Stevie Nicks Shares Heartbreaking Details on Christine McVie’s Final Hours

Stevie Nicks opened up about the final hours of her late friend and Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie.

Speaking with Mojo, Nicks reflected on the sudden nature of McVie's passing in November 2022. When she was informed of McVie's illness, Nicks said she was ready to rent a plane and fly to see her friend. However, McVie's family told her not to do that "because she may not be here tomorrow." The day after that fateful phone call, McVie passed away.

Nicks expressed how she wanted to sit at McVie's bedside and sing to her, which she said, with a laugh, "would have made her pass away faster." Nicks painfully noted, "But I needed to be with her, and I didn't get to do that ... I didn't get to say goodbye."

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer also told Mojo that without McVie, Fleetwood Mac "just couldn't work." It's a sentiment she shared in an October 2023 interview with Vulture. She said, "When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to."

Nicks's feelings about the future of Fleetwood Mac were echoed by Mick Fleetwood in February 2023. He was asked on the Grammy Awards red carpet whether the band would continue to perform. Fleetwood said, "I think right now, I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with the loss of Chris."

He added, "I'd say we're done, but then we've all said that before. It's sort of unthinkable right now."

Stevie Nicks thanked Taylor Swift during a May 2023 performance in Atlanta for writing a song that helped her grieve Christine McVie.

In the fan-shot footage below, Nicks said to the crowd, "Thank you to Taylor Swift for doing this thing for me, and that is writing a song called 'You're On Your Own, Kid.'"

"You're On Your Own, Kid" is featured on Swift's 2022 album Midnights. The track peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at number eight.

"That is the sadness of how I feel," Nicks continued. "As long as Chris was, even on the other side of the world, we didn't have to talk on the phone. We really weren't phone buddies. Then we would go back to Fleetwood Mac, and we would walk in, and it would be like 'Little sister, how are you?' It was like never a minute had passed, never an argument in our entire 47 years. Never."

Nicks closed saying, "So, when it was the two of us, the two of us were on our own, kids. We always were, and now, I'm having to learn to be on my own, kid, by myself. So, you help me to do that. Thank you."

McVie's death certificate cited multiple reasons for her cause of death. The main cause of death was from a massive stroke along with Atrial Fibrillation, a type of heart arrhythmia. Additionally, cancer was listed as a secondary cause of death. McVie's death certificate lists her cancer as "Metastatic Malignancy of Unknown Primary Origin." In layman's terms, this means whatever cancer McVie had spread throughout her body. Whoever performed McVie's autopsy couldn't determine the original location of her cancer.

Stevie Nicks is the first woman (and thankfully, not the last) woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. As her solo debut, Bella Donna, turns 40 we looked back on her entire career to rank her 50 best songs (40 would have made sense, but it was too hard to cut it off there). We included solo and Fleetwood Mac songs, as well as her pre-Mac band Buckingham/Nicks and a few of her other collaborations.

Of course, we're ready to update this list when she releases new music! But for now, here's our favorite 50.