Christine McVie has revealed that the 16-year period she spent outside Fleetwood Mac was beginning to send her to a “dark place” before a psychiatrist helped her recover focus. She even said she was making plans to visit drummer Mick Fleetwood when, after a long disconnection, he got in touch with her to suggest a meeting.

McVie bowed out of the band in 1998, but following a period of speculation and a handful of guest appearances, she returned full-time in 2014. She recently released an album with Lindsey Buckingham that includes Fleetwood and the group's bassist John McVie.

“I think in my mind I was playing the role of the retired rich lady in the country, baking cookies, raising my two dogs and driving my Range Rover," McVie told Jam: "That kind of world ended up being inconsequential in the end – just nothing. It didn’t have any meaning at all, which slowly led to a bit of a dark place for me. I became very isolated.”

She found someone to assist in her recovery. “I went to a great psychiatrist who got rid of my fear of flying, and made me buy a ticket to Maui to visit Mick,” McVie said. “But I didn’t even have to do that because Mick phoned me. This is where serendipity comes in. “He said, ‘I’m coming to England, Chris – are you going to be there?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am. Where else would I be?’ And he says, ‘Wait for me, and we can both fly back together.’ So that’s what happened. I ended up playing in his little blues band in Maui and I got the bug.”

McVie and Buckingham are currently touring in support of the album, which doesn’t include Stevie Nicks, the only member of the band's classic lineup missing from the LP.  “We definitely have her blessing," McVie said."I saw her in L.A. recently. We had dinner.” Fleetwood Mac are scheduled to play a pair of classic-rock festivals later this month.

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