Moody Blues and Wings singer Denny Laine dies aged 79

Denny Laine, frontman of the Moody Blues is no more. The star musician died at the age of 79. According to his representative, the singer had lung damage caused by interstitial lung disease.

Announcing his death, his wife, Elizabeth Hines wrote on Instagram, “My darling husband passed away peacefully early this morning. I was at his bedside, holding his hand as I played his favourite Christmas songs for him … My world will never be the same.” Continuing her tribute, Hines wrote of Laine’s illness: “He fought every day. He was so strong and brave and never complained. All he wanted was to be home with me and his pet kitty, Charley, playing his gypsy guitar … Denny was an amazingly wonderful person, so loving and sweet to me. He made my days colorful, fun, and full of life, just like him.” She thanked fans and medical staff for supporting him.

Denny Laine started as the voice of Go Now, one of the defining ballads of the 1960s, and co-wrote one of the biggest-selling songs in UK chart history, “Mull of Kintyre”.

He began singing early on in his life. He made his first band in his teens and called it Denny Laine and the Diplomats. Then he moved on and co-founded Moody Blues. This band was a huge hit as they hit it out of the park with their second single, “Go Now”, a cover version of Bessie Banks’ R&B ballad. The band thereafter struggled to achieve that kind of success but they found some happy moments here and there when some songs reached the UK charts.

His next move was a more psychedelic band called Electric String Band and they played on bills with the likes of Jimi Hendrix. But his best group to date remains Wings, the group formed by Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, in the wake of the Beatles’ breakup.

Laine’s most famous song remains “Mull of Kintyre”, which was written by Laine and McCartney overlooking the mull of the title where McCartney was living. Laine said: “Paul and I sat with a bottle of whisky one afternoon outside a cottage in the hills of Kintyre and wrote the song – Paul had written the chorus and we wrote the rest of it together.”

Earlier this year while reflecting on his career, Laine said in an interview, “I’m just a normal musician who doesn’t think about the fame side of it. That always surprises me, the fame side of it … I never really had a big hit, but then people will come up to me and say: ‘I’ve got all of your solo stuff. I know every song you’ve ever written.’ It’s a compliment and it does give you a good feeling. You’ve gotten across to a lot more people than you thought you did.”