It seems like Fleetwood Mac is “done” performing together following the loss of their longtime member, vocalist, and keyboardist, Christine McVie, who died in November last year.
Mick Fleetwood, the drummer and co-founder of the band, talked with the LA Times on the red carpet prior to the start of the Grammys ceremony on Sunday.
“I think right now, I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with the loss of Chris,” he said. “I’d say we’re done, but then we’ve all said that before. It’s sort of unthinkable right now.”
The band, at one time, was comprised of Mick on the drums, John McVie on the bass, Stevie Nicks as a vocalist and various instrumentalist, Lindsey Buckingham as guitarist and vocalist, and Christine McVie, who joined in 1970 after marrying John McVie, singing and playing the keyboard.
The band is no stranger to break ups, having taken a number of hiatuses throughout its nearly 60 year old career. McVie had even left the band in 1998 before returning in 2014.
Christine McVie died in November following a “short illness”. She had expressed having “quite bad health” earlier last year, dealing with back pain and other things. The band, as well as Fleetwood and Nicks, took to social media at the time to share a message about their late bandmate.
“This is a day where my dear sweet Friend Christine McVie has taken to flight,” Mick wrote on Twitter, “and left us earthbound folks to listen with bated breath to the sounds of that ‘song bird’ … reminding one and all that love is all around us to reach for and touch in this precious life that is gifted to us. Part of my heart has flown away today. I will miss everything about you Christine McVie. Memories abound.. they fly to me.”
Stevie posted a handwritten letter on Instagram honoring McVie. She writes about the shock she felt hearing the news, only having been aware of McVie’s sickness a few days earlier.
The note goes on to quote the song “Hallelujah” written by the group, HAIM.
McVie’s final performance with Fleetwood Mac was a tribute concert in 2020 at the London Palladium following the passing of co-founder and original guitarist of the band, Peter Green, according to BBC.
Recently, though, Fleetwood says that the surviving members of the band have been keeping busy touring and performing on their own, anyways. So, the band being done doesn’t necessarily mean the people who made up the group are finished, too.
“They all get out and play,” he said, “so I’m gonna be doing the same thing, finding people to play with.”
Mick also spoke with CBS Mornings about how this year’s Grammys were the most “memorable” for him following the death of McVie, who he said, “never thought of herself as a diva”, rather, “she was a musician”.
“All of us in Fleetwood Mac have been reminded what we did,” he continued. “Sometimes you forget…the enormity of 50 years of making music and being lucky to do that and blessed to do that, and when you get something like this happens, you’re really grateful for what you’ve been part of.”
Mick was accompanied by Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crow during the Grammys in honoring and performing “Songbird”, a Fleetwood Mac song that McVie wrote.
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