Bob Welch, a vocalist, composer, and guitarist, achieved brief mainstream popularity in the closing years of the 1970s after completing a four-year membership in Fleetwood Mac before the ensemble reached its commercial peak. He joined in 1971 as Jeremy Spencer’s replacement and appeared on the LPs Future Games (1971), Bare Trees (1972), Penguin (1973), Mystery to Me (1973), and Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974). His most memorable contribution during that period arrived with the atmospheric, jazz-tinged “Hypnotized” from Mystery to Me.
Although invited to continue after Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks entered the group, Welch departed to launch the hard-rock trio Paris. The lineup included former Jethro Tull bass guitarist Glenn Cornick, ex-Nazz drummer Thom Mooney, and future Tin Machine drummer Hunt Sales; the band issued two albums in 1976 that met with little critical approval. Welch next pursued openly commercial pop and found immediate traction with French Kiss, a platinum-certified 1977 release that contained the hit singles “Sentimental Lady,” a re-recording of the Bare Trees track, and “Ebony Eyes.”
Three Hearts, issued in 1979, followed the same blueprint yet earned only gold status; its single “Precious Love” reached the Top 40. Both projects included guest performances by Fleetwood Mac members. Welch continued releasing albums through 1983, though each subsequent effort sold fewer copies than the last.
In 1987 he relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where he assembled Avenue M. By the late ’90s he had moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to concentrate on songwriting. Welch also engaged in public disagreements with his former Fleetwood Mac colleagues. In 1994 he filed suit alleging underpayment of royalties from his years in the band. The matter was resolved privately, yet Welch maintained that Fleetwood Mac later excluded him from the group’s 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction; he remains the only early member omitted from that honor. On June 7, 2012, Bob Welch died at his Nashville home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 65.
