Christine McVie Said Stevie Nicks Was ‘Very Direct’ and ‘Very Self-Obsessed’

Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and quickly befriended the band’s only other woman, Christine McVie. The two musicians were close for years, though they both acknowledged that they had very different personalities. In an interview about her relationship with Nicks, McVie shared what her longtime friend was like as a person. She called Nicks self-obsessed but said that it was a good thing. 

The longtime bandmates met in the 1970s

Before Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac, they met the existing band members for dinner. Mick Fleetwood told McVie that he’d only invite them to join the band if she got along with Nicks. 

“It was critical that I got on with her because I’d never played with another girl,” McVie told The Guardian. “But I liked her instantly. She was funny and nice but also there was no competition. We were completely different on the stage to each other and we wrote differently too.”

After McVie’s marriage ended and Nicks and Buckingham broke up, the two women relied on one another to navigate the stormy band dynamics. 

“We were cool onstage,” Nicks explained. “But offstage everybody was pretty angry. Most nights Chris and I would just go for dinner on our own, downstairs in the hotel, with security at the door.”

Christine McVie shared what Stevie Nicks was like

Years later, Nicks and McVie were still in Fleetwood Mac, but their lives looked very different than they did in 1975. Nicks stopped using cocaine after going to rehab. McVie shared how this affected her friend.

“Bloody well, that’s a hard one,” McVie told Rolling Stone in 2014. “Look, I mean, Stevie is straight as an arrow. She’s very direct, very honest, very self-obsessed in a way. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. She has her brand, you know?”

Though she acknowledged that they were different, McVie said it was impossible for her not to love Nicks. 

“She’s an icon. She’s a genius,” she said, adding, “She’s a lovely, kind, beautiful woman and I love her to death. She and I are different, and I can’t not love the woman; she’s just amazing. She’s very, very generous in every, single department. In every single department.”

Christine McVie said she and Stevie Nicks were very different

McVie explained the ways that her personality differed from Nicks’. 

“I’m a tomboy, hanging out with the guys,” she said. “I love men. I love hanging around with men. And Stevie is kind of a girly-girl. She loves hanging out with her girlfriends.”

Their differences didn’t have any impact on the bond between them, though.

“We met and I instantly liked her,” McVie said. “She and I are not competitive in any way at all. We’re totally different, but totally sympathetic with each other. We are dear, dear friends. We don’t have any competition on stage. She is who she is. I am who I am. Easy, easy, easy.”