Couldn't agree more. He wasn't overly fond of their drama to begin with, let alone later in the years.

What year did Chris sell her songs to the Man? Maybe her tax bill is a result of that — maybe her accountant fully expected to have to settle up.

When you start paying my mortgage, you can start telling me what to do. Until that happens, STFU.

Yeah, that was really something, especially looking at it in retrospect. She played and sang “Stop Messin’ Round,” yes? And wasn’t that the track that Chris put her piano on for the very first time on a Fleetwood Mac album? It’s almost a bit spooky.

someone in the uk explained it better in either this thread or in the Christine forum thread... but over a certain amount ..s something like £320,000 the UK gov't taxes estates/inheritances at 40% or almost half. So the estate is facing a tax bill for the inheritance unless they can do whatever they need to do to protect that money or else have to pay that huge portion to the taxman. That's why there are taxes listed and the amount is so high.

That makes sense to me. Chris realized a huge capital gain when she sold her song rights. Of course, so did the others, so they’d better have planned for it.

This is true. Even in one of his Q&A's he mentioned wanting to 'say goodbye' a few times on the last tour. I would guess he was referring to S/L drama. That had to have gotten so tedious.

Also in the 2019 BBC documentary about Chris, when they asked what she'd missed when she was gone, and she dryly said 'apparently not much' and described how she'd heard L/S had been tearing each other limb from limb...who do you think told her all that?? I'd guess it had to have been john, and maybe mick as well.

i think by that point the Brits knew things were not gonna change or improve.

--Lis

was it really? I thought she played for the 1st time on Love That Burns. but I could be wrong on that. she was such a great blues pianist.

--Lis

Christine played on both "Love that burns" and on "Stop messin' around" on the 2nd Mac album "Mr Wonderful". There is piano on a couple more of Peter's songs on that album that will be Christine too. Jeremy played piano on one or two of his tracks, I think.

The story had become “the struggling band,” which just wasn’t accurate. They had fourteen roadies and got a $250,000 advance ($1,397,955.39 in 2023 dollars) to make the 1975 album when Bob was still in the band. They weren’t setting the world on fire, but they were hardly struggling.

As Bart often says: “Don’t have a cow, Homer!”

Exactly, they just weren't filthy rich like some other acts. Even Genesis wasn't doing well during that time. By Lamb, which didn't sell well, Phil said he had sent all his money home, and there wasn't much left after a tour. Lots of work, and not huge payoffs.

The money can’t be “protected” if it formed part of her personal estate when she died. If Christine was English/U.K. domiciled for tax purposes on death, which I’d say she was, the bill is due regardless of where her assets were on death. I can’t see any way around paying the liability if it’s on stocks/cash/real property, and I do this for a living…

Suspect she needs both US and English probate. That’s why the US court is involved. They need to be able to access liquidity to pay, and by the sound of it Christine’s wealth was mostly held in the US. They may be petitioning the court there to ask it to allow monies to be freed up so that the tax in the U.K. (due on her worldwide estate) can be paid.

wow, i hadn't known they got such a big advance at that time.

you learn something new every day here. :-)

--Lis

Here's the earlier post by someone regarding inheritance taxes.

I wouldn't say I'm "angry", I just still don't get the why. You are at the end of your career, we know there will be no more FM albums and how many more times could they have toured? I just think it spoiled their legacy. I'm not saying John is mad at Mick or Stevie, I said if I were him I would have been mad at everything that went down, now with Christine gone. I feel like what Stevie did was all for nothing. I know Mick said he and John sat together wondering what they were going to do now that Chris is gone. I know John and Mick will always be close. But for some weird reason, I think of John now. What he thinks of everything that went down. I would love a book from him

John has WAY too much class for a tell all book.

You are entitled to your point of view. I understand completely how you feel.

I also think John would not see the point.
He has enough money… does not have a huge ego..
He is getting old and it would just be too much trouble.
And he is a man who holds his own counsel….

He's a humble man. One of my favorite things about him is that he used to ride back to the hotel with the crew. No limo for him, and "his" limo savings went to his bank account. No nonsense, John.

I think those amazing Q&A's were the closest we'll ever get to a book from him. and even then he was so careful with how he answered some questions. it's like he never wanted to say anything that would piss anyone off or get anyone in trouble. definitely not the type to kiss and tell.

personally i'd love a book of his photographs of fm that he's taken from the beginning. he said he had tons in boxes etc. that would be so amazing, just a chronological collection of candid shots or whatever. silly man wondered if there would be any interest. I also think of chris and all the photos she must have had. ugh it makes me sad... i wonder who has all her stuff now?:(

--Lis

News reports said she left everything to her brother and his family.

her executor though was her manager, so.....

yeah i know, i saw that. so now her brother has a houseful of old mac memorabilia and pictures that any of us would go crazy over...i wonder if john took any of it. although i'm sure he has just as much, if not more, than she did.

--Lis

I remember hearing that his daughter is a documentary filmmaker or something like that? Can't imagine him ever wanting to do this, but it would be cool if she worked with him on a film project focused around those photos and stories behind them.

i don't think he'd ever do it either... but yes that would be amazing. i wonder if she still does the film thing. although i'd be happy w a simple book.

all the photos out there, most of us have seen a thousand times. imagine a whole book of new pics. i'd have to take a day off from work lol

--Lis

I think it's the first time I read she was named Anne Christine. Not even Mick mentions it in her book, when he introduces her brief bio. He also said she was from Birmingham; probably she grew up there cause the certificate indicates Ulverston as birth place and that's no so close to Birmingham (165 miles).

I always thought her name was Christine Anne Perfect.

In terms of birth, Christine's family did not move to Birmingham until she was five or six years old. That's what the "Songbird" BBC documentary said, anyway. Christine herself says "I'm basically a Brummie" because she lived most of her young life in the midlands--though she was born in Cumbria.

I doubt Mick even knew. It's not like she was going around saying 'My first name is Anne on my birth certificate.' :-) On other legal documents (divorce etc) she's listed as Anne Christine also. Her parents must have had a reason for switching it up..maybe Anne was sort of a family name that they felt they had to use, but they liked Christine better..? probably nobody ever called her Anne in her life.

--Lis

Reading this topic, like with many others, shows how the Stevie/Lindsey dynamic can overtake any other topic in FM. It sounds like Chris had enough time to at least organize her affairs somewhat, and hopefully she did not suffer at the end. It does seem like the final turn in her health came quickly and unexpectedly, but I’m glad that her family and especially that John was there.

Clearly, if she wanted other people there, including Stevie, the family would’ve known. But, end of life is a hard time, not only for the person who is transitioning, but for everyone around them, and Stevie, even if well-meaning, tends to take all the oxygen out of the room and that’s the last thing a grieving family needs.

As Lis noted, I’m sure John has long made his peace with the craziness and drama that Stevie and Lindsey brought to the band. It’s probably why he distanced himself from all things band related when they weren’t recording or on tour going back to Rumours. Clearly he and Chris made the pragmatic decision to play those gigs in 2018–2019, since they probably knew they didn’t have a lot of tours left in them. Neither of them strikes me as especially sentimental about a particular lineup of FM, and even if they were, they decided that playing with a version of FM in stadiums was better than not playing at all. So as much as many fans (including me) do hold it against Stevie and Mick that we didn’t get a last Rumours lineup tour, John and Chris were probably more able to accept it.

As for the FM memorabilia, and especially the photos that John and Chris have. I do hope that an archivist or someone is able to get access to those. It would be great to even see some of them the way that Richard Dashut had been posting on Tumblr. Ideally, maybe a small gallery would get a hold of them to do some kind of a show with a digital component so that more fans could see them I’ll put that thought out into the universe for sure.

Yes, fortunately she did have time to plan what she wanted. Having no children or current spouse, she trusted her older brother and John to be there with her and carry out her wishes. They were her people.
And honestly I think they were her favorite people in the world. They'd known her forever and I'm sure were fiercely protective in terms of what was going on around her, which must have been a reassuring feeling for Chris. They knew the end was coming and were there to love on her and keep things going until it came.

Much as she loved all the members of FM, those final weeks were not the time for a Mac reunion. As Anusha said, that time of transitioning is hard, and for a person as private as Chris was, she probably felt more comfortable and in control just keeping things simple. How many people can you really trust 100%?! I think for all of us, it's a small number, and for a famous person, it's even smaller.

The stroke was obviously a surprise but at least she wasn't alone. And if those court papers hadn't come out, we never would have known the cause of death. They would have taken that secret with them to their graves if that's what she had asked them to do. She knew who to trust. ♥

And as far as those old photos go, I hope one day some of them will see the light of day. That would be a gift for those of us who loved them for all these years. But I have a feeling those old pics might be seen as too personal to ever be shared..:(

--Lis