In a recent interview with Mojo, Stevie Nicks has definitively ruled out any possibility of a Fleetwood Mac reunion. The iconic singer made it clear that the death of Christine McVie in 2022 marked the end of the legendary band. “Without Christine, no can do,” Nicks stated. “There is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way. Without her, it just couldn’t work.”
Christine McVie, the band’s beloved singer-keyboardist, passed away in 2022 following a stroke. Nicks recounted the suddenness of McVie’s death, saying, “It was all stunningly strange, because there wasn’t any lead up to it. We got a call, and I was going to rent a plane and go see her, but her family said, ‘Don’t come, because she may not be here tomorrow.’ And the next day, she passed away. I wanted to go there and sit on her bed and sing to her — which definitely would have made her pass away faster. But I needed to be with her. And I didn’t get to do that. So that was very hard for me. I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
McVie had previously stepped away from the band in 1998, but the remaining members—Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham—continued as a quartet. McVie rejoined the group in 2014, but tensions between Nicks and Buckingham led to Buckingham’s dismissal in 2018. The band then toured with Mike Campbell and Neil Finn filling in for Buckingham. Their last performance was a benefit concert for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals at San Francisco’s Oracle Park on November 19, 2019.
Mick Fleetwood had reconciled with Buckingham in 2021 and expressed hopes for his return to the band. However, Nicks told Mojo that this is not going to happen. “Even if I thought I could work with Lindsey again, he’s had some health problems,” Nicks said. “It’s not for me to say, but I’m not sure if Lindsey could do the kind of touring that Fleetwood Mac does, where you go out for a year and a half. It’s so demanding.” Buckingham had heart surgery in 2019, which temporarily sidelined him from touring, but he made a full recovery and returned to the road in 2021.
Over the past three years, Nicks has been performing solo gigs across North America, with her setlist heavily featuring Fleetwood Mac classics like “Gypsy,” “Dreams,” and “Rhiannon.” “When I walk on stage, I couldn’t be prouder of my band,” Nicks said. “I mean, I would rather not be freed up from Fleetwood Mac, because of Christine. But I’m in a place where I can concentrate on my solo work. I can do anything I want now, and not have to worry about stopping and going back to Fleetwood Mac… [But] Fleetwood Mac is all over my set. Now that there is no more Fleetwood Mac, that opens the door for me to do other songs, like ‘The Chain,’ that I’ve never done [solo]. I will keep the music of Fleetwood Mac alive, for as long as I can.”
Stevie Nicks, now 76, emphasized that Christine McVie’s death was the final chapter for Fleetwood Mac. “Without Christine, no can do,” she reiterated. “There is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way.” McVie died of a stroke at age 79, with metastatic cancer listed as a secondary cause.
Since its formation in 1967, Fleetwood Mac went through various lineups, with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie at its core, along with Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, and Stevie Nicks sharing lead vocals. Despite the McVies ending their eight-year marriage in 1976, Christine McVie stayed with the band for another 20 years and later continued an on-again, off-again relationship with the group.
Nicks continues to perform live and will be in Michigan on Tuesday, where fans can expect to hear Fleetwood Mac tunes like “Landslide,” often accompanied by a photo presentation that includes her late bandmate. According to Nicks, although she and other Fleetwood Mac bandmates have played without Christine McVie, she is now focused on moving forward as a solo artist who will draw from her entire song catalog. “I will keep the music of Fleetwood Mac alive, for as long as I can,” she told Mojo.
Nicks recently postponed a show in Pennsylvania due to an unspecified “illness in the band,” according to a Hershey Stadium announcement shared by the singer on social media. She told Mojo that even if Fleetwood Mac wanted to reunite, she’s not sure Buckingham would be up for the challenges of a tour after his heart surgery in 2019. Buckingham told SiriusXM in January he’d consider a reunion “in a heartbeat.”
The bandmates individually sold significant chunks of their publishing rights as a group and as solo acts between 2020 and 2024. Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
