Bob Welch and Jimmy Robinson at the Record Plant in Sausilito, Calif. (Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons)

According to the Los Angeles Times, Welch was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. His wife, Wendy, told police he had been suffering from health issues.

Welch joined Fleetwood Mac when he was 24 years old, in 1971, “just as the group was making the transition away from being a British blues rock band and into the 1970s commercial powerhouse that it became.”

He worked on earlier albums like “Future Games,” “Bare Trees” and “Heroes Are Hard to Find.” He left the band three years later and was replaced by lead vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

“My era was the bridge era. It was a transition. But it was an important period in the history of the band. Mick Fleetwood dedicated a whole chapter of his biography to my era of the band and credited me with 'saving Fleetwood Mac.' Now they want to write me out of the history of the group," said Welch to the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1998, after being excluded from the Fleetwood Mac line-up inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

"Welch went solo and scored a top 20 hit in 1977 with "Ebony Eyes." The album from which it was culled, "French Kiss," featured a number of former Fleetwood Mac members, as well as a rendition of "Sentimental Lady," a song originally recorded with Fleetwood Mac but reworked by Welch."

He was born in Los Angeles in 1945. His father Robert Welch was a Hollywood movie producer who was known for his work with Bob Hope, as well as a producer of the 25th Academy Awards.

Bob Welch is survived by his wife, Wendy.

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