Blues Mood

Last Founder

Mike Pender the last surviving founder of the Moody Blues passed Wednesday peacefully surrounded by family. He was 82.

Pinder was among the founding members of the Moody Blues – along with Denny Laine, Graeme Edge, Ray Thomas, and Clint Warwick – in 1964. Soon after, Laine and Warwick left the Moody Blues, and it was Pinder who is credited with enlisting Laine’s replacement, singer Justin Hayward, who, with also-added bassist John Lodge, would form the Moody Blues’ “classic” lineup

“The Sixties and Seventies were very unique for the artist as well as for the listener,” Pinder told Rolling Stone. “I think the fans in those days were just as creatively turned on by the evolution of our music and our message as we were turned on by creating it.”

The Moody Blue’s were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. With Pinder’s death, all five founding members of the Moody Blues – Laine (who died in 2023), Edge (2021), Thomas (2018), and Warwick (2004) – are now deceased. Daniel Kreps

What’s your favorite Moody Blues song? Let us know.

until next time –