Bob Welch

Robert Lawrence Welch Jr. (August 31, 1945 – June 7, 2012), commonly known as Bob Welch, was a singer, songwriter and guitarist with Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974. After leaving the group he pursued a solo career.

Before Fleetwood Mac[]

Welch was born in Los Angeles where his father was a film producer. He took up clarinet as a child before switching to guitar. His first band was called the Seven Souls but his recording career began with a short lived rhythm and blues trio, Head West, who cut one studio album before disbanding.

Fleetwood Mac[]

Welch knew the band's friend Judy Wong and was recommended by her to the band following the sudden departure of Jeremy Spencer. He was recruited before he had even played a note with them on account of his well-balanced personality.

Over his period with the group, Welch would appear on five of their albums. His songs include, Future Games, Sentimental Lady and Hypnotized. Initially he only came out with about two songs per album and stuck to playing rhythm guitar but by the 1973 album Mystery to Me, his fourth with the group, was contributing considerably more and wrote or co-wrote seven of the album's twelve songs - an eighth entitled Good Things (Come To Those Who Wait) was dropped at the last minute in favour of a cover of the Yardbirds' For Your Love.

After the firing of Bob Weston and the subsequent fake Fleetwood Mac scandal, it was Welch who persuaded the rest of the group that a move to America would be expedient. The first album recorded after the move, Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974) featured Welch not only contributing seven out of the eleven songs but also handling all the guitars (barring a pedal steel contribution from Sneaky Pete Kleinow) but shortly after its release he left the group, tired from all the scandal and legal battles.

Paris[]

Welch's first project after Fleetwood Mac was a power trio called Paris formed with original Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick (by then married to Judy Wong) and Thom Mooney formerly drummer with Todd Rundgren's project Nazz. They released two albums in 1976, a self-titled debut and, with erstwhile David Bowie sidesman Hunt Sales replacing Mooney, Big Towne 2061 but split shortly after the release of the latter.

Solo career[]

In 1977, Welch cut his first solo album French Kiss financed by Mick Fleetwood. The first single released from the album was a rerecording of Sentimental Lady featuring Fleetwood along with Christine McVie and Welch's replacement in Fleetwood Mac Lindsey Buckingham. Christine also sang on two other tracks. Sentimental Lady peaked at #8 on Billboard and two other singles Ebony Eyes and Hot Love, Cold World also reached the US Top 40.

A second album, Three Hearts was released in 1979 featuring contributions from Fleetwood, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. A single, Precious Love, peaked at #19 on Billboard.

Welch recorded two more albums for Capitol, The Other One (1979) which featured a rerecording of Future Games, and Man Overboard (1980) but soon switched to RCA for the less successful Bob Welch (1981) and Eye Contact (1983).

A long silence followed during which Welch battled drug problems and had the likes of Guns 'n Roses squatting in his house. Aside from a couple of new tracks for compilations, nothing new appeared until Bob Welch Looks at Bop in 1999. Among its tracks was Hustler, an explicit rewrite of Silver Heels from Heroes Are Hard to Find.

In the 2000s, Welch released two albums of rerecordings of his songs from both his time in Fleetwood Mac and after. An EP followed in 2009 followed by a cover of Led Zeppelin's Black Dog and an album of jazz standards but a period of both physical and mental illness led to his death in 2012 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.