Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie died of an ischaemic stroke, according to a death certificate obtained by The Blast. The document also said she had been diagnosed with “metastatic malignancy of unknown primary origin,” or cancer that where a tumor is not detected.
The band’s longtime singer, songwriter and keyboardist died November 30 at 79 of what originally was described as a brief illness.
An ischaemic stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted or reduced. The cancer was listed as a secondary source of McVie’s death.
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Sharing both vocal duties and hit-writing with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham during the band’s 1970s and ’80s heyday, McVie carved out a niche for herself with such songs as “Don’t Stop,” “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me.”
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She joined her then-new-husband John McVie’s band in 1970, just as Fleetwood Mac was exiting its first era and incarnation under the leadership of guitarist Peter Green. Her first album with the band was 1971’s Future Games, which also included another new member, Bob Welch.
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In 1975, a retooled version of the group with Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham released the album Fleetwood Mac, which featured such McVie standouts as “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me”, both hitting the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. But its next LP would cement the group as one of the biggest-selling acts of all time.
Rumours held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for an amazing 31 nonconsecutive weeks, and is tied for No. 11 in all-time U.S. album sales with 20 million-plus. It won the Album of the Year Grammy in 1978 and is in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
In 1998, Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and later that year McVie announced her exit from the group for semiretirement. The band continued to record and tour intermittently after that.
