Say You Will Part 2: The Tour

You Know It Just Brings You Down

The Staples Center
Los Angeles, California
Saturday, July 12, 2003
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"This next song was written in about 1973 in Aspen, Colorado."

The audience began cheering, fans of Fleetwood Mac and of Stevie knowing if she mentioned Aspen Colorado that meant only one thing - "Landslide" was about to start. Lindsey stood behind her to her left as always, poised and ready with his guitar to sing the song he had not known until years after it had become famous was almost all about him, Stevie wrestling at the age of twenty-five whether to give in to the temptations of Jess telling her he'd pay if she wanted to give up music - and Lindsey because they were not doing well as a couple - and finish her degree at San Jose State. Sometimes she wondered what her life would be now if she had...and if Lindsey would have done as he'd said back then and followed her anywhere, music or not.

"I have dedicated this song to many people over the years but I do not believe this one person has ever made the list...which is insane because she is one of my favorite people in the entire world. It's her birthday today...a big one...and she's here with us in the audience tonight." She paused for affect and smiled before she said, "Her name is Christine McVie." And she smiled again as the audience went wild.

Christine, who sat in the third row, was spotted by cameramen and her image appeared on the enormous screens behind the stage. She was sixty years old today, sunglasses atop her platinum bobbed hair as she stood up for a moment and saved at the crowd. Stevie's voice crackled as she said, "Happy Birthday, Christine Anne Perfect McVie! We love you, we miss you, and just because it's your special day...this is 'Landslide'."

Lindsey smiled at Stevie before he began the familiar opening chords to "Landslide", he could tell she was nervous. She had been playing with the ribbons on her mic stand obsessively all night, she had almost missed returning to her microphone to sing the lyric "Chain keep us together" with everyone, and her voice was extra squeaky and raspy as she'd wished Christine a happy birthday. He knew the source of her anxiety without even asking - Christine was not the only blonde woman with ties to the band the band...Kristen had come to the show tonight. She had not seen the Say You Will show yet, not that she had shown much interest in her husband's work since they'd been together, and Lindsey had shared with Stevie more than once how odd her found it that Kristen had been all about seeing the show during The Dance when they were casually seeing each other, but as soon as she'd accompanied him to Fleetwood Mac's induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, pregnant with Will and still suffering terribly with morning sickness, that had been it for her involvement with the band. To be fair, Stevie thought, Fleetwood Mac had been on a pretty serious break back then, which had allowed Stevie to go out on a massive tour and make Trouble In Shangri-La, but still, Lindsey had told her she never wanted to talk about his work, declined invitations out to dinner and events with Mick and Lynn or John and Julie when they'd extend them, and she'd balked at a trip to England when they were first married to see Christine, who had been clamoring for a Fleetwood Mac reunion of only a personal nature at her home in the English countryside. Stevie tried to be fair - after all, this was Lindsey's wife, the mother of his children - but Kristen's sudden interest in Fleetwood Mac made her wonder what she was up to.

Lindsey had held true to his word and not left Stevie and Kristen alone even once since the night she had revealed the cruel words Kristen had had for her just before her last birthday. She could still hear her more than a year later...

"I guess that's why it's so important to have children - so you can have people surrounding you as you age," Kristen said. "A woman like you wouldn't know the feeling of waking up on Mother's Day to a breakfast tray, or waking up super early to watch the kids open presents they still think are from Santa. I commend you for what you've accomplished, Stevie, but I'm sure it's an incredibly lonely journey that steals the femininity right out of you and can make you bitter if you're not careful." She sighed, folding her arms, Will and LeeLee on either side of her. "That's why maybe it's not such a great idea to be around the kids, Stevie; you wouldn't want our children making you resentful and depressed."