Credit: Far Out / Warner Bros Records
October 25th, 2026 · 7:07pm GMT
Fleetwood Mac have always had somewhat of an open-door policy when it comes to welcoming musicians into their extended family, but only a special few receive an invitation.
While, on paper, it shouldn’t take a moment of consideration from any artist before accepting a chance to join the Mac. However, it is like strapping oneself to a rocket ship. There’s both a responsibility to hold up the group’s legacy and somehow be able to add their own personal spin to it. That kind of pressure can normally make or break anyone, and very few have what it takes.
Fleetwood Mac are a unique proposition, too. The fact that any of them managed to stay together throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s after the various infighting is at least somewhat commendable. If anything, it should be celebrated that they lasted a decade before imploding when Lindsey Buckingham left, which is quite frankly a miracle considering all of the lyrical venom in ‘Go Your Own Way‘.
Even though they limped along for records like Behind the Mask and Time, it’s not like the band were unwelcome to a reunion by the time they made The Dance. Everything seemed to be put in place for a true reunion of the classic lineup, but when they decided to make Say You Will in 2003, one key part was left conspicuously absent.
Despite being one of the group’s biggest creative forces, Christine McVie didn’t participate in any of the tours and didn’t appear on the album due to her fear of flying. While the thought of seeing Fleetwood Mac and not hearing ‘Songbird’ or ‘You Make Loving Fun’ is borderline unthinkable, this was the reality for several years.
Credit: Dove Shore
Replacing McVie was never going to be a straightforward process; they couldn’t just ask their label to find the most talented session musician on their roster to fill in. Being able to play the piano and sing to a top level wasn’t enough; they needed to have the heart of McVie, too.
However, Nicks had the perfect person in mind to replace her: Sheryl Crow. Looking at her track record, the nine-time Grammy winner was a wise pick, too.
Crow’s sense of Americana on ‘All I Wanna Do’ fits right in with The Mac’s traditional sound and would have taken over for McVie perfectly. Not everyone was happy with the suggestion, though, with Buckingham thinking that someone as established as Crow shouldn’t have been singing McVie’s material.
But, ultimately, Crow was the one to call things off, with Nicks telling Rolling Stone, “It was absolutely discussed, and she was absolutely invited to join. I missed Christine so much, and I wanted another woman in the band. I explained to Sheryl what it was like to be in the group – that it’s all-encompassing. So Sheryl called me and said, ‘I’ll have to pass.’ As Stevie Nicks, I was disappointed. As her friend, I told her she made the right decision. Sheryl Crow passed on Fleetwood Mac – I want that out there.”
In 2017, Crow acknowledged that she perhaps made the wrong call, telling Howard Stern, “I wish I would’ve. I wish I could have.”
Explaining why she rejected the opportunity of a lifetime, Crow explained, “Well, I felt like if there was gonna be bad blood when I joined, that perhaps maybe I shouldn’t. I didn’t want to upset something that was already so beautiful. I would still love to do it. I’m putting it out there.”
While it’s unthinkable to think of someone leaving that much money and stadium shows on the table, Crow’s pass on the group actually says a lot about her as an artist. She wanted to be the musician who made a legacy of her own, and no matter how friendly she was with Nicks, she wasn’t comfortable, at that stage of her career, being looked at as the replacement member of another group.
However, if they ever do decide to take to the stage again, which seems an unlikely proposition following McVie’s death in 2022, they know precisely who to call.
