In the male-dominated music industry of the 1970s, female musicians were often tokenized, belittled, or pitted against one another as competition—unfortunate phenomena that Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie fought against with the heartwarming pact they shared while working together in Fleetwood Mac.
From their very first meeting to their decades-long friendship, Nicks and McVie challenged social norms, making collaborative, respected women in music the norm, not the exception. Moreover, their enduring friendship was a touching antithesis to the relationship drama that permeated the band’s history.
Videos by American Songwriter
Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie Made This Pact Early On
Although Christine McVie was not a founding member of Fleetwood Mac, she joined on keys years before Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham entered the picture. Nicks’ arrival to the band in 1974 had the potential to alienate McVie, the band’s sole female member at the time. Luckily, neither Nicks nor McVie were interested in perpetuating the stereotype of feuding females vying for the attention of their male counterparts.
“Christine and I, we made a pact at the very beginning that if we were ever in a room of super famous guitar players that didn’t treat us with the respect that we thought that we deserved, that we would just stand up and say, ‘This party’s over,’ and we would walk out,” Nicks said in a 2020 CBS News interview. “We never actually did have to do that. So, that was a nice surprise.”
Nicks and McVie might’ve easily commanded the respect of their peers, but their interactions with journalists were not as easy. In an awkwardly tense 1977 interview, a journalist asked the incredulous women whether the band had lost credibility after Nicks’ arrival. “Uh, well, I’d already been in the band for a good while as a lady and as a musician,” McVie said as Nicks laughed beside her. “I think it comes down to the fact that Fleetwood Mac would not go on without Chris and Me,” Nicks curtly added.
The Future of Fleetwood Mac Depended on Their Friendship
When Mick Fleetwood first offered Lindsey Buckingham a spot in Fleetwood Mac’s lineup, Buckingham counter-offered by saying he would only join if his romantic and musical partner, Stevie Nicks, could join, too. “Mick 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 recalled to Rolling Stone. “We met, and I instantly liked her. She and I are not competitive in any way at all.”
McVie described Nicks as “full of fun” in a BBC interview, saying if she were going to be in a band with any other woman, then she would have wanted it to be Nicks. “We are dear, dear friends,” McVie told Rolling Stone. “We’re totally different but totally sympathetic with each other. We don’t have any competition on stage. She is who she is. I am who I am. Easy, easy, easy.”
After McVie’s death in 2022, Stevie Nicks said she saw “no reason” to continue the band. “She was like my soulmate, my musical soulmate, and best friend,” Nicks said. “We were on our own in that band; we always were. We protected each other. Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”
Photo by Matt Baron/Shutterstock