In 1998, Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All the important band members the ones fans know by name were on the list, including founder Peter Green and early leaders Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan. Curiously missing was Bob Welch, the singer songwriter/guitarist who led the band through its most troubled and tenuous years. At the time of the induction, the band wasn't very glad with Welch, who had four years earlier sued the group for back royalties."So I understand why they didn't want to see me," Welch said in a current telephone interview from his home in Nashville, Tenn. Regardless, it was a short sighted snub, considering that by drummer Mick Fleetwood's own admission, Welch kept the band together during some very lean times."(Fleetwood) put a whole chapter in his autobiography about me and my time in the band, so I know they appreciate what I did."Welch joined Fleetwood Mac in 1971, just as it was sputtering to the end of its days as the dominant British blues band. Four years later, the band struck gold when it added two fresh faced young Californians to the lineup, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. The in between time the caretaker years, if you will belonged largely to Bob Welch. "It was not the happiest time for the band," he recalled. But in many ways, Welch deserves credit for helping to position the band for the massive success it would later have."I don't think any of them have specially wonderful memories of that time, but it was a bridge, an important transition," said Welch, who in his semiretirement continues to write songs and occasionally perform. He'll play with the Atlanta Rhythm Section on Sunday, July 18, at Hersheypark Amphitheatre. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Welch belonged to a family of entertainers. His father was a successful producer for Paramount Pictures, his mother a professional singer and actress.Welch played guitar in an R&B group called the Seven Souls and a hard rock trio called Head West before being invited to Fleetwood Mac's country house in Southern England in the summer of 1971."There was no formal audition," he recalled. "We just hung out and jammed … drank coffee and smoked hash. I think they were looking for someone they could get along with as a person. They weren't looking for a hotshot guitarist."The five albums Fleetwood Mac would make with Welch "Future Games," "Bare Trees," "Penguin," "Mystery to Me" and "Heroes are Hard to Find" sold only modestly in the U.S. and even more poorly in England, but remain treasured gems to serious fans. The old bluesy Mac was still there in the rhythm section, but Welch helped push the band toward a more mellow, slightly psychedelic direction. His "Sentimental Lady" and "Hypnotized" were nearly hits. The band was making decent music and drawing consistent crowds, but money was tight. They resorted to all kinds of tricks to save a buck, like bribing airline baggage handlers to load the band's heavy gear without weighing or charging for it. "So the pilot would be taking off with 2,000 pounds on board he wasn't aware of. … Not something you could get away with today, and pretty dangerous actually. "None of Welch's Mac albums ever broke out of the low six figure sales range, though the group would go on to sell 40 million copies of its work from the later 1970s. By then, the band had completely phased out the Welch era from its concert repertoire.In 1973, things had gotten actually bad for Fleetwood Mac. The pair was forced to cancel an entire tour, and in a bizarre move, their manager put a fake Fleetwood Mac on the road, claiming he owned the name. Fans were not amused, and the real group was left inactive for nine months while the lawyers fought it out. It was then that Welch made perhaps his most important nonmusical contribution to the band: He got them to leave England. Fleetwood Mac was selling more seats and records in America, and if they ever hoped to get a better record deal, it would be better for them to be in the music industry capital of the world."Christine (McVie) particularly did not want to leave England, but it was tough for everyone. We basically had to empty our savings accounts to move to Los Angeles and then just barely got by because we couldn't work for about nine months. "It was a bit of a culture shock coming from a country estate in rural England to the heat and concrete of southern California. In the end, though, it was the right move, and the group emerged victorious from the legal mess. But it had sapped all of Bob's energy in the process."It just left everyone deflated. I suppose if we had had more commercial success it would have been easier. And at the time, I wanted to go in a harder rock direction; they didn't. I was all of 29 years old and thought I was running out of time," Welch said, laughing. When Buckingham and Nicks joined the group in January 1975 (also without an audition), Welch was asked to stay on, but opted not to a gross miscalculation. He got precisely nowhere with a hard rock trio called Paris before striking gold on his own (really, platinum) in 1977 with "French Kiss," a slice of prime 1970s FM pop that featured the disco rocker "Ebony Eyes" and a slick new version of "Sentimental Lady" that became a Top 10 hit with the help of his old friends from Fleetwood Mac. Almost the entire band played on the track."We remained close friends. We toured together … all together on the same plane. It was kind of like a big family. Mick became my manager for a while, which was convenient. We would go to interviews together. He would talk about their record and be there to help promote mine."Welch is even in the photo collage that adorns the inside of the "Rumours" gatefold sleeve.By the early 1980s though, Welch's hit streak had come to an end and he struggled to regain his pace.He hosted a pre MTV video program called "Hollywood Heartbeat," tried hard rock again with a group called Avenue M based in Arizona, overcame a heroin addiction and landed in Nashville in the early 1990s.Since the Hall of Fame induction, Welch has mended fences with the Fleetwood Mac family. He and the band settled the royalty suit out of court. "I talk to Mick pretty regularly now."They hung backstage together when the band played Nashville on its most current tour. Welch has no plans to try to lobby for inclusion in the Hall of Fame."Even though I'm not officially in there, I'm mentioned in the exhibit. … And personally, at this point, it doesn't matter to me much. I'm not going to start a campaign or anything."Despite the difficulties of his Fleetwood Mac days, the Hall of Fame snub and the fact that none of the band's albums from his era were given a proper CD remastering, Welch is satisfied with his legacy in the group, both as a member and afterward."It was a golden era for all of us, actually."
