Moody Blues’ John Lodge Dies ‘Suddenly and Unexpectedly’

Ultimate Classic Rock ^ | 10/10/2025 | Nick DeRiso

[Ueriah]

Money exists so we can do the things we want and pay for them with things that we have done.

We spend money to make memories of wonderful times! It’s not just the act of enjoying the concert, it’s the ability to revisit the memory as we age.

Obviously, don’t spend every nickel following bands across the country, or you will be fondly remembering concerts from a homeless encampment lol.

[John Milner]

I only saw them once when I was in college. About 1978, in support of their album Octave. I think tickets were $10. I also splurged on a T-Shirt.

Believe it or not, I still have that Tee stashed away somewhere. It’s size XL. But in today’s sizing environment you would expect a shirt that size to be a Medium. Needless to say, it no longer fits.

I did loan it to a neighbor woman about 8 years ago when she and her boyfriend went to see them.

[LouAvul]

They sounded great at max volume.

WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

[Vermont Lt]

At 82 you might die without a lot of notice...so it might be unexpected. But also at 82, lots of people will say...”Yeah, that’s a goo run.”

I like the Moody Blues. I am saddened to see people from my youth dying. It reminds me that the sand in my hour glass is running through the hole.

[God luvs America]

It was unexpected as he had been touring and had a slew of tour dates set up for December...it should’ve been expected as he had a stroke just three years ago...

[rlmorel]

I have always enjoyed the Moody Blues, but the funny thing was, I went to a moody blues tribute band concert, and I was astonished to hear so many songs that I had never attributed to the Moody Blues. It was like listening to a sound track of my teen years..:)

My wife and I had an interesting evening many years ago that ties into the Moody Blues that makes me smile to remember it.

We were in Provincetown, MA about thirty years ago, and we went to the Governor Bradford Restaurant for dinner and drinks. It is a pub style place, occasionally with live entertainment and such.

We were sitting at a high table, and there was an older couple milling about because there were no seats, and I think we asked them if they wanted to sit down with us and share our table (I don’t remember exactly how, but I suspect this is how we came to be sitting at the table with them)

Anyway, they sat down, and somehow we started playing Trivial Pursuit, and we were having a lot of fun. He had a heavy British accent, and she was animated, and we were feeling the socially lubricating effects of our drinks.

At some point, we began just chit-chatting, and he said he was a musician, and played the drums.

We were with them for an hour or so, and had not even introduced ourselves to each other. As we got up to leave, I offered my hand and told him my name, and he said “Graeme Edge”. The name stuck in both of our brains, not because we thought he was a musician, but because he had bushy white unruly hair, a very animated face with that heavy British accent, and wide eyes with humor when he was amazed or trying to be funny, and we laughed a lot with them. Americans are often suckers for British accents!

Anyway, his name didn’t register with me at all even though we remembered it for years and would occasionally talk about how much fun we had at that table in the Governor Bradford with a couple of strangers that night.

Like many people, though I enjoyed the music of The Moody Blues, I couldn’t have named a member of the band. It was only until some time a few years later when we were talking about that night, that I looked up the guy’s name and saw a picture of him, realized he was the drummer for The Moody Blues.

I think this is kind of the age I saw him at, but I recall his hair was far bushier and more unruly, and his beard was fuller and more...unruly!

He came across as a brilliantly nice and normal guy. I heard he passed away in 2021.

[God luvs America]

He died a few years ago and that was the end of the band touring as Graeme kept the band together....he was always the comedian of the group...his speech at the R&R HOF was hysterical:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHYL9swzD-g

[dinodino]

I had the pleasure of seeing the Moody Blues maybe a dozen times...fantastic performers.

[Tommy Revolts]

Ride My See-Saw

[Afterguard]

RIP John. Next to Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues were my fave progrock band. Fortunately we still have his/their music to listen to...

[mairdie]

Impressive comeback. So sad he didn’t make it longer. Way too many losses in the music of our youth.

NCIS - Your Wildest Dreams - Moody Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3CjQSqY9e4

[PGalt]

Condolences to family and friends of John Lodge. RIP, sir.

[1Old Pro]

Fortunately we still have his/their music to listen to...

Reminds me of this:

On her 1974 live album, Miles of Aisles, Joni Mitchell compared her experience as a performing artist to that of a painter by commenting on the repeated, commercialized nature of performing one's hits for a crowd.

During the concert recording, Mitchell offered this anecdote: "A painter does a painting, and that's it... He has the joy of creating it, it hangs on a wall, and somebody buys it".

She continued her comparison with a famous line: "Nobody ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint a Starry Night again, man!' He painted it and that was it".

This commentary captured her feeling of being pressured to re-create her past successes live for an audience, a dynamic she found frustratingly different from a painter's creative process. Mitchell, herself a painter, often considered herself a painter first and foremost.

The live album and her famous comment offer insight into her often-complex relationship with fame and live performance.

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, nice! Great story! He was reportedly the funny one.

[lone star annie]

Saw him in March of this year. He still rocked! I am so sad to see him go but I know he is in Heaven.

[Bon of Babble]

Moody Blues songs are not played often on the “Classic” Rock stations, a lot of which are terrible, playing far too much Kiss and ac/dc.

Listened frequently to “Days of Future Past” and to our “Children’s Children’s Children.”

A lot of their music is classic, timeless and still fresh.

[rlmorel]

OMG...I have literally never heard him, or even seen him apart from that one encounter I wrote about, and when I watched that video, that was exactly the way I remember he talked!!!!

Exactly like that, though not perhaps with the Old Man quaver in his voice that we get when we age! The accent, the facial expressions...just wow! I am going to have to show that to my wife!

Thank you for that...:)

[rlmorel]

Well, he was funny to me and I had no idea who he was!!

From that, I would say he was a genuine man. Authentic. If you can be that way in front of a crowd, and be exactly the same way with a random couple in a bar, that pretty much says who you are.

[IYAS9YAS]

The Moody Blues were the first ever concert at the brand new Idaho Center in my hometown of Nampa way back in the 1990s. It was a helluva concert. I’m forever grateful to have been able to see them live. We were a tiny little stop, but someone who worked with the Idaho Center was a former roadie for the band and he helped to bring them in. They performed as if they were in front of the biggest stadium crowd ever. I’ll not forget that.

[Paul R.]

I can't think of any other group to use an orchestra in their recordings the way they did.

'Tis true, not many rock groups used "symphonic rock" in the original album releases of their tunes, although of course many went back later and added orchestras or orchestral elements. Those who did some work in that direction included Jon Lord (Deep Purple), Rick Wakeman (Journey to the Centre of the Earth's original recording with a live full orchestra being the standout), and, my personal favorite, even though it was just a one-off to compete with Lord, Uriah Heep's "Salisbury". The Moody's though, were orchestral rock through and through, once they adopted it.

RIP, Mr. Lodge. I'll play Ken Hensley's "Suddenly" for you.

Is my lifе really coming to a close...
so suddenly?

Suddenly another voice
This one gentle and clear
"When you've finished the task I have given you there
Come on home, you are welcome here"

Come on home, you are welcome here"