Why Bob Welch Committed Suicide

A few days ago, it was reported that Fleetwood Mac’s Bob Welch had committed suicide in his Nashville home, perishing to a gunshot wound to the chest. Naturally, everyone’s first question is, “Why?”.

New reports say that the troubled guitarist underwent an unsuccessful spinal operation three months ago, which he feared would leave him an invalid, because it appeared he would never recover from the surgery. Because his own mother spent years caring for his father, who was also an invalid, Welch simply decided he did not want to do the same thing to his own wife and family.

Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood released the following statements about their close friend and fellow musician:

In a statement Stevie said, “The death of Bob Welch is devastating. I had many great times with him after Lindsey and I joined Fleetwood Mac. He was an amazing guitar player – he was funny, sweet – and he was smart. I am so very sorry for his family and for the family of Fleetwood Mac – so, so sad.”

Fleetwood said, “He was a very, very profoundly intelligent human being and always in good humour, which is why this is so unbelievably shocking. He was a huge part of our history which sometimes gets forgotten … mostly his legacy would be his songwriting abilities that he brought to Fleetwood Mac, which will survive all of us. If you look into our musical history, you’ll see a huge period that was completely ensconced in Bob’s work.”

Welch was found by his wife, Wendy, and he left a suicide note which read, “I’m not going to do this to you.” He was 66 years old when he died.