Stevie Nicks Honors Christine McVie at 2023 Tour Kickoff

Stevie Nicks paid tribute to the late Christine McVie on Friday during the first date of her co-headlining tour with Billy Joel, delivering an emotional, tearful rendition of the Fleetwood Mac classic “Landslide.”

You can watch video of the performance below.

Nicks ended her 16-song set at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium with the poignant acoustic ballad. Pictures of her and McVie flashed on the screens behind her as she sang. When the song ended, she clutched the microphone stand and began to cry, then told the audience, “There’s really not much to say. We just will pretend that she’s still here. That’s how I’m trying to deal with it. Thank you for listening.”

Friday’s concert marked Nicks’ first performance of 2023 and first performance since McVie died on Nov. 30 at the age of 79. Nicks shared a handwritten note to Twitter the same day in which she called McVie “my best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975.” She also quoted the lyrics to Haim‘s 2020 song “Hallelujah,” which she had hoped to sing to her: ”I had a best friend but she has come to pass – one I wish I could see now. … You were there to protect me like a shield, long hair running with me through the field.“

McVie reflected on her friendship with Nicks in a 2014 archival Rolling Stone interview published after her death. ”We met and I instantly liked her,” McVie said. “She and I are not competitive in any way at all. We’re totally different, but totally sympathetic with each other. We are dear, dear friends. We don’t have any competition on stage. She is who she is. I am who I am. Easy, easy, easy.”

The “Songbird” author had no shortage of superlatives to describe Nicks. “She’s an icon. She’s a genius. She’s a lovely, kind, beautiful woman and I love her to death,” McVie said. “She and I are different, and I can’t not love the woman. She’s just amazing. She’s very, very generous in every, single department – in every single department.”

Co-founding Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood said last month that he suspects the band is finished following the death of McVie. ”I think right now, I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with the loss of Chris,” he said during an interview at the Grammys (via The Los Angeles Times). “I’d say we’re done, but then we’ve all said that before. It’s sort of unthinkable right now.”