Filed under: Exclusive
Michael Putland, Hulton Archive
When I heard about
Bob Welch's death on June 7th -- allegedly from
a self-inflicted gunshot wound -- I was both sad and shocked. But it went beyond that. First, June 7th happens to be my birthday. Second, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bob more than once. The first time was when I was writing a daily oldies music service for a well-known radio network. After the interview, my boss decided she didn't want to run a piece on him after all. I challenged her but she was the boss and she won; the piece never ran and we never gave Bob the attention he deserved. It's been a recurring theme in his career. Frankly, I've been appalled at the coverage -- or, more accurately, the lack of coverage -- of his death. Though he wasn't a household name, Bob was far from obscure. He was best known, of course, for his tenure with
Fleetwood Mac. As a guitarist and singer-songwriter, Bob basically led the band during the first half of the '70s -- after their stint as a blues-rock combo fronted by Peter Green but before they became one of the biggest bands of all time with the addition of
Lindsey Buckingham and
Stevie Nicks. Bob was the first American to join the band, and his song "Future Games" became the title track of their 1971 album (his first with the band). He stayed with them through four more albums in as many years before leaving on good terms and striking out on his own. There's sometimes a misconception that Bob was ousted and replaced by Buckingham but this wasn't the case. It's just ironic that right after he left, Fleetwood Mac became very successful on the basis of their self-titled 1975 disc and then massive two years later with the release of
Rumours.
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