(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Sun 9 November 2025 16:30, UK
It’s impossible to think of how long any iteration of Fleetwood Mac was going to stay together even at their height.
Every member knew that they had a good thing going when they started making records like Rumours, but you also couldn’t fault any of them if they had had enough of singing about their exes and walking out on the band and never returning. And while Mick Fleetwood was always the one in the centre steering the ship forward, he knew that some miracles could happen with a little bit of time away from each other.
Creativity needs time away every now and again, but it also gets more than a little bit rough during the band’s period in the early 1990s. Most people didn’t think that the classic lineup reuniting for the album The Dance would have been nearly as good as it was, but that didn’t stop everyone from feeling heartbroken when they realised that the reunion wasn’t permanent. There was a lot of bad blood still, but it’s not like Time could stand up next to the greatest albums of all time or anything.
So when Lindsey Buckingham was convinced to share some of his songs from his intended solo record for a Fleetwood Mac project, it felt like the dust had finally settled. Stevie Nicks was on board with her songs, but the idea of leaving Christine McVie behind wasn’t something anyone was going to take lightly.
For one, she had some of the group’s biggest hits under her belt, and while they could still pack an entire stadium singing tunes like ‘Rhiannon’ and ‘Go Your Own Way’, there was no way anyone could have replaced McVie’s smoky voice whenever she sang ‘Songbird’ or the overlapping harmonies on ‘Little Lies’. Even though that did lead to a less-jumbled version of Say You Will, it felt like Christine was finally content to retire.
She had gone through the rock and roll lifestyle before, and her fear of flying and being away from home wasn’t worth it anymore. No one would have faulted her for wanting to stay home and make the occasional song if she wanted to, but when she finally offered to come back during the final years of her life, Fleetwood was shellshocked to think that the entire band was back together.
This was the kind of reunion that most people thought wasn’t in the cards, and Fleetwood was convinced that he wouldn’t be able to get McVie to come back ever again, saying, “Not in a million years would we have ever thought, including Christine herself, that she would have ever been standing up there to my right, on stage, playing in this band again. The fact that we’re even talking about making inroads to making new music with the absolute lineup of all five of us, alive and well — with a few battle scars here and there — is outrageously unique.”
But as we all know, that new music never came to pass. There was the collaboration album between McVie and Buckingham that had everyone except Nicks playing on it, but when McVie passed away, it truly felt like a chapter had closed for the group. Buckingham had been out for a long time, so maybe it was time for everyone to throw in the towel and move on to other projects.
If Nicks and Buckingham managed to settle their differences, though, who’s to say that they couldn’t rediscover the thrill of playing live again. It would never be the same without McVie singing all of her famous tunes, but the fans would understand that it wasn’t about trying to erase her from their history. It’s to celebrate all the great music that they were able to make with her while she was still here.
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