Moody Blues Drummer Graeme Edge Dies at 80

Graeme Edge, the drummer for the Moody Blues has died. He was 80.

Edge’s death was confirmed to NewsNation by his family. An exact cause of death is currently unknown.

Guitarist/vocalist Justin Hayward issued a statement via the Moody Blues’s official website that reads as follows:

“It’s a very sad day. Graeme’s sound and personality is present in everything we did together and thankfully that will live on.

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.

In the late 1960’s we became the group that Graeme always wanted it to be, and he was called upon to be a poet as well as a drummer. He delivered that beautifully and brilliantly, while creating an atmosphere and setting that the music would never have achieved without his words. I asked Jeremy Irons to recreate them for our last tours together and it was absolutely magical.

Graeme, and his parents, were very kind to me when I first joined the group, and for the first two years, he and I either lived together, or next door to each other – and despite us having almost nothing in common, we had fun and laughs all the way, as well as making what was probably the best music of our lives.

Graeme was one of the great characters of the music business and there will never be his like again.

My sincerest condolences to his family.”

Bassist/vocalist John Lodge shared via Twitter, “‘When the White Eagle of the North is flying overhead’ …sadly Graeme left us today. 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 retired from touring in 2018 and had been the last remaining original member of the Moody Blues until then. The Moody Blues were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

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