Graeme Edge, a founding member of the Moody Blues, has died at 80.
The news came Thursday from frontman Justin Hayward via a message on the band’s website. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed but Edge was reportedly diagnosed with cancer this year.
“Graeme’s sound and personality is present in everything we did together and thankfully that will live on,” Hayward wrote. “When Graeme told me he was retiring I knew that without him it couldn’t be the Moody Blues anymore. And that’s what happened. It’s true to say that he kept the group together throughout all the years, because he loved it.”
Hayward credited Edge for “creating an atmosphere and setting that the music would never have achieved without his words.”
He added: “Graeme was one of the great characters of the music business and there will never be his like again.”
Edge co-founded The Moody Blues in the early 1960s in Birmingham, England and played drums on 16 studio albums, which spawned hits like “Nights in White Satin,” “Gemini Dream” and “Tuesday Afternoon.” He also recorded material in the ‘70s as The Graeme Edge Band.
Bassist John Lodge shared on Facebook: “To me he was the White Eagle of the North with his beautiful poetry. His friendship, his love of life and his ‘unique’ style of drumming that was the engine room of the Moody Blues. … I will miss you Graeme.”
Edge, with The Moody Blues, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.