How TimWelch found Peak Performance and got his music back. Getting in Tune
T im Welch is feeling good these days. He’s at a weight he once thought he’d never see again. And so many of the health concerns that were keeping him on the couch just a few years ago are gone. He’s feeling like he’s 30 again— shooting baskets with his grandkids, remodeling the upstairs portion of his home, and going on bike rides with his wife, Tammie. Best of all, he’s playing music again. And to Tim, having music back in his life means everything. “I was raised in a musical family,” says Tim Welch. “My mother sang and my father was a road musician. Every Sunday, all the players from all around the area would come over, and we’d actually carry the furniture out of the house to make more room for them.” When Tim was seven, his dad bought him an electric guitar. “He told me, ‘This is a C chord, this is a G chord, and this is a D chord. With those three chords there, you’ll always be able to buy a hamburger,’” Tim recalls. Eventually, Tim started a new band with his dad, and soon they were out on the road, opening for Nashville shows. “I ended up playing for 27 years with that band,” he says. “We played all the time.” When Tim and Tammie got married, Tammie was in a band too. But they soon decided traveling with separate bands wasn’t the life they wanted—and formed a band of their own. For close to a decade, the Welches stayed on the road doing opening acts for big Nashville shows, and eventually brought those shows into their own venue. “We had a blast,” Tim says. “It was a wonderful life.” Tim’s as careful as every good musician is about tuning his instruments before he starts playing. He knows being in tune—or being out of tune—can make or break a show.
“You can have your best guitar solo you’ve ever played,” he says. “You could have the best rhythm part that you’ve ever tried to do. You can play and think, ‘Man, I’ve done all my fingering right. I’ve done everything on the frets. Everything’s working right.’ You can put your heart into it and do everything perfect, but one string, one flat note, could ruin the whole thing.” Wrong notes Tim and Tammie had plenty to be happy about. They had each other, they had their music, and they had a beautiful family. But a series of tragic events was about to upend their lives—and send Tim into a tailspin. In 2002, Tim seriously injured his arm in a construction accident. Repairing it would ultimately require numerous surgeries. The prognosis was grim. His doctors warned him that he might never be able to play the guitar again. Then, about a year after that accident, Tim’s 18-year-old son—still a senior in high school and eager to become a Marine—was killed by an accidental gunshot. Rushing to the hospital only to find that their son had died on the way, Tim and Tammie were devastated. “I tried to be strong,” Tim says, “but I was just dying inside. You just go numb. You don’t know how to act. You don’t know how to react. You don’t see anything going on around you. You don’t know what’s going on. It’s like a bad dream.” A year passed. Still reeling from the loss of his son, Tim suffered a massive heart attack. That morning, he had undergone surgery on his arm. Now, late at night, a blood clot had reached his heart. He flatlined twice during the emergency helicopter ride—resuscitated both times by the EMTs—and woke up in the heart unit in a Springfield, Illinois, hospital.
Directors 4 Tim & Tammie Welch
“When you go from performing on stage with some of the best artists in the world to not even being able to tie your own shoes or climb a flight of stairs, you become a different person. I wasn’t the same man Tammie married. And that made me feel even more miserable.”
34 MAY 2018 | MELALEUCA.COM
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