Dennis Wilson and Christine McVie started dating in the late 1970s. Their relationship was going quite well, but problems began to arise. Wilson was caring and sweet, but according to McVie, she increasingly needed to take on the role of his mother. So, it was starting to strain her. Yet, it didn’t just end there.
As she later explained, it was the kind of relationship in which you experienced all those emotions to the extreme: love, passion, happiness, and, of course, anger and sadness. Also, Wilson was drinking excessively then, and Fleetwood Mac had a world infested by cocaine. The roles in the relationship, the feelings, and the addiction were starting to wear them out.
Time passed, and the expected end came. Although the two had a loving and caring relationship, these beauties began to deteriorate one by one towards the end. McVie later said that Wilson was a mess to take care of but was a sweet, loving, and charismatic one. Speaking to BBC in 2017, the late keyboardist said, “He was a mess, but he was charismatic, charming, and really handsome. He swept me off my feet big time, and we had a very rollercoaster affair for a couple of years. I just adored him.”
However, love began not to be enough to cover up other problems. Their breakup had not been good at all, as McVie later revealed. They didn’t even speak for a long time. Then, when McVie received the news of Wilson’s death in 1983, they didn’t have a chance to fix things anymore.
There is only one song left from the three years they spent together. Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 track ‘Only Over You’ was written by McVie to Wilson and released as part of their ‘Mirage’ album. It would later be described as McVie’s ‘last declaration of love’ towards Wilson. Christine tried to express those overwhelming feelings that she could not cope with in the way she knew best, with the music vessel.
Not long after this song came out, she received the news that Dennis had drowned. Of course, as often happens, she couldn’t process his death at first. She thought he was ‘indestructible,’ so she couldn’t just believe that he was gone. Thus, this rollercoaster relationship was over forever, yet leaving behind a song that would immortalize all those intense emotions.
