The Dance issues?

[Danielle]

Didn't Stevie say that things got really weird when they didn't get a certain award for The Dance (Grammy?) and that upset Christine? I mean, not the fact that they didn't win but the mood it caused. Or am I crazy and inventing things?

[welcomechris]

Originally Posted by Danielle

Didn't Stevie say that things got really weird when they didn't get a certain award for The Dance (Grammy?) and that upset Christine? I mean, not the fact that they didn't win but the mood it caused. Or am I crazy and inventing things?

They didn't win album of the year and Lindsey got super mad

[nicole21290]

Originally Posted by Danielle

Didn't Stevie say that things got really weird when they didn't get a certain award for The Dance (Grammy?) and that upset Christine? I mean, not the fact that they didn't win but the mood it caused. Or am I crazy and inventing things?

Not at all crazy! From her Q&A at the IYD premiere in The Hamptons. It's after midnight so I've just done a quick transcript and haven't checked it over. Hopefully this is correct...

Backstage you were saying you have her piano now because she has retired officially -

Yep.

Can you give me any theory about why she retired and will she ever come back and, like she's such an incredible songwriter, I, I-

I think that, you know what, I, Chris started to get panic attacks in the last couple of years where she didn't want to fly. And when you tour like Fleetwood Mac tours, you can't - we, the band, can't go on a bus because we, we'd be too tired to go onstage. So she got really afraid of flying and, um, she'd been doing this since she was 14. I mean, I started, you know, in my twenties. So since she was 14, she'd been in a band and, uh, after The Dance we went to the Grammys. And, um, it wasn't - we didn't win the Grammy. Which we wanted to win really a lot for The Dance. And Lindsey got kinda mad. And, um, uh, she wasn't really happy with that situation. And basically when it was all over and everyone had gone home and she and I were, uh, doing some press, she said to me 'I quit'. And I'm, um, and I looked at her like 'Really?' Because we had done forty shows, we hadn't left the United States; we could've done, you know, two months in Australia, couple of months in Europe, we could've toured the whole world. We could've been out for another year. And, which would've been multi-million dollars. And so I said 'Reallly?' And she said 'Really'. And the look in her eyes was like when somebody breaks up with you and you know they're not kidding. And you know that there's no reason for you to go but. So I said 'Now? You're done?' and she said 'I'm done'. And I said 'Well, alright. Who's telling them, me or you?' And she said 'No, I'll tell them'. So the band basically broke up for - until the, until the, uh -

Annoucement.

Until we went back together to do, uh, Say You Will.

Right.

We really had to think for several many years whether or not we were going to continue without her. Or if we could. And I think the only reason that we could continue without her was because the stage itself still looked very similar. Because you had crazy Mick in the middle and Lindsey here and me here and John here and the only thing that was missing was Chris who never wanted to be in the spotlight anyway. So she was way over the side behind her big, huge Hammond Organ. And that's how she wanted it. She wanted - Chris always wanted to be one of the musicians. She never had any want to walk out there and be center stage. So because of that we could pretty much replicate the show without her. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to continue.

[Danielle]

Thank you Nicole! To think that I just re-watched that last week and had already kind of forgotten. I really am an old lady.

[michelej1]

I think Christine left because she was tired of touring and having anxiety attacks.

Of course, I can fantasize other scenarios. Like when Christine wrote that she's "caught in the middle of a lousy love affair" she could have been talking about being in between SnL, rather than being in a bad love affair herself.

Michele

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by michelej1

I think Christine left because she was tired of touring and having anxiety attacks.

It's not like she JUST quit in 1998.

She initially quit touring in 1990, after her father died, and made it pretty clear she was done with Fleetwood Mac with her "Time" songs (especially "Hollywood" and "All Over Again"). I always thought of "The Dance" as her way of leaving the band while it was on top. She's said in recent interviews that she made it clear that it was going to be her last tour with the band. Her dedication of "Songbird" to the others on the last night of the tour made it clear she was done. I don't get how Stevie (or anybody remotely paying attention) was surprised.