to 1998. Why did you quit the band?
Well, I initially developed a great fear of flying. It was a real phobia. I also bought a house in England and decided, to a degree, I was really tired of the road. I wasn’t just burned out, but I was tired of traveling and living out of a suitcase. I’m quite a domestic person by nature and the nomad thing had got a bit stale on me, really.
It was never anything personal between the five of us. It was just that I felt my time had come and I just thought that I really wanted to leave Los Angeles and make a home in England. That was the root of it, really. And the earthquakes—I was terrified of the earthquakes. So I came back at the right time because we just had one [laughs]. Good timing.
Leaving when you did must have been a hard decision since the group had just wrapped up such a hugely successful tour and you’d stuck around through some pretty lean years.
It was a hard choice, but I made the choice a few months prior to that. Like I said, I had already bought the house in England and I was having it restored. I had planned to move at some point back there, but I hadn’t because of the band touring. I did say to them at the beginning of the last tour we did that this would be my last one.
When you left, did you think there was even a tiny chance that you’d return?
Not as I left, no. But as the years went on, I had some deluded idea that I wanted to live the “Country Lady” life — basically hang out with my Range Rover and my dogs and bake cookies or something. I don’t know what I was thinking, really. I just wanted to live a normal, domestic life with roots.
What filled up your days during all those years?
Looking back at it now, I guess there was an awful lot of restoring going on, a lot of building work, a lot of making the house just as I wanted it, which took a couple of years. There wasn’t really a lot of writing involved at that time — I didn’t really do much playing.
Did you ever sing, even just for fun?
Well, music left my life for a while, to be honest. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, but you know, I’m not really a solo player. I have always needed other musicians to bounce off. And of course, the ultimate band being the band that I have just rejoined, so, I couldn’t imagine doing anything with anyone else.
I did make a solo album in my house when I was there. And because I was just afraid of flying, I wouldn’t promote it and I wouldn’t tour. Actually, it wasn’t a very good album anyway — it got buried underneath the pits of Hell, I suppose [laughs].
Were you talking to your bandmates during this time?
Well, when they came to England, I did. John and myself have stayed in touch. Mick and I have stayed in constant touch over the years. I had also gone through a divorce and got very isolated and hardly ever went to London. I found that I was spending a lot of time in the country on my own and it started to play tricks on me and made me quite ill and depressed. This had all happened about five years ago, really. I’ve gravitated back to the piano and started diddling around. I don’t think talent or the gift ever goes away. I just think that it had got so buried.
Did you watch Fleetwood Mac play during this time?
Yeah, quite a few times.
That must have been weird for you.
It was weird, but it was fantastic at the same time to be a fly on the wall watching them without me. I went down to the soundboard and watched with the sound guy. They just sounded fantastic; as good as they ever were.
How long ago did you start feeling the first inklings that you might want to come back?
About two years ago. I started to think, “What am I doing? I really miss that camaraderie with those four people. I miss everything about it.” I missed the music, to be able to create again. I couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone besides Fleetwood Mac. I knew that they were my musical family.
How did you get the ball rolling to come back?
It was an epiphany because I suddenly knew I wanted to join the band again. Obviously, my muscle memory was a bit challenged, but I just thought, “I got to go for it. I can’t just sit here in the country rotting away. I have to do something, and something special.”
I’d finally went to a therapist to talk about my fear of flying—and as serendipity would have it, Mick was happening to be coming to London to promote the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour in Europe. He lives in Maui. The therapist said, “Where would you like to go most of all, if you could get on a plane now? Where would you go?” And I said, “Maui.” So I got on the phone to Mick and said, “Hey Mick, I’m going to come to Maui, I’m going to get on a plane.” And he said, “Fantastic, fantastic. But listen—I’m coming to England, blah blah blah, so why don’t we just go back together?”
I played in Mick’s little blues group on the island and the ball just started rolling, one way or another. Neither of us can remember just quite how it happened, but it eased into the situation where Mick spoke for the rest of the band and we had conference calls with Lindsey and Mick. I called Stevie, spoke to John, and they obviously were saying, “If she does rejoin, she has to commit and understand and remember how hard the work is. Can she physically do it?” I just said with a big capital “Y,” “Yes—I’m going to challenge myself and I want to do it more than anything in the world.” It’s just such a joy. It’s an affirmation of something so magical, there’s just a chemistry between us that’s just phenomenal.
Going back a bit, how was the flight from England to Hawaii? That’s a long time on a plane.
Well, it was with Mick, and I don’t mind jumbo jets [laughs]. I did, but I had this sort of therapy and I knew how to breathe and what to think when there were bumps, and la-dee-da-dee-da. But I was with Mick so we chatted the whole way there. It took all the pain out of sitting on my own. Since then, I went to Africa, and flown around in 12-seaters in safaris, of all things. I don’t even think about it now.
The band toured last year. At what point was it firmly decided that you were coming back?
I went over to Dublin and it was decided that I would go on stage and do “Don’t Stop” with them at the O2. We rehearsed it in Dublin and everyone was looking over at each other smiling thinking this was fantastic. For me, I was looking over at my family again and it was effortless. I don’t know. It felt comfortable. It felt right.
What’s the plan now?
Well, the plan is we’re going to start rehearsing in July and go on the road in September. The tour starts in Chicago and we head west and come back east again, finish at Christmas and pick up end of January and complete America and we can do the world, really. And there’s a studio album somewhere in the mix too. We’re playing around in studios now.
How has John’s health been since his cancer diagnosis?
John’s health is on the up. He’s still doing chemotherapy and gets tired quickly, but he’s definitely been on the mend. He’s been such a man about this whole thing. I have renewed respect and love for him.
What music are you recording now?
We’re really running through some demos that I sent Lindsey. My demos are rough, [but] we’re just trying to construct some proper tracks from them and the chemistry is magic.
Is the whole band there right now?
Yes, we’re all here. We’re doing some photo shoots and everything for the tour and getting on with the show really.
It must feel like a time warp for you to be back with them after all these years.
It is a time warp; it is very, very happy. None of the nonsense with the drink and the nasty stuff. We’re all grown up, of course. One thing that we definitely have is chemistry and respect for each other’s music, and Lindsey and I play well off each other. We have great rapport; he loves working on my songs and I love what he does with my songs, not to mention the fabulous rhythm section. So I’m a pig in a pile of poo really.
Have you guys plotted out a setlist?
We haven’t actually sat down and written a list. We just know we have so much to choose from. All my hits haven’t been aired for years live, so you have all that chunk. Then you have a whole other chunk of Stevie and Lindsey’s stuff, maybe some more obscure tracks from well-known albums. It’s mind-boggling.
Any chance you’ll do Rumours straight though at some point?
That’s a concept. I think we probably did think about doing it for a special gig somewhere. Who knows? That’s something certainly to think about.
How’s your singing voice? Have you been doing any exercises to get it in shape for the tour?
Yeah, [we have] a guy who’s been on the road for years that does vocal exercises and I’m sure he’ll come with us this time. My voice is hanging on pretty well. I’m not doing lead vocals right now, but rough vocals and I’m happy with it. My pitching is really on, so I feel no worries about that either.
How long is this tour going to last?
Who knows? This tour will be a world tour. Then we just have to see what will happen after that. A year is a long time. The thing is that we’re all committed to keep on going until one of us says stop it.
The fans are so happy that you’re back. This is just so clearly where you belong.
Yeah, I belong here. Not to mention the peripheral people: the managers, the crew, have welcomed me back so warmly. I feel I am in a big family again, it’s fantastic. I really had no question that they would want me back. I don’t think I ever worried about it too much. I had e-mails from Stevie offering me money to come back. She said, “Just don’t leave me in this wilderness!” And I know I said to Mick when I left, “Mick, don’t ask me back.” And I did mean it then.
Do you regret leaving now?
I don’t think you can spend your time regretting what you did in the past, but you can look to the future and try and glean the very best, sweetest time one has left.
Are you worried the strain of the road is going to drain you?
No, because myself and Mick are on a fitness campaign. We’re working out and doing rigorous training. I need to get my body in shape. I’m doing yoga and breathing exercises—I’m fit as I’ve ever been, so I’m not worried about that.
You mentioned earlier that you had suffered from depression. It’s hard to think of a better cure for that than old friends and music.
Music and old friends, and the music happens to be really special in my view. Really lovely songs. As a final note, I’d just like to say, this is unprecedented—band members leave and other people take their place—but there was always that space where the piano should be. I had all my keyboards in storage in Los Angeles. I never shipped them to England. About two years ago, my manager said, “Oh, we should just sell them or give them to the band members.” And Stevie said, “I’ll take them!” And yesterday, we went to her house for a photo session and went to a room where she kept them safe. She didn’t know I was going to come back, but she left them in great shape.
Christine McVie returns to Fleetwood Mac, the band that she’s always loved (Photo: Matt Mindlin)
It’s a Fleetwood Mac lovefest!
After leaving one of the most successful rock bands of all time 16 years ago, Christine McVie is back – and her band mates couldn’t be happier.
“We’re thrilled,” the band’s co-founder and drummer, Mick Fleetwood, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “She’s just the dearest of friends and we’ve remained that way always. We’ve always missed Chris. To have a key, key member return to the fold is huge. It’s really not happened, to my knowledge in any shape or form, on this level.”
McVie, 70, whose songs “Little Lies” and “Say You Love Me” were among Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits, tells PEOPLE exclusively, “I honestly could never in my wildest dreams have thought I could return to the band. It’s just a dream come true. I go to bed going, ‘This is so great. This is what I’ve been yearning for all these years and I didn’t know it.’ We’re family. We’re very lucky.”
All five members of the band reunited this morning when McVie, along with her ex-husband, John McVie (who is “on the mend” after a cancer diagnosis last year, she says), Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks appeared on Today to officially announce the return of the keyboardist and singer/songwriter.
Starting this fall, McVie will join Fleetwood Mac on its upcoming tour, On with the Show, and the band may release a new album “down the road,” she says.
Fans, of course, are thrilled to have her back – and are wondering if there will be any drama, since the band was known as much for its mega-hits as for its feuds and, um, offstage fun.
“Us?” joked Fleetwood.
Says McVie, “Well, it wouldn’t be Fleetwood Mac without a bit of drama, you know. Of course there will be some drama, but for the most part I have to say everyone is getting along really well. At the moment the drama is kind of the fun.”
The British-American band was also notorious for its hookups – and breakups – which they wrote about in numerous songs. Nicks and Buckingham famously broke up, Fleetwood had an affair with Nicks, and the McVies divorced. Considering their history, do they foresee any more inter-band romances down the road?
“God knows we were probably overly open about all that stuff years ago,” says Fleetwood, 66. “But that goose is cooked.”
Why McVie Decided to Return
McVie joined the band in 1970, which her then-husband John McVie and Fleetwood founded three years earlier. In 1975, they were joined by Buckingham and then-girlfriend Nicks, becoming one of the most successful groups of all time, with best-selling albums including Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk.
After playing with Fleetwood Mac for 28 years, McVie left in 1998. “I think that I was probably just burned out when I left and I was frightened to fly,” she says.
The classic 1975 Fleetwood Mac lineup is back together once again. (Photo: Danny Clinch)
While she released her last solo album in 2004, spending much of her time quietly in England, she says she had no intentions of returning to Fleetwood Mac.
“But then,” she says, “two years ago I started to really miss playing. I was toying with the idea of playing with some little band or … I didn’t know what, really. The truth of the matter is the only people I wanted to play with were the people I had played with all my life – these guys – Fleetwood Mac.”
She overcame her fear of flying through therapy, boarding a plane for the first time in years in February 2013 with Fleetwood at her side, where she spent time in Maui with him and other friends, watching the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band rehearse for an upcoming show.
She did something else for the first time in 15 years during that Maui trip: She performed onstage at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center with Fleetwood – and Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler, a close friend and neighbor of Fleetwood’s.
When Tyler asked McVie during rehearsals if she was going to join them onstage, she declined, which came as no surprise to Fleetwood, who promised he “would never ask her to play” since she would probably say no.
Still, says Fleetwood, “Chris called me the next morning and suddenly the ambient voice sounded quite small and she said, ‘I was actually just thinking, would you like me to play at the gig?’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me? Of course!’ And that was how we segued into Chris coming up and doing a few songs along with Steven Tyler and my little band.”
The Dinner that Clinched It
Shortly after McVie performed with Fleetwood and Tyler in Maui, she had dinner at Locanda Portofino in Santa Monica, Calif., with the four remaining members of Fleetwood Mac, which convinced her to return to the band.
“Lindsey was saying, ‘The chemistry around the table is so fantastic, you know?’ ” says McVie. “That was the start of it. I think I made overtures to Mick, saying, ‘What would you think if I were to rejoin the band?’ ”
The four members talked it through, telling her they would love to have her back – as long as she meant it. “Lindsey was saying, ‘If you really are serious, then you’ve got to commit.’ It was sort of an epiphany in a way. I just knew that’s what I wanted.”
Preparing for Her Momentous Return
“I’d like to say it’s like falling off a log but it’s a little more complicated than that. My muscle memory needs to return,” she says, explaining that she needs to brush up on the lyrics to the songs that made her famous. “But I also slipped back in to it as though I never left, in a sense. In fact, I actually feel stronger.”
McVie – who wrote many of the band’s most famous hits – is also writing new songs, which could turn up here or there during the tour or on an upcoming album.
“Lindsey has been trolling through some tapes and files I sent to him when I was in England,” she says. “He took bits that I thought were useless and said, ‘That’s fantastic!’ So he’s made them into something that I didn’t realize were really that good. I am going, ‘God. I can’t believe that I actually wrote that.’ ”
Full Circle
McVie says that she can’t wait to start touring again. “It is a celebration and it is a really joyful time for the band. God must have been smiling on me because I feel like a different person. This has done nothing but wonders for me and I love my band so, so much.”
The classic 1975 Fleetwood Mac lineup is back together once again. (Photo: Danny Clinch)
Christine McVie rejoins Fleetwood Mac and joins them for a fall tour. NBC Today will host a special Fleetwood Mac mini-concert on October 8.
Forget the “Rumours,” and “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow).” It’s true: After 15 years, Christine McVie is rejoining Fleetwood Mac. McVie and the band confirmed the news with Carson Daly on TODAY Thursday.
When asked if she was rejoining the band, McVie didn’t hesitate. “I think that can be said with a definite capital ‘Yes,’” she said.
McVie also revealed for the first time why she stopped touring with the group years ago. “I had a fear of flying,” she explained. “I hadn’t flown for 15 years.”
Bandmate Stevie Nicks thought at the time that the group had seen the last of Christine. “She had us all seriously convinced that she would never come back,” Nicks said.
But McVie did join her former group onstage in London last fall to sing their famous number, “Don’t Stop.” It was an emotional experience. “Walking out in London was sensational,” she said.
Her bandmates agreed. “I had to get the Kleenex out,” said Christine’s ex-husband John McVie.
“All of us were very moved, you know. Very moved,” said Mick Fleetwood.
Just a month after the onstage reunion, emotions ran high again when the band announced that John McVie had cancer. He told Daly he was “gettin’ better,” and now undergoing “chemo, basically. … I’m out and about.”
It’s been a long, strange trip for the band. “At the beginning of 1975, I was a waitress and a cleaning lady,” Nicks recalled. “When we came home from the tour, Lindsey (Buckingham) and I were almost a millionaire together.”
But the band famously went through emotional turmoil, though Nicks said it did not affect their music. “When it was very bad, when Chris and John were breaking up and when Lindsey and I were breaking up, what we did not do was we did not take the horribleness into the studio.”
Their massive success took its toll on their romantic relationships. Nicks and Buckingham said one song in particular, “Landslide,” takes them back in time. “That was written at a time when there had been a breach in trust, probably from both sides,” Buckingham said. “And, you know, we were still together. But it was one of the first things that kind of heralded the beginning of the end of our relationship.”
But the band’s way of expressing their passionate ups and downs through music allowed fans to relate to them even more. “People could buy into us and our stories,” said Buckingham. “They could identify with us. They could care about us as people, and it also fueled the music in a subjective, powerful way.”
All five members of Fleetwood Mac will be back on tour later this year, including a special TODAY concert on Oct. 9.
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper / Today / Thursday, March 27, 2014
All members of the classic 1975 Fleetwood Mac lineup gave their first TV interview since Christine McVie announced that she would be returning to Fleetwood Mac for good. The band will launch its On With The Show tour in Minneapolis on September 30.
Christine McVie is back with Fleetwood Mac (Photo: Matt Mindlin)
Drummer Mick Fleetwood, 66, says McVie’s muse and skill required a simple kick-start.
“In the past, Chris would get into the creative mood when we were actually going to do something,” he says. “It hasn’t gone away. It was waiting to be accessed and just needed to be switched on.
“Chris has been in a very different world for years, but things that were daunting for her are going away,” Fleetwood says. “We’re recording at The Village (in Los Angeles), where we made Tusk, and it’s like nothing ever changed.”
The band has remained a formidable draw during McVie’s absence, ranking 10th last year in Billboard’s moneymakers tally with earnings of $19.1 million. Her homecoming is stoking Mac fever.
“I know it’s huge and people are thrilled,” Fleetwood says. “There’s a whole litany of songs we haven’t done live in 20 years. If I were a fan, which I am, I’d have a lot to look forward to.”
That includes the return of bassist John McVie, whose cancer diagnosis in October forced the band to scrap dates on last year’s world tour.
“He’s threatening to come into the studio any day,” says ex-wife Christine.
Fleetwood adds, “His prognosis is good. He’s such a dude, so not like me, not a drama queen. ‘I’m ready,’ he says. So much grace and no huff and puff.”
The timetable for new singles and an album depends in part on when Stevie Nicks rejoins her bandmates in the studio, Buckingham says.
“Stevie’s been not sure how she wants to approach recording or when,” he says. “Mick, John and I have cut great stuff with (producer) Mitchell Froom and now I’m producing Christine’s stuff.
“The next album will be a mix of things. We’ve done some strange things with one of Christine’s songs already. It’s going to sound like Fleetwood Mac but not overly retro. It’s not that we’re making any bold effort to sound like somebody else. Some of what we’ve done in the past has reference points that have come back, and what might have seemed retro is more relevant in today’s market.”
Edna Gundersen / USA Today / Thursday, March 27, 2014
The reunion of the classic lineup is ‘profound,’ says Lindsey Buckingham
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Looking back on her 1998 exit from Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie recalls how considerate and obliging her bandmates were, particularly Stevie Nicks.
A few years later, “Stevie offered me $5 million to come back,” McVie says. “She was begging me, ‘Don’t leave me in this wilderness.’ ”
As it turned out, McVie’s 15-year exile left her feeling a bit lost in the wilderness, leading to this year’s surprise reunion of the classic lineup that lit up the charts with Rhiannon, Say You Love Me, Go Your Own Way, Dreams, Think About Me, You Make Loving Fun, Don’t Stop, Tusk and Hold Me.
A tour is booked, new songs are being recorded, and “we all have great affection for each other,” McVie says.
Fleetwood Mac, L to R: Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie (Photo: Ebet Roberts / Getty Images)
Bad blood played no role in McVie’s departure. She was road weary after 28 years of “being one of the guys, raised in taverns and pubs with smoking, beer-drinking men.”
“It was purely that, nothing personal,” she says. “I was tired of living out of a suitcase. I wanted to be settled. I had decided to move from L.A. to England in 1990 but didn’t go there until after the earthquake in 1994. I basically wanted to be the country lady in the Range Rover baking cookies for the local charity. But I was missing something. I idealized a life that didn’t exist.”
She gardened at her 17th-century mansion in Kent and recorded 2004’s In the Meantime in a converted barn with her nephew.
“My solo records never felt the same,” she says. “It just wasn’t Fleetwood Mac and that tight chemistry.”
In early 2013, she bumped into drummer Mick Fleetwood and “scratched at the door,” he says.
Grounded for 15 years by her fear of flying, McVie agreed to fly with Fleetwood to Maui, where he lives, and perform in his blues band with John McVie. In September, she played Don’t Stop with Fleetwood Mac at two shows in London.
“It became more than ‘What if?’ and we were all thrilled about the possibility,” says Fleetwood.
Conference calls confirmed unanimous approval of her return, though concerns bubbled up.
“She burned a bridge by leaving, and we redefined what we were doing and carried on in a pretty effective way,” says Lindsey Buckingham. “My main concern was that she understand that she had to stay. You can’t do a one-off lark and head back to England and leave us hanging.
“Once there was clarity that she was in a good place and understood what coming back meant for the delegation of her time and energy, we all felt this was something poetic and profound.
“There’s such a back story around the five of us,” he says. “In many ways, the last 15 years have been the best of my life. In the early days of Fleetwood Mac, as successful and exciting as they were, we were not particularly stable, clear-headed or emotionally fulfilled.”
Fleetwood and McVie have rented a 1932 Mediterranean-style grand estate built on the slope of Santa Monica Canyon. Its glorious gardens, beamed ceilings, art deco tiles and antique gates reflect a fabled history of wealth, drama, notoriety and romance, an apt metaphor for the Mac story.
With its steep rise in the ’70s, the band lapsed into drug use and faced personal crises: Buckingham and Nicks split, the McVies divorced, Fleetwood’s marriage ended.
“Having taken this story line, there’s a lot to be grateful for now,” says Fleetwood, sipping coffee in a sun-filled parlor of the 9,000-square-foot mansion. “Our conversations are all about this being a celebration. That’s the mantra.”
Topping his wish list is “new music coming out of these hugely talented songwriters,” he says. “Me and John (Mac’s non-writers) can’t do much without other people. Our song is the band, and I want to keep writing that song.”
McVie, lean with shoulder-length blond hair, sits nearby (scandal interception: the living arrangements are platonic).
“Everybody was so warm and friendly and welcoming,” she says of the re-entry. “Lindsey said, ‘Be sure it’s what you really want.’ The fear of starting up again went away.”
McVie’s chief worry? Finding proper caretakers for her house and two 15-year-old dogs. Once tour prep starts in July, she won’t see them until 2015. She may Skype, “but then I’ll be even more broken up.”
The upcoming world tour, with multiple stops in some markets, won’t be as grueling as past outings that drove McVie to an early retirement.
“We’re being sensible about not overcooking the tour schedule,” Fleetwood says. “I’m not comfortable doing five gigs a week. You get burned out. It would be stupid.”
And the band’s healthier habits should ease road stress, too.
“I don’t drink like a fish anymore,” Fleetwood says. “At 7 every morning, Chris and I are out on the lawn working out.”
McVie says, “I need to be fit for this tour. I’ve never worked out in my life. This is the first time I’ve had a trainer or gone to the gym. I’m 70 and I need to be 45 again.”
Fleetwood feigns shock and blurts, “You’re 70, Chris? Oh, I’ve got to rethink this!”
Turning serious, he addresses Mac’s future. “We’re not drawing a 15-year blueprint,” he says. “We’re in real time. We’ve spoken about the next couple of years.”
He adds brightly, “We are playing better than ever. It’s just a fact. So there you go.”
Buckingham sees cause for optimism.
“We’re behaving ourselves a lot more,” he says. “We’re not doing the intense schedules we used to do. The lifestyle can be rigorous and even lonely. But Christine realized there may have been equivalent rigors to not being connected to a sense of purpose.
“I have yet to forget why I got into this in the first place,” Buckingham says. “You see people who do. Unlike some times in the past, I’m appreciative of being in Fleetwood Mac and the whole road we’ve been down together.”
Edna Gunderson / USA Today / Thursday, March 27, 2014
Fleetwood Mac launches North American tour Sept 30
It’s official! After a 16-year absence, Christine McVie will be re-joining Fleetwood Mac band mates Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks as they launch the On With The Show tour. The tour will kick off on Tuesday, Sept. 30 in Minneapolis, Minn. and the reunited band will perform 34 shows in 33 cities across North America.
American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Monday, March 31 at 10:00 a.m. through Sun, April 6 at 10:00 p.m. Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Monday, April 7.
Visit the official Fleetwood Mac website for all the tour details.
Official Tour Dates
Sep 30, 2014 Target Center Minneapolis, MN Oct 2, 2014 United Center Chicago, IL Oct 6, 2014 Madison Square Garden New York, NY Oct 10, 2014 TD Garden Boston, MA Oct 11, 2014 Prudential Center Newark, NJ Oct 14, 2014 Consol Energy Center Pittsburgh, PA Oct 15, 2014 Wells Fargo Center Philadelphia, PA Oct 18, 2014 Air Canada Centre Toronto, ON Oct 19, 2014 Nationwide Arena Columbus, OH Oct 21, 2014 Bankers Life Fieldhouse Indianapolis, IN Oct 22, 2014 The Palace of Auburn Hills Auburn Hills, MI Oct 26, 2014 Canadian Tire Centre Ottawa, ON Oct 31, 2014 Verizon Center Washington, DC Nov 1, 2014 XL Center Hartford, CT Nov 10, 2014 MTS Centre Winnipeg, MB Nov 12, 2014 Credit Union Centre Saskatoon, SK Nov 14, 2014 Scotiabank Saddledome Calgary, AB Nov 15, 2014 Rexall Place Edmonton, AB Nov 18, 2014 Rogers Arena Vancouver, BC Nov 20, 2014 Tacoma Dome Tacoma, WA Nov 22, 2014 Moda Center Portland, OR Nov 24, 2014 Sleep Train Arena Sacramento, CA Nov 25, 2014 SAP Center San Jose, CA Nov 28, 2014 The Forum Inglewood, CA Nov 29, 2014 The Forum Inglewood, CA Dec 2, 2014 Viejas Arena San Diego, CA Dec 3, 2014 Oracle Arena Oakland, CA Dec 10, 2014 US Airways Center Phoenix, AZ Dec 12, 2014 Pepsi Center Denver, CO Dec 14, 2014 American Airlines Center Dallas, TX Dec 15, 2014 Houston, TX Toyota Center Dec 17, 2014 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena Dec 19, 2014 Ft. Lauderdale, FL BB&T Center Dec 20, 2014 Tampa, FL Tampa Bay Times Forum
Christine McVie will be heading to the recording studio with Fleetwood Mac for the first time since 2003 (when she contributed vocals for Say You Will’s “Bleed to Love Her” and “Steal Your Heart Away”), according to Mick Fleetwood via the Maui News. McVie, who officially rejoined the band earlier this month, will start recording with the band in March.
In December, McVie told the Daily Mail that she had already sent new songs to Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham for tweaking. The band will presumably record a new album and support it with a tour later this year.
