Stevie Nicks laid bare moment Fleetwood Mac could have crashed: ‘I’m pretty sure’

Fans of Fleetwood Mac are in for a treat tonight as the BBC rolls out an evening of programming about the legendary quintet. Things will be kicked off with, ‘Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird: Christine McVie’, a 2019 documentary exploring Christine’s talents for aligning herself with “the boys” in the rhythm section, as opposed to being a traditional front girl. Christine wrote some of the band’s most successful tracks, including Over My Head, Don’t Stop and Everywhere — only to leave in 1998 following a lengthy period of global success, rejoining in 2014.

Later, ‘Fleetwood Mac: The Dance’, will look at a 1997 live performance of the band by its most successful lineup: Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie.

And, topping it all off, ‘Fleetwood Mac — Don’t Stop 2009’, looks at the band’s entire career, from the early beginning in the Sixties, which resembled the psychedelic rock era it was formed in to the eclectic synth-beats of the Eighties that came to embody the group’s form.

While Fleetwood Mac enjoyed one of the most successful periods in musical history ever recorded, Stevie previously admitted that it all could have gone awry.

A long time advocate for abortion rights, Stevie herself terminated a pregnancy in 1979.

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At the time, Fleetwood Mac were at their highest point, and she was dating the Eagles singer Don Henley.

Speaking to The Guardian for a profile piece, she revealed that, had she not had the right to abort, Fleetwood Mac would have been no more.

She said: “If I had not had that abortion, I’m pretty sure there would have been no Fleetwood Mac.

“There’s just no way that I could have had a child then, working as hard as we worked constantly.

“And there were a lot of drugs, I was doing a lot of drugs.

“I would have had to walk away.”

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Sex, jealousy, infidelity, divorce and drugs were all driving factors behind the record that went on to sell more than 40 million copies worldwide, with hits such as ‘Second Hand News’, ‘The Chain’ and ‘Dreams’ having left a permanent mark on popular culture.

The album coincided with the band’s use of cocaine reaching industrial levels; Stevie and her boyfriend and musical partner, Lindsey Buckingham, broke up; John and Christine got divorced; and Mick’s marriage broke down.

While the band has seen members drift and leave in tumultuous fashion over the years, it is difficult to pinpoint something that defines an official breakup.

The most recent controversy came in 2018, when Lindsey was fired.

Stevie later said that he was kicked out because he wanted too much time off to focus on his solo career.

However, in 2021, he made the bold move of declaring that “pretty much everyone would love to see me come back”.

This has not yet happened, and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn continue to fill his place.

The BBC’s night of Fleetwood Mac starts at 8:30pm and ends at 12:45am.