Christine McVie Opens Up About 15-Year Hiatus From Fleetwood Mac: ‘I Was By No Means a Nun’
In the 90s, Christine McVie took a break from Fleetwood Mac, during which time she said she was “by no means a nun.” Here’s what McVie said about her hiatus from the classic rock musicians collaborated in their new dynamic and why Buckingham told McVie to “just write about sex.”
Christine McVie said she was ‘by no means a nun’ during her 15-year hiatus from Fleetwood Mac
In 1998, Christine McVie left Fleetwood Mac shortly after the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The keyboardist has shared in many interviews that her flying phobia and panic attacks were the main reasons why she decided to leave the group.
But after about 15 years (and some help from Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood and a therapist), the “Everywhere” singer was able to overcome her fears and rejoin the band.
After recommitting to the band, McVie worked extensively with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham on new music. The keyboardist told Elle that when she got stuck on a lyric, Buckingham advised her to “just write about sex.”
When asked if her time in the country inspired any of those sexual songs, McVie joked, “You mean the nunnery?” before adding, “I was by no means a nun.”
She was then asked if there was a lot of action in the countryside. “Well, not much action,” McVie shared. “But some.”
Stevie Nicks once called herself and Christine McVie ‘rock and roll nuns’
Christine McVie wasn’t the first person to compare herself to a nun. Her Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Stevie Nicks, once called the only two female members of the group “rock and roll nuns.”
McVie and Nicks were describing being on the road together. “We shared rooms, did each other’s makeup and lived on Dunkin’ Donuts,” McVie told The Guardian.
“We really were quite tame people back then,” Nicks insisted. “The band had two couples in it, plus Mick was married with two little girls – so we had to behave. We’d play a gig, get on an airplane right after the show and leave to the next place. And we were watched like hawks. We had security outside each of our rooms so Chris and I were almost like traveling rock’n’roll nuns.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘nuns,’” McVie laughed. “But it was like the army. It was regimented. The rock’n’roll lifestyle did have its perks but it wasn’t all limos and parties in the early days.”
The keyboardist shared the most ‘outrageous’ thing she did while partying with Fleetwood Mac
Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks may have compared themselves to nuns, but they have both confessed to doing plenty of partying with Fleetwood Mac. The keyboardist even admitted the most “outrageous” thing she ever did with the group.
“We all drank a lot and did a lot of cocaine, we partied a lot, I don’t think I did anything terribly outrageous,” McVie told Harper’s Bazaar. “Except I once threw a cake out the window which landed on top of [a] taxi.”
Besides calling her a nun, Nicks had another name for McVie, who is often touted as the most grounded and level-headed member of the band. “I was kind of the good girl in the group. That’s who I was,” the “Songbird” singer said. “Stevie used to call me Mother Earth because I was always pretty grounded.”
