Fleetwood Mac & Bob Welch
American musician Bob Welch joined the British blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac in 1971, after the departure of founder Peter Green. Welch was a key reason for the band's move from England to California in the mid-1970s, played lead and rhythm guitar and wrote or co-wrote many of the songs on five Fleetwood Mac albums. When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1998, original band members Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were named to the Hall, as were Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Welch, who anchored the band from 1971 to 1974, was not. In 1998, after Welch was snubbed by the Hall, he told Cleveland's daily newspaper, The Plain Dealer, "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. It hurts."
Welch went on to tell The Plain Dealer, "Mick and I co-managed the group for years. I'm the one who brought the band to Los Angeles from England, which put them in the position of hooking up with Lindsey and Stevie. I saw the band through a whole period where they barely survived, literally". Welch believes that he was blackballed because he filed a lawsuit against Fleetwood and John & Christine McVie over underpayment of royalties owed him, which was settled out of court. He believes the falling out with the band members led them to pressuring the selection committee into excluding him from the Hall.