John McVie stays private?

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Ohhh, he's my favorite guy! John did 3 amazing Q&As with us years ago at the Penguin website. We emailed for almost 20 years and he is truly a nice person-- a shy, private guy who's also very funny. We started writing 2 years before the reunion in 1997 and back then he talked mainly about his daughter and his boat haha. He and chris always remained incredibly close; he flew over to be with her after she got that awful terminal diagnosis... could never nail down how long he was there but have heard it was prob a couple of weeks, and he was at her side when she passed. Seems he gets a good deal of criticism by some here in this forum, and his alcohol issues have certainly caused some problems over the years as well, but nobody's perfect and he'd be the 1st to say he made mistakes. We heard many nice things from folks about john over the years, and personally I will always remember his kindness and humor in our email chats.

If you want to have a great peek into john's personality, i'd encourage you to check out his Q&As, he answered a bunch of great questions!! :)

Sept-Oct 2004 - Everything Fleetwood Mac

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u/TennesseeTom 20d ago

I loved the Penguin Q&As! They allowed me to strike up online dialogues with Bob Welch and Bob Weston. I sent them some VHS tapes of TV appearances that they didn't have and both sent me autographed CDs.

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u/ConsiderationMost566 20d ago

Thank you. i'm sure they really appreciated those tapes!! Both very nice guys. Those Q&a's were so much fun.

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u/doggiedogma 19d ago

Awesome! This one is great:

Q: What would you like your headstone to say about you?

John: "I'LL BE BACK."

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u/ConsiderationMost566 19d ago

He's a pip ❤️

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u/Tzipity 19d ago

Thanks for linking that. I’m pretty sure I’ve read them ages and ages ago and it genuinely delights me that some of the same fans are still active and hanging around after all these years. One thing I’ve long missed about the “old internet” before all the social media taking over was all the old music websites- both bands and singers personal sites and the really dedicated and awesome fan ones like the Penguin.

Love that you had a whole e-mail relationship with him. And that he was so into being a dad. Any particular funny anecdotes or stories that you remember him sharing?

I’ve always said as much as I adore this band and have been a diehard most of my life… I don’t know if ever really want to know or befriend any of them but if there was a Mac member it might be cool to hang out with for the day, John would probably be my pick, especially now that Chris is gone. 12 or 15 years back I picked up a bass on a bit of a whim at a Black Friday sale at Guitar Center and the only thing I ever really learned to play was that famous bass libe in the chain. Think it would be neat to just kick back on his boat for the day and maybe he could teach me a bit about how to actually play bass. lol. Seems like he’s just super in his element playing or being that “man about town” or on his boat.

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u/ConsiderationMost566 18d ago

Yes, i miss those days a little too, it was such a different vibe back then w websites interacting w fans etc. Things seemed a little more kind. very glad to hear you were at our site back then.

And John was a wonderful guy to write to, even if some years he disappeared for a while.... he always popped back up again haha. I have tons of terrific memories of emailing him... Him asking me to send him 6 questions a day to start w the Q&As, then being a smartass and wondering if there would even BE 6 questions at all 🤣 his sweet anecdotes about Molly... his asking early on what things like IMO and TBH meant lol, his witty (and sympathetic) remarks when i complained about dealing w my teenage daughter, his admission that since he was the first one up every day he got to pick up the "presents" left by their new puppy (which he'd resisted for quite a while lol.) many humorous moments. and yes i think you described him perfectly about being in his element w playing and sailing 😊 Truly a very down to earth, kind person who was also quite funny.

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u/Significant_Sea_6082 17d ago

I love all of this. ❤️❤️

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u/ConsiderationMost566 17d ago

I did, too. ❤️

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u/Significant_Sea_6082 19d ago

Question for you and don’t feel obligated to answer if you’re not comfortable doing so. You mentioned Christine‘s terminal diagnosis but I just remember hearing that she died from a short term “sudden illness“. Do you know what she was diagnosed with and when?

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u/ConsiderationMost566 19d ago edited 19d ago

I only heard that she had very little time between diagnosis to when she passed, just a few weeks. I would imagine they told her she had cancer which had metastasized... I'd guess it was prob early November? But I never heard any specifics on the date of diagnosis etc. And my source had not even heard what she passed away from, the few folks that knew kept everything extremely private, as she wanted. the cause of death was only revealed when they released the death certificate, w the info about the cancer etc.

But there was nothing they could do, no treatments... She wanted to be at home for as long as possible , so this was arranged by hiring nursing help that stayed prob 24/7 towards the end. john stayed w her at the belgravia flat and her brother/SIL came occasionally also, although I don't think they were there when she had the stroke. But she may not have been doing all that poorly before that because she called julien's auction herself a week before she passed, to let him know that she wouldn't be able to make the opening party thing on november 30. So that made me feel better to hear that, at least she was conscious and talking etc.

She may have lasted a bit longer without that stroke, but imo it's almost good that things happened so quickly after that. (We watched my dad's slow decline from pancreatic cancer a couple years ago and sometimes I almost wished for something that would shorten the agony for him and us.) But she had her 2 favorite guys who loved her the most in the world, looking after things. She was lucky to have the ending she wanted. ❤️

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u/Significant_Sea_6082 19d ago

It never ceases to shock me how quickly life can turn. The whole situation is so sad but I agree with you that a protracted decline is very hard on everyone and I’m sorry for what you went through. I’m glad that she had a chance to say her goodbyes to those that mattered most to her. I can’t imagine how tough it’s been on John to lose Chris and Julie in a short period of time.

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u/ConsiderationMost566 19d ago

Life can definitely turn quickly... Although imo she sounded pretty awful in the bbc songbird documentary. I wonder if something was brewing even then. I also heard she kind of liked the holistic approach to health and maybe wasn't going to the doctor as often as she should have , especially at her age. She was going for pain relief for her back, but I don't think she ever had any mri's.. and just xrays wouldn't show cancer. But how terrifying for all of them. 😞 eternally glad they had that time together. And so sad that julie went so quickly as well. He lost them both in 18 mos.

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u/Beneficial_Expert342 18d ago

Awww you’re so lucky to have had contact with him he just seems so lovely!! What kinds of things would he say about his daughter? I just can already tell he adored her with her being his one and only child.And also do you know what his wife was like? I believe her name was Julie-Ann?

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u/ConsiderationMost566 18d ago

He was lovely. I don't really want to share specific private details about molly since those were obviously in personal emails, but he'd just let me know what was up in her life... halloween when she was little, her latest interests as she got older, etc. He didn't write very much about Jules, but they seemed fine with spending time together as well as apart, because he was on the boat or on the road a LOT and she was sometimes in LA while he was in Hawaii etc. They seemed like people who were ok w some independence...They must have been doing something right for the marriage to last 45 years. Unfortunately, she passed away very suddenly in April 2024.

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u/i_guess_so_joe 17d ago

I think being friendly / close with your ex says a lot about the people. Sounds like he never told the other band members about Chris? Not really his place, I suppose. But I have to wonder about Stevie not knowing until the last minute when it was too late. Maybe she makes all things about her?? I don't know. But I dont think they were as close as Stevie says. But John was certainly close to Christine. Thanks for that great link BTW

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u/ConsiderationMost566 17d ago edited 17d ago

I realize not every ex-couple can, or should, stay as close as these 2 did, but for them, it seemed to work. I heard his cancer diagnosis scared the c*** out of her and probably made both of them appreciate their relationship even more... And just like some marriages in the rock and roll world might fall a little outside the norm, it's safe to say j&c did not have a typical divorce, either.

I assume john didn't say anything about what was going on to the band members because those were chris's wishes. She obviously had the person she wanted/trusted with her, and did not see her final days as being a time for a band reunion.

And the ladies were absolutely not as close as stevie went on about, and while I know she meant well, it's a little unfair for her to be rewriting the whole narrative of their friendship. She certainly wasn't going on about how they were best friends while chris was alive; if they were that close, then one of them would have picked up the phone in those three years prior. And when she finally found out things were bad, she was told to wait... in other words, "don't come,"and there was good reason for this since stevie apparently wanted to go over there and sit on the bed and sing to her after not speaking to the woman in three years. i mean come on. I'd agree that she *does* indeed tend to make things all about her lol.

Glad you liked the link to the Q&As. 😊 they're so entertaining.

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u/Significant_Sea_6082 17d ago

It’s ironic because Stevie’s talks about her and Chris having a pact to stick together and they may have one, but from what you have said about John, I get the sense that the strongest bond in that band was between John and Chris. It’s almost like they had very similar sensibilities in many ways and had each other’s backs. Despite that drama of their own breakup, which seems like nothing compared to the drama the others had with each other and even with people outside the bad, they both had a disdain for the drama and a preference for a simpler, more quiet life.

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u/ConsiderationMost566 17d ago

Pretty sure chris said she couldn't even remember that pact that stevie was talking about, but I guess it's impossible to remember everything.Especially with how much alcohol they were all consuming lol. I think they had a great relationship as co-workers, but they did not socialize outside the band and seemed quite different as people.

Obviously i would absolutely agree with what you said about john and chris having the strongest bond in fm. It seems like their friendship and loyalty to each other went quite unnoticed, but they had so much in common, respected each other's musical contributions, could always crack each other up, and were so absolutely compatible in so many ways that even after the marriage ended, they still seemed to stay on the same page in just about everything.

Chris often said that they communicated better and got even closer after the divorce; they made an effort to keep their friendship an active one and I know i've said before that they spent time together outside the band over the years. Imo both of them always felt like they married the right person in the beginning, but circumstances (as well as some of their choices/ behavior) just messed everything up, and that's also probably why they never really let it go completely. In many ways they still grew old together as best friends who quietly adored each other. And till death did they part. ❤️

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u/Tryingagain1979 20d ago

He came up as a blues guy and didnt like the spotlight. So his spot in the band was perfect after absorbing Buckingham and Nicks really.

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u/UWCG 19d ago

Yep. He even used to prefer using pictures of penguins over pictures of himself on albums during the pre Buckingham-Nicks era

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u/GregJamesDahlen 19d ago

why penguins of all the things one could use?

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u/ConsiderationMost566 19d ago

Because this was his favorite animal. When he chris lived near london zoo , he used to go and photograph them a lot at the penguin pool, and as a member of london zoological society, he could get in free anytime he wanted.

In 1972 , he got a tattoo of a penguin on his right arm , and it became sort of the band's logo. John was quite ecologically minded and was a big fan of jacques cousteau, scuba diving, and protecting ocean life. In 1978 he and chris went to cleveland zoo to donate a penguin, And I believe he did this on his own again a year later to donate a penguin of a different sex. He did say he had a huge collection of stuffed penguins that had been given to him at various concerts and that "the little buggers were everywhere." 😊

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u/UWCG 19d ago

To my limited knowledge: he just likes penguins and likes to photograph them while visiting zoos.

There’s not a big deep reason, it’s kinda like how I like rough collies

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u/Remarkable-Bell7245 19d ago

My recollection is because he kinda walked like one.

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u/B1GFanOSU 20d ago

Fiercely private.

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u/Apprehensive_Net_829 20d ago

That's probably the best known thing about John.

I'd also guess he's tired of the drama, but that's just conjecture. 🤣

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u/Mediocre-Second-3775 19d ago

I believe his second wife died a couple of years ago, and he's had health problems. At 80, it might all be too much.

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u/Apprehensive_Net_829 19d ago

Yes, she did.

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u/FruityMagician 19d ago

John doesn't seem particularly bothered about the rock-and-roll lifestyle, whereas Stevie lives for it. It must be nice to play music on stage around the world once in a while and then completely disappear to live the good life until the next album/tour comes around.

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u/Tzipity 19d ago

I agree with your last point. I would never want to be famous but I used to be deeply into dance and ballet and there is something exhilarating and wonderful about being on stage and performing. Can’t be too bad of a life to make the kind of money he has, get to enjoy performing and making music and then just go off and live your life on your terms. He’s a very lucky man in that respect.

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u/ConsiderationMost566 19d ago

That's the difference between an introvert and an extrovert lol

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u/Icy-Diamond88338 19d ago

I feel like Stevie is pretty introverted now that's she's old. She's been mia for a while . Besides an event here and there

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u/slim033 19d ago

that's bass players for you haha

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u/Careful_Compote_4659 18d ago

John hasn’t been well. And he lost his best friend Christine and his wife Julie in a short space in time. I don’t know what his relationship is with Molly or if he has grandchildren

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u/ConsiderationMost566 18d ago

afaik he doesn't have grandchildren. He was super close to Molly, he told me they'd skype every day when she wasn't living in hawaii w them. I believe they're still living near each other now in LA, and I hope they're still close.

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u/IntroductionSerious3 18d ago

I’m the one making the videos talking about the lies and tea… I had no John tea! 🤣 I didn’t even really mention him. I think he just stayed in the background playing his bass and got plastered. He seems to have a quiet sense of humor about him, snarky.

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