When Exactly Did Bob Welch Leave Fleetwood Mac?

[WalkAThinLine.]

Most accounts list the generic December 1974 as his departure date, but I'm curious exactly what day he left the band and when the band mobilized to recruit Lindsey and Stevie. Welch's last performance with the band to my understanding was December 15, 1974, so that provides roughly a two week time span of when he could have departed. Based on certain accounts, Mick contacted Keith Olsen around New Year's Eve to receive Buckingham's phone number, so I'm thinking that Bob's departure was later in the month.

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by WalkAThinLine.

Most accounts list the generic December 1974 as his departure date, but I'm curious exactly what day he left the band and when the band mobilized to recruit Lindsey and Stevie. Welch's last performance with the band to my understanding was December 15, 1974, so that provides roughly a two week time span of when he could have departed. Based on certain accounts, Mick contacted Keith Olsen around New Year's Eve to receive Buckingham's phone number, so I'm thinking that Bob's departure was later in the month.

not sure it's been made public which exact date he left. i've always just assumed it was soon after that last show in dec.In that dance group interview in 97, mick had said 'there was a 5% chance' that bob might leave and chris interjected, 'i think it was a bit more than 5%' and john added, 'the writing was on the wall.' so maybe they suspected he'd be taking off... but mick heard BN while Bob was still in the band, so i wonder if that was before december...it probably was.


--Lis

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by Penguin Emeritus

not sure it's been made public which exact date he left. i've always just assumed it was soon after that last show in dec.In that dance group interview in 97, mick had said 'there was a 5% chance' that bob might leave and chris interjected, 'i think it was a bit more than 5%' and john added, 'the writing was on the wall.' so maybe they suspected he'd be taking off... but mick heard BN while Bob was still in the band, so i wonder if that was before december...it probably was.


--Lis

Ha ha
I never heard or remember that interview from the Dance. However there is a Bob interview on youtube that he says in his own words how much he hated working with the band and how much he could not wait to leave (I am paraphrasing of course). He also said the band hated him and resented him for the music he was making immediately after leaving Fleetwood Mac. He said the band hated his music so much that the band felt his music was going to hurt Fleetwood Mac. I sort of have a memory of Mick also describing Bob was not happy in his books. So I am surprised he said 5% chance.
On Bob's old website he would write how the McVies acted like royalty and Mick and Chris hated his talking during Bermuda Triangle and would give him side eye.
Of course once Fleetwood Mac became superstars they all loved each other again.....well at least until the mid 90s

What is amazing is how fast his replacement came. That live radio show was in December 1974? And just a few weeks later they go out and get drunk on margaritas and hire a guitarist they never played with before.

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Ha ha
I never heard or remember that interview from the Dance. However there is a Bob interview on youtube that he says in his own words how much he hated working with the band and how much he could not wait to leave (I am paraphrasing of course). He also said the band hated him and resented him for the music he was making immediately after leaving Fleetwood Mac. He said the band hated his music so much that the band felt his music was going to hurt Fleetwood Mac. I sort of have a memory of Mick also describing Bob was not happy in his books. So I am surprised he said 5% chance.
On Bob's old website he would write how the McVies acted like royalty and Mick and Chris hated his talking during Bermuda Triangle and would give him side eye.
Of course once Fleetwood Mac became superstars they all loved each other again.....well at least until the mid 90s

What is amazing is how fast his replacement came. That live radio show was in December 1974? And just a few weeks later they go out and get drunk on margaritas and hire a guitarist they never played with before.

i remember him saying the band hated his album after he left (and that he took satisfaction in that!), but not that they hated *him*. that's sad if bob felt that way...but 1974 was not a good year for the band or for their marriages, so maybe everybody was just tired and cranky and getting on each other's nerves.

chris and john have both only said pretty nice things about bob, from what i recall. i wonder what they were doing that made bob think they were acting like royalty lol. maybe it was just a very obvious american/british divide in terms of behavior/mindset/expectations. or maybe bob was exhausted from doing as much as he did to try and keep the band going w the lawsuit, getting them all to move to the US etc.. mentally he was prob just done with it all.

--Lis

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by Penguin Emeritus

i remember him saying the band hated his album after he left (and that he took satisfaction in that!), but not that they hated *him*. that's sad if bob felt that way...but 1974 was not a good year for the band or for their marriages, so maybe everybody was just tired and cranky and getting on each other's nerves.

chris and john have both only said pretty nice things about bob, from what i recall. i wonder what they were doing that made bob think they were acting like royalty lol. maybe it was just a very obvious american/british divide in terms of behavior/mindset/expectations. or maybe bob was exhausted from doing as much as he did to try and keep the band going w the lawsuit, getting them all to move to the US etc.. mentally he was prob just done with it all.

--Lis

No I dont think the band ever "hated" Bob. But Bob was not comfortable anymore with the Brits. There is an old story that I believe was on Bob's old site that Lindsey ran into Bob while recording the White album at some club and Lindsey asked Bob, "How the hell could you stand to be around these people?"

But regardless of what happened in 1974, everyone was rich and happy by 1977. The Mac were superstars and filthy rich. Bob had a top 12 solo album with 2 charting hits. Love was in the air until it wasn't
Bob's side of the lawsuit really made Mick and the band look desperate. Bob and the band signed a royalty deal on the older albums that suddenly had new interest. In the Mac's darkest years early 90s when it looked like they may be over Bob finds out the band had renegotiated the royalties deal without him. To fight Bob was so penny pinching. The case was settled but it came from the darkest period of the band which is why the band was probably fighting over nickels.

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

No I dont think the band ever "hated" Bob. But Bob was not comfortable anymore with the Brits. There is an old story that I believe was on Bob's old site that Lindsey ran into Bob while recording the White album at some club and Lindsey asked Bob, "How the hell could you stand to be around these people?"

But regardless of what happened in 1974, everyone was rich and happy by 1977. The Mac were superstars and filthy rich. Bob had a top 20 solo album with 2 charting hits. Love was in the air until it wasn't

Yeah i get a kick out of that story with lindsey. I'd imagine it must have been a bit of a head trip to try and finagle your way into the tight bonds that existed between the 3 brits....they could read each other like books and had been around long enough to prob feel a little possessive of the band and maybe distrustful or skeptical of newcomers and their contributions.

i laughed at bob's description in his Q&A about how it felt w them...can't recall exactly but along the lines of mick being like your weird cousin who spoke by making faces, john was your alcoholic uncle who you had to humor, chris was your crotchety aunt who also made crotch jokes ..... i mean i'm sure it was no picnic at times, being in the middle of everyone's moods and idiosyncrasies!

--Lis

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

In the Mac's darkest years early 90s when it looked like they may be over Bob finds out the band had renegotiated the royalties deal without him.

Was that the first seed that led to the decision not to include him in R&R Hall of Fame 1998 ceremony?

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by WalkAThinLine.

Most accounts list the generic December 1974 as his departure date,

Well, here is Mick's account:

It happened after a minor incident. We were playing in Las Vegas and things were strained. It didn't seem that serious, but I could sense that something was in the air. In the kitchen after a gig, Bob sort of snapped and Chris said "F++k you" either then or later; my memories of this are hazy because it was nothing heavy. Unfortunately, it happened at the end of the tour, as we were about to make a new album. Bob simply said that he was leaving, and it wasn't a massive surprise.

"I felt like we were just going around in circles," Bob says. "Fleetwood Mac was floundering then, and the essential creative freshness had faded. I thought I needed to strike out on my own and find another context. They felt all they had to do was to add new blood. I could've stayed, but I felt that if I didn't test myself now, I'd never do it. I remember John McVie said, 'Bob, it's rough out there; you don't realize what you're throwing away for some possibility that doesn't exist.' I knew what he meant. Fleetwood Mac is a marriage you don't give it up easily. Mick tried to convince me to stay, but..."

It was almost New Year's Eve when Bob left the band. There was some upset over the latest defection John Courage destroyed an amp when he was told, emblematic of the crew's frustration with the foibles of musicians but I just said not to worry, that all would turn out well.

I rang up Keith Olsen over at Sound City and asked the name of the chap whose music and guitar-playing I had liked when I visited the studio...