Bob Welch - Telegraph Welch's last album with the group was Heroes Are Hard to Find, released in 1974. In September that year he resigned. The band was later joined by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and in 1977 released Rumours, regarded by some as one of the best albums ever recorded. Robert Lawrence Welch was born in Los Angeles on August 31 1945, the son of the Hollywood producer Robert Welch and the actress Templeton Fox. Bob showed musical talent from a young age, and in his teens began to lean towards jazz and rhythm and blues. After studying French at the Sorbonne in Paris (where, as he put it, "I mostly smoked hash with bearded guys five years older") he returned to America and a similar course at the University of California at Los Angeles, but dropped out before completing his degree. For a time Welch played guitar with various bands in America and in Paris before being invited to join Fleetwood Mac. He featured on a number of albums, including Future Games (1971), for which he wrote the title song; Bare Trees (1972); and Mystery to Me (1973). Bare Trees featured his song Sentimental Lady, with which Welch later had a hit as a solo artist. In 1975 Welch founded a hard rock group called Paris. They released two albums before he decided to go it alone. His debut solo album, French Kiss (1977), went platinum, and two of its tracks - Sentimental Lady (with Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham providing backup vocals) and Ebony Eyes - became hit singles. Welch followed up with five more albums in the years up to 1983, although none achieved similar success. Welch moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1987, forming a band called Avenue M. In the late Nineties he went to live in Nashville, where he worked as a songwriter (his songs have been recorded by a number of artists, including Kenny Rogers and The Pointer Sisters) and released several albums, including Bob Welch Looks At Bop and His Fleetwood Mac Years and Beyond. In 1994 Welch sued Fleetwood Mac, claiming unpaid royalties, an act which is said to have led to his exclusion from the group's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction four years later. The matter was settled in 1996. Welch died from a gunshot wound at his home in Nashville. He had recently been in poor health, and is reported to have left a suicide note. His death came six months after that of Bob Weston, who died in January at the age of 64. Bob Welch is survived by his wife, Wendy, whom he married in 1985. Bob Welch, born August 31 1945, died June 7 2012