Christine McVie ‘Chucked a Glass of Wine’ at Lindsey Buckingham After He Humiliated Stevie Nicks
Christine McVie once defended Stevie Nicks by throwing a glass of wine at their Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Lindsey Buckingham. Here’s why McVie got so enraged with Buckingham and what caused the animosity between the three band members.
Stevie Nicks and Christina McVie claimed that Lindsey Buckingham threw a guitar at Nicks while performing with Fleetwood Mac
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks have had a long and complicated relationship. They have been friends, lovers, musical collaborators, enemies, and rivals.
And at times, according to Nicks, their relationship was physically abusive. The “Dreams” singer has spoken about several occasions when Buckingham has been violently angry.
In a Jan. 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Nicks opened up about how Buckingham would mock her on stage in front of audiences and the rest of the band. And, during a New Zealand show of the band’s 1980 “Tusk” tour, Nicks claimed that Buckingham threw a Les Paul guitar at her head.
Her Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie also remembers the incident that way, but Buckingham said, “I’m not sure that happened.”
Christine McVie ‘slapped’ Lindsey Buckingham to defend Stevie Nicks
When Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham fought in front of the rest of Fleetwood Mac, the bandmates would get involved, usually defending Nicks.
On the night that Buckingham allegedly threw a guitar at Nicks, Christine McVie was so enraged that she slapped him.
The “Songbird” singer confronted the guitarist after the show. “I think he’s the only person I ever, ever slapped,” McVie admitted (via Washington Post). “I actually might have chucked a glass of wine, too.”
McVie was not only angry about the way Buckingham treated Nicks but also because he disrespected their audience. “I just didn’t think it was the way to treat a paying audience,” she said. “I mean, aside from making a mockery of Stevie like that. Really unprofessional, over the top.”
She added that Nicks was deeply upset by the incident. “Yes, she cried. She cried a lot.”
The guitarist sued Fleetwood Mac for firing him
After years of violent outbursts and discord within the group, Fleetwood Mac finally fired Lindsey Buckingham following the band’s performance at MusiCares 2018.
The band accepted the MusiCares Person of the Year award as “Rhiannon,” a song written by Stevie Nicks, played. Buckingham allegedly complained about the song choice, and then Nicks believed that he mocked her speech as she accepted the award on behalf of the group.
Days after the event, Fleetwood Mac fired Buckingham, replacing him with Neil Finn and Mike Campbell for a year-long tour. Buckingham responded by filing a lawsuit in October 2018, claiming that he was fired from the group without just cause and missed out on earnings of up to $14 million. The group ultimately settled on an undisclosed amount.
Buckingham has claimed in several interviews that his former girlfriend Nicks was responsible for his dismissal from the group. “It would be like a scenario where Mick Jagger says, ‘Either Keith [Richards] goes or I go,’” he told the L.A. Times in 2019. “But I guess the singer has to stay. The figurehead has to stay.”
But Nicks said she didn’t ask the band to fire Buckingham, calling the guitarist’s version of events “revisionist history.” “To be exceedingly clear, I did not have him fired, I did not ask for him to be fired, I did not demand he be fired,” she wrote in a September 2021 statement to Rolling Stone.
“Frankly, I fired myself,” Nicks claimed. “I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my well-being. I was done. If the band went on without me, so be it.”
How to get help: In the U.S., call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.
