Welch joined a group shedding its electric-blues origins after the departures of original guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. But the “history,” as Fleetwood put it, is elusive without reason.īorn in Los Angeles, the son of a film producer and screenwriter, Welch was playing with a band in Paris when he was recommended by a mutual friend to what was left of Fleetwood Mac in 1971 – Fleetwood, guitarist Danny Kirwan, bassist John McVie and his wife, singer-pianist Christine McVie. Welch had a Top Ten solo hit in 1977 with a remake of Bare Trees‘ “Sentimental Lady,” and he returned to his Mac book in the last decade, cutting new versions of his songs from that period on records such as 2006’s Greatest Hits and More. The five studio albums Welch made with Fleetwood Mac – Future Games (1971), Bare Trees (1972), Penguin and Mystery to Me (both 1973) and Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974) – are still in print on CD but not available on Spotify or iTunes. Ironically, in the digital-music era, it isn’t easy to hear that work. “If you look into our musical history, you’ll see a huge period that was completely ensconced in Bob’s work.” “He was a huge part of our history which sometimes gets forgotten,” Fleetwood said in a statement. After ex- Fleetwood Mac singer-guitarist Bob Welch died on June 7th, by his own hand at his home in Nashville, his boss in the early Seventies, drummer and Mac co-founder Mick Fleetwood, paid tribute to Welch and his time in the group.