Bob Welch, who played with Fleetwood Mac before launching a solo career, was found dead today (June 7) of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Nashville police. He was 65.

Welch’s wife found the guitarist and vocalist with a gaping chest wound at their south Nashville home around 12:15 p.m., police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters.

Welch was suffering from health issues and left a suicide note, police said.

The talented artist played for Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974. He left to form the group Paris in 1976, but still remained friends with bandmembers.

Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham sang backing vocals on his hit “Sentimental Lady.” He also scored a hit with his 1978 “Ebony Eyes.”

Other top hits included “Hot Love, Cold World” in 1978 and “Precious Love” in 1979. He wrote the band’s hit “Heroes Are Hard to Find,” the first single to make it on the Top 40 in the United States.

Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits, however, came after he left the band in the mid-70s with such albums Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and Rumours in 1977.

His father, Robert, produced several hit films for Paramount Pictures in the 1940s and 1950s, and his mother, Templeton, was a singer and actress who worked with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater in Chicago.