How did Christine McVie die? Fleetwood Mac singer cause of death Explained

Christine McVie. a legendary Fleetwood Mac member whose contributions to their songbook will never be forgotten has passed away. Let’s learn more about her passing and Christine McVie cause of death in detail

What happened to Christine McVie?

According to her family, Christine McVie, a member of Fleetwood Mac and the author of several of their most well-known songs, passed away at the age of 79.

Little Lies, Everywhere, Don’t Stop, Say You Love Me, and Songbird is all successes that were written by the British singer-songwriter.

In the presence of her family, she passed away quietly in a hospital, according to a statement. After 28 years, McVie departed Fleetwood Mac in 1998, but he later came back.

In their statement, the family asked that everyone remember Christine as “an amazing human being, and acclaimed musician who was adored internationally.”

Scroll down to see Christine’s cause of death.

The Mc Vie family statement reads,

“On behalf of Christine McVie’s family, it is with a heavy heart we are informing you of Christine’s death. She passed away peacefully at the 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.”

Christine McVie cause of death

As per her family’s statement, it was confirmed that she passed away peacefully at the hospital after battling a short illness.  Also, McVie revealed to Rolling Stone in June that she had scoliosis and was working to “fix my back and get myself back into reasonable shape.”

Upon learning of Mcvie’s untimely passing, Fleetwood Mac also published a somber tribute to her. The statement reads,

Take a look at Christine McVie’s Complete Life journey

Who was Christine McVie?

The vocalist and keyboardist of Fleetwood Mac, Christine Anne McVie (née Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician. She joined the band in 1970.

Three solo albums were also released by her. Her lyrics were primarily about relationships and love. She was an “Unabashedly easy-on-the-ears singer/songwriter and the primary force behind some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest successes,” according to AllMusic. Eight songs, including “Don’t Stop,” “Everywhere,” and “Little Lies,” that she wrote or co-wrote were included on Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 Greatest Hits CD.

As a member of Fleetwood Mac, McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and honored with the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

She chose to leave the band that year after nearly 30 years of service and lived in semi-retirement for about 15 years. In 2004, she issued a solo album. She first performed live with Fleetwood Mac in September 2013 at London’s O2 Arena before reuniting with them in 2014 ahead of their On with the Show tour.

McVie was given a Gold Badge of Merit Award by Basca, now known as The Ivors Academy, in 2006. She was honored with the Trailblazer Award at the UK Americana Awards in 2021 after receiving the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors in 2014. She also received two Grammy Awards.

Early Life 

McVie was raised in the Bearwood neighborhood of Smethwick, close to Birmingham, and was born in the Lake District village of Bouth, Lancashire (now in Cumbria).

Her father, Cyril Percy Absell Perfect, taught violin at St Philip’s Grammar School in Birmingham and was a concert violinist and music instructor at St Peter’s College of Education in Saltley, Birmingham. Beatrice Edith Maud (Reece) Perfect, McVie’s mother, was a faith healer, medium, and psychic. Westminster Abbey’s organist was McVie’s grandpa.

Although McVie was taught how to play the piano when she was four years old, she did not begin studying music seriously until she was eleven years old. Philip Fisher, a local musician and John McVie’s older brother’s school friend, reintroduced music to McVie.

When her brother John brought home a Fats Domino songbook, McVie, who had continued her classical studies up until the age of 15, decided to turn her musical attention to rock and roll. The Everly Brothers were among other early inspirations.

McVie’s Early Career

McVie spent five years studying sculpture at Birmingham’s Moseley School of Art to teach art. She made several new friends in Britain’s blues community around that period.

She first entered the music industry after becoming acquaintances with Stan Webb and Andy Silvester, members of the band Sounds Of Blue. They invited McVie to join because they recognized her musical talent.

She frequently performed alongside Spencer Davis. By the time McVie finished art school, Sounds of Blue had broken up. Unable to afford to break into the art world, she relocated to London and took a short-term job as a department shop window dresser.

Andy Silvester and Stan Webb, two of McVie’s former bandmates, announced in 1967 that they were starting a blues band called Chicken Shack and were looking for a pianist. She asked them in a letter to join. She was welcomed and given the chance to play the piano and keyboards and to sing background vocals.

The first single from Chicken Shack, “It’s Okay With Me Baby,” was written by McVie and featured him. She remained with Chicken Shack for two albums, during which time both her genuine “bluesy” voice and Sonny Thompson-style piano playing demonstrated her true blues sensibility.

“I’d Rather Go Blind” by Chicken Shack, which featured McVie on lead vocals, became a smash. In both 1969 and 1970, McVie won a Melody Maker prize for a female vocalist.  After getting married to Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie a year earlier, McVie quit Chicken Shack in 1969.

1970s and 1980s, Prominent Rock band

In the 1970s and 1980s, Fleetwood Mac was one of the most well-known rock bands in the world. With more than 40 million copies sold worldwide, their 1977 album Rumours, which was influenced by the splits of the McVies and the band’s other couple, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, became one of the best-selling albums of all time.

One of the eight band members inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 was McVie. She retired to Kent the next year, announcing her departure from the band due to a fear of traveling, following the success of their live album The Dance.

She later joined the band again after rediscovering her love of playing after a one-time gig at London’s O2 in 2013. “It was incredible as if I had never left. The same familiar people were on stage when I climbed back up there “At the time, she spoke with the Guardian newspaper.

She revealed that since leaving the band, she had developed agoraphobia in 2017 on the Desert Island Discs program on BBC Radio 4. We were very fortunate to have a life with her, the band wrote in a statement about McVie.

We sincerely loved Christine both individually and collectively, and we are grateful for the wonderful memories we have. She’ll be sadly missed.

Stevie Nicks posted on Instagram that she had received the news that her best friend, who she had known since the first day of 1975, had died. “Until late Saturday night, I had no idea that she was sick. I desired to be in London and to travel there, but we were unable to do so.

“So, ever since Saturday, I have been hearing the same music in my brain repeatedly. I’m currently singing it to her because I imagined that I might get the chance to do so. I’ve always known that I’d need these words someday. Now, that’s all I can manage.

An Endless Musical Career (affinity for classic pop music)

Fleetwood Mac band

One of the greatest bands ever had a complex cast of personalities, and Christine McVie was a crucial part of that cast. She had a very soulful voice. She had the potential to be both a keyboard prodigy and a heartbreakingly delicate person. Her greatest talent, though, was for creating stunning, classic pop melodies.

She had one of the strongest melodic gifts for a strong chorus. She identified as “the hook queen.” She admitted in a BBC program that she didn’t know how to write in any other way. “That’s exactly how it happens.”

Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, and Mick Fleetwood onstage during MusiCares Person of the Year at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Friday

Her songs are straightforward in both structure and sentiment; they are usually sincere and overtly direct. Few people could have penned and performed words as obnoxiously sentimental as “I love you, I love you, I love you like never before,” as she did on the classic Songbird while sounding like they truly meant it.

The same is true with Everywhere’s rendition of “I want to be with you everywhere.” Or from You Make Loving Fun’s “Sweet Wonderful You/You Make Me Happy With The Things You Do.” But she never wrote songs that were overly simple or clichéd. The challenge of crafting a love song, she explained. “Simply saying, “I love you, you love me, where are you, I miss you,” won’t cut it. There must always be a small twist.”

Top 10 Christine McVie Fleetwood Mac Songs

The fact that Buckingham and Nicks were only a small portion of the singer-songwriter powerhouse that gave Fleetwood Mac its energy is demonstrated by our list of the Top 10 Christine McVie Fleetwood Mac Songs.

From “Mirage,” “Love in Store” (1982)

Following the overly ambitious Tusk, the first track of 1982’s Mirage sets the tone for the somewhat scaled-back album by coasting over a warm and comforting McVie tune.

Although “Love in Store” features heavenly harmonies from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, it is primarily McVie’s song, right down to her warm, well-worn vocal.

“Songbird” “Rumors” (1977)

McVie’s Rumours solo display consists primarily of piano and vocals with few supporting elements. She performs privately because “Songbird” is one of her most intimate and beautiful works.

The song on the multiplatinum album is sandwiched between “Go Your Own Way” and “The Chain,” acting as a calm before and after the storm.

“Think About Me” From: ‘Tusk’ (1979)

Tusk, Fleetwood Mac’s double-record follow-up to the career-defining ‘Rumours,’ is generally viewed as a Lindsey Buckingham project – from the album’s general epic sprawl to its intricate production. Backed by Buckingham, “Think About Me” is a tight, compact, and surprisingly tough rocker by McVie, who usually countered her bandmate’s biting sour notes with a soft sweetness.

From the film “Tango in the Night,” “Little Lies” (1987)

Like “Everywhere,” “Little Lies” exhibits the ultra-polished production style that was popular in the middle of the 1980s. However, McVie’s gently rocking tune, which she co-wrote with her then-husband Eddy Quintela, has a strong hook. 

“Little Lies,” which was made available as a single, peaked at No. 4, making it Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hit since “Don’t Stop” and their last Top 10.

Over My Head the song “Fleetwood Mac” (1975)

This Top 20 single from Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 relaunch, which was the group’s first Top 40 hit, essentially marked the beginning of their superstar era. 

The seasoned British blues band received the pop-savvy it needed from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, but McVie’s “Over My Head” served as the band’s catalyst and established her place in the storied singer-songwriter trio as the one who produced the group’s best soft rock songs.

From “Mirage,” “Hold Me” (1982)

Lindsey Buckingham gives Christine McVie Fleetwood Mac plenty of support on “Hold Me,” the first single from the group’s debut album of the 1980s, as he does on a few more songs on our list of the Top 10 Christine McVie Fleetwood Mac Songs.

Robbie Patton, a British singer-songwriter, and McVie co-wrote the song, and McVie is the one who steers it through the song’s subtle turns. The song reached No. 4 and went on to become one of the group’s biggest hits.

“Say You Love Me” by “Fleetwood Mac” (1975)

Fleetwood Mac’s “Over My Head” may have introduced them to Mach 5 (or whatever number they were at this point), but “Say You Love Me” solidified their position as mainstream stars.

Fleetwood Mac’s biggest song until Stevie Nicks’ “Rhiannon,” the group’s second single, peaked at No. 11, but McVie’s track—also a No. 11 hit—helped propel the No. 1 album to multi-platinum success.

“You Make Loving Fun” From: ‘Rumours’ (1977)

By the time “You Make Loving Fun” was released as Rumours’ third single, the album was well on its way to becoming one of the bestselling LPs ever. The song celebrates McVie’s affair with a member of Fleetwood Mac’s tour crew, which probably thrilled her bass-playing bandmate ex. But Rumours was built on that type of friction.

“Everywhere” From: ‘Tango in the Night (1987)

Her band’s most renowned and successful lineup is represented on Lindsey Buckingham’s final album, which features some of its most polished pop tunes despite its distinctly 1980s sound.

Their final Top 20 hit was McVie’s “Everywhere,” which was released as the album’s fourth single and peaked at No. 14. The band, which at the time was irreparably fractured, created a typically shimmering piece of music with this one.

“Don’t Stop” From: ‘Rumours’ (1977)

Only “Dreams,” the band’s lone No. 1, was bigger than McVie’s biggest hit with Fleetwood Mac, which is a group song. The lead vocals are primarily shared by Lindsey Buckingham during performances, at least.

However, it was written by McVie, and it bears her signature throughout, from the catchy piano-driven melody to the expertly timed (and extremely tuneful) interaction of the verse and choruses.

Recalling Christine’s last performance

Before her passing, McVie had not played live in almost three years. Her final public performance occurred on February 25, 2020, at the London Palladium, at a star-studded homage to Peter Green, the founding member of Fleetwood Mac and guitarist who passed away the following June.

Other notable rock stars that performed at the event, which was hosted by Mick Fleetwood, included Billy Gibbons, Steven Tyler, Noel Gallagher, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, and Kirk Hammett.

Off of Fleetwood Mac’s 1968 self-titled first album, McVie and Tyler both sang the Green-penned Fleetwood Mac classic “Stop Messin’ Around” as well as another Green song, “Looking for Somebody.”

About three months after McVie finished her final Fleetwood Mac tour, a tribute to Green was held. The 2018-19 tour has replaced legendary Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, whom the band fired in 2018, with Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Before being fired, Buckingham and McVie collaborated on the 2017 album Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie, which they supported with a tour.

While the band’s final tour was successful, McVie expressed doubt about the future of the group in the years that followed. She praised Finn and Campbell, telling Rolling Stone in June 2022, “Those guys were wonderful.”

We have a lot of fun with them, but since we kind of broke up, I hardly ever see them anymore. She continued by saying that she and Stevie Nicks didn’t speak much: “We did a lot during our previous tour. We always had the same seat on the plane, and we got along great. But I haven’t spoken to her at all since the band split up.”

McVie made it clear that she “[did not] feel physically up for” the last tour with the original Rumours lineup of Nicks, Buckingham, Fleetwood, herself, and John McVie from Fleetwood Mac. I’m not doing very well, she lamented. “I’m crippled with a persistent back condition. I don’t know if I could physically do it because I stand up to play the piano. Which statement is that? The flesh is weak, but the mind is willing.”

Although McVie stated that she wanted Buckingham to rejoin the group, she also acknowledged that she was “getting a little long in the tooth here,” and he was “very content to remain at home.” I’m not sure if I want to go on tour again. Bloody difficult work.” She did not, however, completely rule out one more flourish. “I really can’t say for sure since I could be mistaken, she continued. I’ll simply say that we might and leave it at that.”

Christine’s Personal Life

Peter Green served as best man during McVie’s 1968 nuptials to John McVie. Instead of traveling on their honeymoon, they celebrated at a hotel in Birmingham with Joe Cocker, who just so happened to be staying there, before splitting up and starting their respective bands.

The couple separated in 1976, although they remained friends and continued to work together professionally. She had an affair with Fleetwood Mac’s lighting designer Curry Grant while Rumours was being made, which provided the song “You Make Loving Fun” with its inspiration.

She dated Beach Boys member Dennis Wilson from 1979 to 1982. On October 18, 1986, McVie wed the musician and lyricist from Portugal, Eddy Quintela.

Quintela and McVie worked together on several tracks, including “Little Lies.” Quintela passed away in 2020 after their divorce in 2003.

McVie lived at a home in Los Angeles that had previously belonged to Joan Collins and Elton John (at various points in time) during the band’s heyday in the 1970s.

After leaving Fleetwood Mac in 1998, she retired to a Grade II-listed Tudor manor house in Wickhambreaux, near Canterbury in Kent, where she worked on her solo works.

The home’s rural surroundings served as McVie’s source of inspiration for years; he not only wrote songs there but also restored the house. McVie put the mansion up for sale in 2015 after reuniting with Fleetwood Mac in 2014 and spending more time there. McVie, who was 79 years old, passed away in a hospital on November 30, 2022, following a brief illness.

McVie’s net worth

McVie’s net worth was estimated by Celebrity Net Worth to be $105 million as of 2022. McVie is the second wealthiest member of Fleetwood Mac, behind lead singer Stevie Nicks, who is regarded as the band’s public face, according to TheThings.com.

Twitter was flooded with comments from her followers and other performers on Wednesday as word of her passing spread.

Shirley Manson of Garbage posted on the band’s Twitter that she was “gutted to learn of the passing of Christine McVie.” “I’m gutted. Songbird for life.

She was referred to as a legend and an inspiration for all time by Japanese Breakfast performer Michele Zauner. She remarked on Twitter, “Every time I tried to write a sophisticated synth line in the studio, I’d always claim I was attempting to channel my inner Christine.

Sheryl Crow, a singer, and songwriter wrote, “I am so heartbroken to hear of Christine McVie going on to heaven. “The absence of her makes the world seem strange. What an amazing human being, legend, and icon.

Fleetwood Mac performed at the Forum in Inglewood once more in December 2018 for three nights, the final one being December 15. That was McVie’s final on-stage performance in this venue.

McVie didn’t perform “Songbird” during those final performances, possibly as a result of the band’s decision to replace Buckingham, who had contributed an acoustic guitar to the song during recording, with Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

However, the song had ended most of the shows throughout the 2014–2015 tour, sending audience members home with its lyrics and melody ringing in their ears. The song that seems appropriate to listen to today opens with the line, “For you, there’ll be no more crying.” “The sun will be shining for you. And I sense that with you: “It’s okay, I know it’s right.”

Fan’s Tributes poured in for Christine McVie

Marcella Detroit

Very sad news, our most sincere condolences to all family and friends. RIP legend, fly and sing on high with the angels 

RIP Christine McVie. A truly talented musician who wrote some brilliant tunes for Fleetwood Mac, especially "Everywhere"pic.twitter.com/AQwACgWhAB

— The Timeless Pop Culture Fan (@PopCultureGuy12) November 30, 2022

Gregg Rolie

Thank you for sharing your gift with the world Christine McVie 

Julieanne Valentino

Graceful lady of music…the angels are in triumphant stance to welcome you and heaven is singing for one so magic as you Christine Mcvie thanks for your amazing talent xoxo

Norma Greene

She was amazing, the best. I grew up loving her, and so sad to hear of her loss. She will remain in everyone’s hearts forever. Her voice was just so wonderful, will never forget her x

Ashley Humphrey Cook

Thank you to this beautiful human. She & this band have had such a lovely influence for generations. 

Jackie Criswell Easterwood

Such a shock to hear this today! Rest in peace, Christine. Condolences to her Fleetwood Mac band members and of course, Christine’s family and all fans and friends. A great loss in the music world today.

You don't have to have gone through a breakup to understand Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.
But it helps.
Rest in peace, Christine McVie. pic.twitter.com/IFBcKRIhIw

— Eric Alper 🎧 (@ThatEricAlper) November 30, 2022

Dave Blackwell

So very sad to hear of Christine’s passing. Such a treasure, a true treasure to have shared her sublime abilities with us all. A very brilliant star shines above us tonight. My sincerest condolences & thoughts are with her family, close friends, bandmates & of course Christine herself. RIP Songbird. Rest easy & thank you x

Jeff Navarro

I was lucky enough to see many iterations of Fleetwood Mac. You were much much more than a backup singer. Your songs always stood out and were at the forefront of the band’s musical repertoire. We love you, Christy. Rest in Peace!

David Lock

Beautiful voice, a great songwriter. Loved her melodies. She will be missed.

Thomas Holmén

This is so hard to believe, there are no words. Thank you for all the fantastic songs. RIP. 

Chris Thacker

God bless you, Christine. I waited years to see the ‘ Rumours’ lineup, and I did a few years ago. Thank you for some brilliant songs dear lady, Rest In Peace x

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