In unearthed interviews, Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie reveals the truth of her chaotic cocaine-fueled orgies and reckless partying that nearly killed her
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Hunched over a glass of cider, staring into a candle flame night after night, nothing much about her later days said multi-millionaire rock star. Who would have thought that the rangy blonde in a shabby tweed jacket was Christine McVie, the singer and song-writing legend who once toured the globe with Fleetwood Mac and contributed the lion's share of hits to their 1977 triumph 'Rumours', one of the best-selling albums in music history?.
![[Fleetwood Mac eventually upgraded to a jumbo jet and became their own travelling orgy, bathing – sometimes literally – in champagne and wafting from continent to continent on clouds of cocaine.]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/20/18/93332923-14202857-image-a-46_1734720970380.jpg)
The pub in question, The Rose in Wickhambreaux, close to England's historic city of Canterbury in the country's southeast, was anybody else's chocolate-box idyll. But to Christine, it was a daily escape from the fortress in which she had imprisoned herself: a large Tudor house and estate nearby, The Quaives, where she resided alone.
![[Band members slept in specially redecorated hotel suites and indulged relentlessly in sex with friends and strangers, often in limousines the size of small yachts. (Pictured circa 1977, left to right: John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/20/17/93332979-14202857-Band_members_slept_in_specially_redecorated_hotel_suites_and_ind-m-1_1734715464392.jpg)
That Chris was there at all, however lonely, was no small triumph. Fleetwood Mac had lived so recklessly, it was a miracle any of them survived. The biggest group in the world following their 'Rumours' success, they had once acquired mansions the way the rest of us buy books.
![[In tribute to the woman whose lifestyle once almost destroyed her, I have written her life anyway in a new biography of rock's most reluctant superstar, said biographer Lesley-Ann Jones (above right with McVie in 2015)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/21/93332925-14202857-image-m-11_1734644099102.jpg)
They purchased a private Boeing jet and became their own travelling orgy, bathing – sometimes literally – in champagne and wafting from continent to continent on clouds of cocaine. Band members slept in specially redecorated hotel suites and indulged relentlessly in sex with friends and strangers, often in limousines the size of small yachts.
![[Cocaine was acquired in bulk. On the road, each evening ahead of the gig, both band and crew would queue for their rations.]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/20/18/93353943-14202857-Cocaine_was_acquired_in_bulk_On_the_road_each_evening_ahead_of_t-m-43_1734718396890.jpg)
