Mick Fleetwood Pays Tribute to ‘Dear Sweet Friend’ Christine McVie After Her Death
Christine McVie died on Nov. 30, and her Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Mick Fleetwood, shared a touching tribute to the keyboardist. Here’s how Fleetwood reacted to the news of McVie’s death and what he said about his “dear sweet friend.”
Fleetwood Mac star Christine McVie died at age 79
Christine McVie, best known as the keyboardist, songwriter, and singer for Fleetwood Mac, died on Nov. 30 after a brief illness. She was 79 years old.
The musician’s family announced her death on her social media, sharing that she “passed away peacefully” at a hospital with her loved ones.
“On behalf of Christine McVie’s family, it is with a heavy heart we are informing you of Christine’s death,” the Instagram statement read. “She passed away peacefully at hospital this morning, Wednesday, November 30th, 2022, following a short illness. She was in the company of her family. We kindly ask that you respect the family’s privacy at this extremely painful time, and we would like everyone to keep Christine in their hearts and remember the life of an incredible human being, and revered musician who was loved universally. RIP Christine McVie.”
Mick Fleetwood reacted to the death of Christine McVie
The day that news of Christine McVie’s death broke, Fleetwood Mac’s founder and drummer, Mick Fleetwood, shared a sweet tribute on Instagram.
“This is a day where my dear sweet Friend Christine McVie has taken to flight.. And left us earthbound folks to listen with bated breath to the sounds of that ‘song bird’…[treble clef emoji].. reminding one and all that love is all around us to reach for and touch in this precious life that is gifted to us,” Fleetwood wrote.
“Part of my heart has flown away today.. I will miss everything about you Christine McVie,” he continued. “Memories abound.. They fly to me.” Fleetwood concluded with two red heart emojis and a rainbow emoji.
Mick Fleetwood helped the ‘Songbird’ singer overcome her fear of flying
Christine McVie took a hiatus from Fleetwood Mac in 1998, shortly after the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The keyboardist often spoke about why she left the group, citing panic attacks and her fear of flying phobia as the main reasons. “I did have a phobia about flying. And I had the phobia when I left Fleetwood Mac,” she told CBS News (via Express). “It was a multiple of different reasons that led me to leave – my father had died in England, and I wanted to be close to my own family there. So I bought a house.”
After years of avoiding planes, she worked with a therapist to overcome her fear of flying. The therapist asked McVie where she would go if she could fly anywhere in the world. Her instinct was to go see her former bandmate, Mick Fleetwood.
“I said Maui because that’s where Mick [Fleetwood] was living at the time,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in March 2019. “So, the therapist said, ‘Why don’t you just buy a ticket. You don’t have to get on the plane, just buy the ticket.’”
McVie revealed, “Then as irony would have it, Mick called me just after and said, ‘Look, I’m coming to London, are you around?’ I told him that I’d just bought a ticket to see him and he said, ‘Well I’ll meet you in London then and we’ll fly back together.’ So that’s what I did.”
