According to police, former member of Fleetwood Mac, Bob Welch, died on Thursday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Welch was 65. Don Aaron, a police spokesman, said that Welch was found by his wife with a chest wound at their home in south Nashville around 12:15 p.m. Welch served as a vocalist and guitarist for Fleetwood Mac from 1971-1974. In 1976, Welch formed Paris, a British rock group. In 1977 Welch had a hit called ‘Sentimental Lady’ and in 1978 he had a hit called ‘Ebony Eyes.’ Aaron said Welch was suffering from some health problems recently and that a suicide note was found.
The career of the band Fleetwood Mac took offer in the middle of the 1970s after Welch departed from the band. Welch is a native of Los Angeles and the highest one of his songs reached on the Billboard charts was ‘Sentimental Lady,’ which went as high as number eight. Welch was not included in the group when Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
“It basically comes down to the fact that they don’t like me anymore,” Welch said at the time. “I guess they can do what they want. I could understand it if I had been a sideman for a year. But I was an integral part of that band … I put more of myself into that band than anything else I’ve ever done.”
Stevie Nicks, the lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, said the following about Welch’s death:
“The death of Bob Welch is devastating … I had many great times with him after Lindsey and I joined Fleetwood Mac. He was an amazing guitar player — he was funny, sweet — and he was smart. I am so very sorry for his family and for the family of Fleetwood Mac — so, so sad …”
Fleetwood Mac began in 1967 when two former members of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers founded the group. Welch had a successful career as a songwriter too. His songs have been recorded by Kenny Rogers, the Pointer Sisters, Sammy Hagar and many more. Welch released a CD in 1999 called ‘Bob Welch Looks at Bop,’ which was a salute to bebop music in the decade of the 1940s. in 2003, Welch was interviewed by The Tennessean and said, “I just wanted to play guitar in a good band,” he said. “I wanted to make the music I love. I wanted to travel the world and have adventures. Music is disposable now. It doesn’t have the emotional impact anymore. That’s sad.”