Born on November 26^th 1945 to Reg and Dorothy McVie, John Graham McVie’s interest in playing the bass guitar began at the age of 14.  However, he did not pursue this career path until after undergoing training as a tax inspector, a career which lasted less than a year before he decided to become a professional musician.  He was influenced very early on in his career by John Mayall, who at the time was starting his own band and recruited John as his bass player.

It was during his time playing with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers that John met singer and guitarist Peter Green and drummer Mick Fleetwood.  The three became friends, and Green, wanting to start his own band, wanted McVie and Fleetwood as his rhythm section.  John, however, was comfortable in the security that his current band offered and refused to leave.  On the other hand, Green was convinced that he could be persuaded and went ahead and named the band anyway and recruited Bob Brunning as a temporary bassist.  After a few months, McVie agreed to join the band and the famously solid Mac rhythm section was in place.  The following year he married pianist and vocalist Christine Perfect, who he had met while playing the blues circuit.  After leaving her band Chicken Shack, Christine agreed to join Fleetwood Mac as vocalist and pianist after Green’s departure.  However, their marriage was put under strain, from a mixture of John’s drinking and (deleted words)spending so much time together, at work and at home.  Eventually they were forced to separate and divorce.  The making of the ‘Rumours’ album was a particularly difficult time for the pair and Christine wrote the song ‘Don’t Stop’ to show John that she still cared for him, even though they were on the brink of divorce.

After their separation, John went to live on his boat ‘Adelie’.  Soon after his divorce from Christine, he remarried in 1978 to Julie Anne Rubens.  An incident occurred in 1981 involving John’s arrest on a drugs charge, but these charges were later dropped.  His ongoing battle with alcohol abuse was brought to an end in 1987 when he suffered a seizure; this in turn made him quit drinking.  In 1989 he and Julie Ann had their first child, a daughter called Molly Elizabeth.

John branched out to record a solo album in 1992 called ‘John McVie’s ‘Gotta Band’ with Lola Thomas’ then joined the rest of the Rumours line up in 1997 to record ‘The Dance. ’  He is currently back with Fleetwood Mac as they record their new album, due late summer 2002.

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