Christine McVie
Christine McVie
Christine Anne Perfect, professionally known as Christine McVie after her marriage to John McVie of Fleetwood Mac, is a British singer, keyboardist and songwriter. Her greatest fame came as one of the lead vocalists of rock band Fleetwood Mac, which she joined in 1970, while married to bassist John McVie. She has also released three solo albums. McVie is noted for her smoky, low alto vocal performances and, as described by AllMusic critic Steve Leggett, her direct but poignant lyrics...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth12 July 1943
CountryUnited States of America
For Stevie, the words are of prime importance; the song moves around the words, rather than the words moving around the song.
In general there's a lot of sameness in the songs and videos today. It all runs in to one mishmash... I'm definitely of the old school. I like melodies and I like real instruments. I like to see a smiling face across from me rather than a bank of computers. I like to play with real people.
I'd never want a studio guy. I wouldn't mind working with another keyboard player, but not a studio guy. It sounds very odd, but we're really snobbish about doing everything ourselves whenever possible, so I'd rather just play the piano lines myself.
Suddenly the desire to write tricked back into my life again, not that I would want to tour or go on the road. Once you have been writing all of your life, it is part of what you do. What else do you do?
My range seems to have been getting higher. I just can't sing as low as I used to. I don't know how I ever recorded some of the old songs in such low keys. Lindsey often changes his songs, too. He records a song in E, then changes to F. That can affect the vocal blend a lot.
We had some rehearsals where I was playing on four songs... but we dropped them from the set because it was interfering with my stage work, and I guess it wasn't that necessary.
There's a whole bunch of unfinished stuff. Then I've got books of lyrics. I find it frustrating to finish a song and not be able to record it... so I don't write a million songs.
It really comes down to Mick. He's the one who was constantly trying to get these five people in one room together. This is his love, his baby. It's his band, and there's nothing more he loves to do than get up on stage and play with us.
The old Fleetwood Mac was much better; they did some beautiful and, to my mind, very authentic blues. Chicken Shack did pretty well in Europe, but after I left, it was over.
I was in Tower Records in San Francisco a few weeks ago, buying some cassettes, and a couple of people recognized me and ran up with albums, and I just wanted to cover my face and have a seizure or something. I want people to just go away.
We all enjoyed the success of Rumours obviously.
We're going to try and do something different this time, and away from even what we expect to do. We haven't really formed any concrete plan at the moment, but whatever it is, it's going to have a twist.
What's past is past, it's too bloody late to do anything else. I've been very blessed and lucky in my life. To want to change the path of destiny is kind of a mistake, it leads to discontent. I don't feel complacent, but I feel content.
We're more like brother and sister now. I'm not trying to paint too rosy a picture. I think it took quite a few years to be able to sit down and talk to each other. It's all very nostalgic for us as well. There hasn't been an angry word between us, fingers crossed.