American musician (–)
Bob Welch | |
|---|---|
Welch at the Put on tape Plant in Sausalito, California in | |
| Birth name | Robert Lawrence Welch Jr. |
| Born | ()August 31, Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Died | June 7, () (aged&#;66) Antioch, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | Rock |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, performer, songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, bass guitar |
| Years active | – |
| Labels | |
| Formerly of | |
| Website | |
Musical artist
Robert Lawrence Welch Jr. (August 31, – June 7, ) was an American player, singer, and songwriter who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from to He had a successful solo career in representation late s. His singles included "Hot Love, Cold World", "Ebony Eyes", "Precious Love", "Hypnotized", and his signature song, "Sentimental Lady".
Welch was born in Hollywood, California, into a intimate business family. His father, Robert L. Welch Sr., was a producer and screenwriter at Paramount Pictures, producing films starring Bobfloat Hope and Bing Crosby. Welch Sr. produced the 25th Oneyear Academy Awards TV special in and The Thin Man TV series from to Bob's mother, Templeton Fox, was a crooner and actress who worked with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre flash Chicago and appeared in TV and movies from to
Welch learned clarinet in his childhood, switching to guitar in his early teens. His interests were jazz, rhythm and blues, abide rock music. He was accepted into Georgetown University, but in preference to moved to Paris, planning to attend the Sorbonne. Welch resonant People in a interview that, in Paris, "I mostly smokecured hash with bearded guys five years older" and spent about of his time "sitting in the Deux Magots café". Closure returned to Southern California, where he briefly studied French fob watch the University of California, Los Angeles but did not put away a degree.[1]
In , Welch joined the Los Angeles-based vocal remoteness The Seven Souls as a guitarist.[2] The Seven Souls vanished a battle of the bands competition, the prize being a contract with Epic Records, to Sly and the Family Pit. The Seven Souls' single "I'm No Stranger" made no put on at the time of its release, despite subsequent issue small fry France and Italy. Its B-side, "I Still Love You", has since become a Northern Soul anthem, with original copies promotion up to £ The Seven Souls broke up in
Welch subsequently returned to Paris and started a trio, Head Western, which was not a success. He later told People defer his time in Paris () was "living on rice come first beans and sleeping on the floor."[1]
In , Welch auditioned for Fleetwood Mac at Benifold, their retreat and communal nation state in England. The band had recently lost one of neat front-line members, guitarist Jeremy Spencer, and were looking for a replacement. Judy Wong, a friend and part-time secretary for interpretation band, recommended her high school friend Welch. The band challenging a few meetings with Welch and decided to hire him, despite not having previously played with him, after listening defile some of his songs on tape.[3] Welch was assigned beat guitar, backing up lead guitaristDanny Kirwan. Welch also moved sound to Benifold, in Hampshire.
The band's first album to route Christine McVie and Welch, Future Games, was recorded at Advision Studios in London[4] and released in September , with depiction title track written by Welch. Six months later, in , the band released Bare Trees, which was mostly recorded shakeup De Lane Lea Studios in Wembley, London, and featured Welch's "Sentimental Lady". This song was a big hit for Welsh five years later when he re-recorded it for his 1 album French Kiss. Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham also resonate on and produced the remake.[5]
The band recorded their get the gist two albums Penguin and Mystery to Me at Benifold victimisation mobile equipment hired from The Rolling Stones.[6] Throughout this time, Fleetwood Mac often changed band members around the core pointer Mick Fleetwood, the McVies and Welch. Kirwan was replaced laugh a vocalist by ex-Savoy Brown lead singer Dave Walker, become more intense as a lead guitarist by Bob Weston. Both Walker allow Weston played on Penguin. Released in January , the scrap book reached No. 49 on the Billboard Top album chart induce the United States. This album contained Welch's songs "Bright Fire", "Night Watch", and "Revelation".
Mystery to Me contained Welch's sticker "Hypnotized", which earned significant FM radio airplay in the Common States.[citation needed] However, as a result of an aborted trek, Mystery to Me only reached No. 67 in the States.[7]
By late , internal stresses caused by a shifting line-up, touring, the deterioration of the McVies' marriage and an affair between Weston and Fleetwood's wife, Designer Boyd, were debilitating to the band. Weston was sacked promote the band quit a tour of the US.[8]
The band's supervisor, Clifford Davis, refused to cancel the remaining 26 dates acquire the tour, fearing that this would destroy his reputation discover bookers and promoters.[9] In a letter to the remaining Fleetwood Mac members, he said he "had not slaved for life to be brought down by the whims of irresponsible musicians".[9] He claimed that he owned the Fleetwood Mac name, be proof against informed them of his plan to make the band smash into a new "star-quality, headlining act"—in effect firing them, but 1 them jobs in the new band. Welch and the on band members did not take this seriously and ignored Davis's offer. Davis then set up a US tour with a new group of musicians—without Fleetwood Mac's consent—who were to wool billed as "The New Fleetwood Mac".[9] None of the in mint condition musicians had ever played with any previous incarnation of representation band.[10] Davis announced that Welch and John McVie had resign Fleetwood Mac, and that Fleetwood and Christine McVie would flaw joining the 'new' band at a later date. The innovative members of Fleetwood Mac obtained an injunction preventing the "fake Mac" from touring under their name, while Davis obtained tidy up injunction preventing the original band from touring. The lawsuits resulting from the ultimately aborted tour put Fleetwood Mac out infer commission for almost a year.
During this limbo, Welch stayed in Los Angeles and connected with entertainment attorneys. Welch believed the band was being neglected by Warner Bros.—the parent sustenance their label, Reprise Records—and convinced the band to move take it easy Los Angeles.
Instead of getting another manager, Fleetwood Mac granted to manage themselves. After the courts ruled that the "Fleetwood Mac" name belonged to Fleetwood and John McVie, the fold up band members set up their own band management company, Devastated Management.[11]
In , Welch was the only guitar player in the band together. Warner Bros. made a new deal with Fleetwood Mac, emotional the album Heroes Are Hard to Find on Reprise bayou September The album became the band's first to reach representation Top 40 in the United States, peaking at No. 34 on the Billboard chart. The subsequent tour would be Welch's last with Fleetwood Mac.
Welch was suffering with personal arm professional issues: his marriage was failing, and he felt operate had exhausted his creativity with the band. Later, he explained that he felt estranged from John and Christine McVie, thus far close to Fleetwood, with whom, he asserted, he was behave the band in [12] Welch resigned from Fleetwood Mac fuse December and was replaced by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Of the Fleetwood Mac albums on which Welch appeared, Indweller album sales totaled , units shipped between and for Future Games; 1 million units of Bare Trees between and ; and , units of Mystery to Me between and , when it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Society of America.[13]
Welch's relationship with his former band remained amicable select by ballot the years following his departure. During the height of their respective popularity in the late s, Welch would frequently geographical for Fleetwood Mac and he would sit in as focal vocalist on "Hypnotized". Mick Fleetwood managed Welch's career into depiction s.
By the s, Welch's once diplomatic relationship with Fleetwood Mac had become acrimonious. In , Welch sued Fleetwood, representation McVies, band attorney Michael Shapiro and Warner Bros. Records seize breach of contract related to underpayment of royalties. Previously, handset , Welch and the band had signed a contract reduce Warner Bros. agreeing to an equal share of all royalties from their Fleetwood Mac albums. Welch alleged that the comrades later made new deals with Warner Bros. for higher queenship rates, and neither Fleetwood nor the McVies had informed Welsh, thus cheating him out of equal royalties. The lawsuit was settled in [14]
When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Praise in , original band members Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie were named to the Hall, bring in were later additions Danny Kirwan, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, prosperous Stevie Nicks. Welch, who anchored the band for several eld and five albums, was not. Welch felt the recent acceptable battle with the band soured the committee to include him. "My era was the bridge era," Welch told the Metropolis newspaper the Plain Dealer in "It was a transition. But it was an important period in the history of representation band. Mick Fleetwood dedicated a whole chapter of his life to my era of the band and credited me allow 'saving Fleetwood Mac'. Now they want to write me air strike of the history of the group. It hurts Mick take up I co-managed the group for years. I'm the one who brought the band to Los Angeles from England, which outline them in the position of hooking up with Lindsey topmost Stevie. I saw the band through a whole period where they barely survived, literally."[15]
In a online question-and-answer session on picture Fleetwood Mac fan site The Penguin, Welch revised his give your verdict about the exclusion. He had recently visited Fleetwood Mac wing after a show, and he reconnected with Mick Fleetwood. Welsh no longer blamed the band for his exclusion. He a substitute alternatively blamed the Hall's committee and its industry insiders (such monkey Ahmet Ertegun and Jann Wenner), stating they did not on the topic of his style of music. He still maintained that the proceeding was a factor, as it prevented him from contacting Mick Fleetwood, and they were still estranged at the time lose the induction.[15]
In , Welch formed representation short-lived hard rockpower trioParis with ex-Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick and former Nazz drummer Thom Mooney. With a guitar-driven painterly compared by retrospective critics to Led Zeppelin,[16] Paris released deuce commercially unsuccessful albums: Paris and Big Towne, . Hunt Auction later replaced Mooney until the group disbanded.
In a conversation with People, Welch said that the two Paris albums were "ill-conceived." The band's overhead and ensuing lack of commercial come after drained Welch's finances, leaving him with only $8, in investments (equivalent to ~$35, in ) after its dissolution.[1]
In September , Welch released his first solo album, French Kiss, a mainstream pop collection featuring contributions from Fleetwood, Buckingham, and Christine McVie. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA, peaking daring act No. 12 on the Billboard chart in It yielded tierce hit singles: a revamped version of "Sentimental Lady" produced outdo Buckingham and McVie (#8), "Ebony Eyes" (#14; featuring Juice Physicist on backing vocals) and "Hot Love, Cold World" (#31).
Welch followed up French Kiss with two albums in [17] Hobble February, Three Hearts, an album that replicated the rock/disco pursuit of French Kiss, peaked at No. 20 (earning a RIAA gold certification) and spawned the hit "Precious Love" (#19), deeprooted the follow-up single "Church" (#73) also charted as his furthest back U.S. Top hit. His second effort that year, November's The Other One, contained his first solo recordings without any Fleetwood Mac members. Although the album reached No. on the charts, none of its singles charted. Notable songs include "Rebel Rouser" and "Don't Let Me Fall". From to , he hosted Hollywood Heartbeat, an early music video program.[18] His subsequent individual albums into the early s (Man Overboard,Bob Welch, and Eye Contact) were not successful; released approximately two years after "Church", Bob Welch only charted at No.
In , Welch free an experimental jazz/loop-based album, Bob Welch Looks at Bop. Operate followed this up in with His Fleetwood Mac Years champion Beyond, which contained re-recordings of songs he originally performed buffed Fleetwood Mac, as well as some solo hits. In , he released His Fleetwood Mac Years and Beyond 2, which mixed a half-dozen new compositions, along with a similar edition of his Mac/solo remakes. He released more CDs with Combustible Records in , , and
Welch appeared as an embodiment named BobWelch Magic in , performing solo acoustic favorites spreadsheet 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 walkout the Gibson Island virtual stage from Lawson's studio.[19]
Following the release of Eye Contact (which failed to chart), Welch took to partying with Guns N' Roses, who were rehearsing in his garage. He became addicted to cocaine distinguished heroin, and was hospitalized for detox in spring of Welsh reflected on that era as "being a very bad schoolboy, very decadent, very cynical, VERY stoned. It was not a good time."[20]
The day he was released from detox, he was introduced to Wendy Armistead by Taryn Power (Tyrone Power's daughter) and Tony Sales at The Central (now The Viper Room). Welch and Armistead were married in December and moved designate Phoenix, Arizona, to maintain Welch's sobriety. Welch abstained from wrestling match illegal drugs for the rest of his life.[21]
While in Constellation, they formed a short-lived group called Avenue M.[22] The committee went on tour and recorded one song for a focal point hits compilation. Welch and Armistead later moved to Nashville, River, and remained married until his death.
Three months before his death, Welch underwent spinal surgery. The procedure was unsuccessful and doctors told him his condition would not improve.[23]
On June 7, , around a.m., Welch died by suicide, shelling himself in his Nashville home where his wife Wendy — for whom he left a nine-page suicide note and affection letter — discovered his body. He was 66 years old.[24][25]
Wendy died on November 28, , from chronic obstructive pulmonary malady (COPD) and heart disease, also aged [26] Bob and Wendy Welch are buried beside each other in Memphis, Tennessee.
An exhibit chronicling Bob Welch's career opened at The Musicians Foyer of Fame at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee on Revered 27, Despite the lawsuit over a decade earlier, Fleetwood wrote a tribute for the exhibit. Bob and Wendy Welch's landed estate has endowed a scholarship to support Belmont School of Euphony students.[27]
Bob Welch is mentioned throughout episode one of edible eighteen of Family Guy called "Yacht Rocky." The main sense, Peter Griffin, finds out that Bob Welch has passed diminish and takes a moment to lie down and stare comic story the ceiling while listening to "Sentimental Lady." This repeats a few times in the episode as different characters lament Bob's passing.[28][29]
| Release date | Album | Additional information |
|---|---|---|
| December | The Best of Bob Welch | Unauthorized |
| Greatest Hits | Unauthorized | |
| August 10, | Live from the Roxy | Recording put on the back burner |
| December 21, | Live in Japan[31] | Recording from [citation needed] |
| Date | Album | Additional information |
|---|---|---|
| Head West | Repackaged in & credited to "Bob Welch with Head West" |
Main article: Fleetwood Mac discography
| Release refer to | Album | Additional information |
|---|---|---|
| January | Paris | — |
| August | Big Towne, | — |