newsmakers

newsmakers

Ex-Fleetwood Mac member Welch dies

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Nashville police say Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac who also had a solo career, has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 65.

Police spokesman Don Aaron said Welch was found dead by his wife with a chest wound at their Nashville home around 12:15 p.m. Thursday.

Welch was a guitarist and vocalist for Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974. He formed the British rock group Paris in 1976, and had hits including “Sentimental Lady” in 1977 and “Ebony Eyes” in 1978.

Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham did backing vocals on “Sentimental Lady.”

Aaron said Welch apparently had had health issues recently. He said a suicide note was left.

Lauryn Hill faces federal tax charges

NEWARK, N.J.

Five-time Grammy winner Lauryn Hill has been charged with failing to file income-tax returns for several years with the IRS, the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey announced Thursday.

Hill earned more than $1.6 million during 2005, 2006 and 2007, the three years that she reportedly failed to file returns, federal prosecutors said. Hill’s primary source of income is royalties from the recording and film industries, prosecutors said. She also owns and operates four corporations.

After her acclaimed 1998 album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” she largely disappeared from public view to raise her six children, five of whom she had with Rohan Marley, the son of famed reggae singer Bob Marley.

Will Webber join UK ‘X Factor’?

LONDON

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gary Barlow collaborated on a song in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. But is Lloyd Webber ready to join Barlow at the judges’ table on the U.K. version of “The X Factor”?

On that rumor, the famed composer is keeping his cards close to his chest.

“There could be a little bit of ‘you never know,’” he recently told The Associated Press with a smile.

Associated Press