Robert Lawrence Welch Jr. (August 31, 1945 – June 7, 2012) was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974.
Bob's mother, Templeton Fox, was a singer and actress who worked with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre in Chicago and appeared in TV and movies from 1962 to 1979.
Welch told People in a 1979 interview that, in Paris, "I mostly smoked hash with bearded guys five years older" and spent most of his time "sitting in the Deux Magots café".
[2] The Seven Souls lost a battle of the bands competition, the prize being a contract with Epic Records, to Sly and the Family Stone.
Six months later, in 1972, the band released Bare Trees, which was mostly recorded at De Lane Lea Studios in Wembley, London, and featured Welch's "Sentimental Lady".
Mystery to Me contained Welch's song "Hypnotized", which earned significant FM radio airplay in the United States.
[7] By late 1973, internal stresses caused by a shifting line-up, touring, the deterioration of the McVies' marriage and an affair between Weston and Fleetwood's wife, Jenny Boyd, were debilitating to the band.
[8] The band's manager, Clifford Davis, refused to cancel the remaining 26 dates of the tour, fearing that this would destroy his reputation with bookers and promoters.
[9] In a letter to the remaining Fleetwood Mac members, he said he "had not slaved for years to be brought down by the whims of irresponsible musicians".
Warner Bros. made a new deal with Fleetwood Mac, releasing the album Heroes Are Hard to Find on Reprise in September 1974.
Welch was suffering with personal and professional issues: his marriage was failing, and he felt he had exhausted his creativity with the band.
Later, he explained that he felt estranged from John and Christine McVie, yet close to Fleetwood, with whom, he asserted, he was running the band in 1974.
During the height of their respective popularity in the late 1970s, Welch would frequently open for Fleetwood Mac and he would sit in as lead vocalist on "Hypnotized".
In 1994, Welch sued Fleetwood, the McVies, band attorney Michael Shapiro and Warner Bros. Records for breach of contract related to underpayment of royalties.
Previously, in 1978, Welch and the band had signed a contract with Warner Bros. agreeing to an equal share of all royalties from their Fleetwood Mac albums.
[14] When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, original band members Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie were named to the Hall, as were later additions Danny Kirwan, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, and Stevie Nicks.
"[15] In a 2003 online question-and-answer session on the Fleetwood Mac fan site The Penguin, Welch revised his opinion about the exclusion.
He instead blamed the Hall's committee and its industry insiders (such as Ahmet Ertegun and Jann Wenner), stating they did not like his style of music.
[15] In 1975, Welch formed the short-lived hard rock power trio Paris with ex-Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick and former Nazz drummer Thom Mooney.
The band's overhead and ensuing lack of commercial success drained Welch's finances, leaving him with only $8,000 in savings (equivalent to ~$35,000 in 2024) after its dissolution.
[1] In September 1977, Welch released his first solo album, French Kiss, a mainstream pop collection featuring contributions from Fleetwood, Buckingham, and Christine McVie.
It yielded three hit singles: a revamped version of "Sentimental Lady" produced by Buckingham and McVie (#8), "Ebony Eyes" (#14; featuring Juice Newton on backing vocals) and "Hot Love, Cold World" (#31).
Welch appeared as an avatar named BobWelch Magic in 2008, performing solo acoustic favorites and hits live for 30 minutes, in a show with Von Johin (musician/publisher Mike Lawson) and Cypress Rosewood (musician Tony Gerber) in the virtual world of Second Life, streaming live into the Gibson Island virtual stage from Lawson's studio.
An exhibit chronicling Bob Welch's career opened at The Musicians Hall of Fame at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee on August 27, 2018.
[27] Bob Welch is mentioned throughout episode one of season eighteen of Family Guy called "Yacht Rocky."
The main character, Peter Griffin, finds out that Bob Welch has passed away and takes a moment to lie down and stare at the ceiling while listening to "Sentimental Lady."