Mike Pinder, Founding Member Of The Moody Blues, Has Passed Away

Mike Pinder, keyboardist of the Moody Blues, died at his home in the Sacramento area at the age of 82.

He was the last surviving original member of the band.

Pinder’s family confirmed his passing in a statement released to his former Moody Blues bandmate John Lodge, stating that Pinder passed away peacefully at his Northern California home, surrounded by his devoted family. The statement did not specify the cause of his death.

“His final days were filled with music, encircled by the love of his family. Michael lived his life with a childlike wonder, walking a deeply introspective path which fused the mind and the heart.”

Pinder’s musical journey began when he worked as a tester in the Mellotron factory in Birmingham, England, before the Moody Blues formed. His expertise with the Mellotron, an electromechanical keyboard that uses tape loops to simulate the sounds and rhythms of an orchestra, significantly influenced the band’s musical direction in the 1960s and 1970s.

Pinder, together with Denny Laine, Graeme Edge, Ray Thomas, and Clint Warwick, was one of the original members of the Moody Blues when the band was formed in 1964. The lineup achieved a breakthrough with their single “Go Now” in the same year. On the band’s debut album The Magnificent Moodies in 1965, Pinder co-wrote (with Laine) all the original songs on the LP.

“The Mellotron enabled me to create my own variations of string movements. I could play any instrument that I wanted to hear in the music. If I heard strings, I could play them with the Mellotron. If I heard cello, brass, trumpets or piano, I could play them,” Pinder shared with Rolling Stone in 2018.

Following the Moody Blues’ hiatus in the mid-seventies, during which Pinder released his solo album The Promise, the band reunited, with Pinder returning in a limited capacity for the album Octave in 1978.

After moving to California and choosing not to tour with the band, Pinder was eventually replaced by keyboardist Patrick Moraz, marking the end of the group’s “Core Five” lineup.

Although Pinder did not rejoin the Moody Blues, he reunited with his former bandmates when the group was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

With Pinder’s passing, all five founding members of the Moody Blues — Laine (who died in 2023), Edge (2021), Thomas (2018), and Warwick (2004) — are now deceased.

“He created his music and the message he shared with the world from this spiritually grounded place; as he always said, ‘Keep your head above the clouds, but keep your feet on the ground.’ His authentic essence lifted up everyone who came into contact with him. His lyrics, philosophy, and vision of humanity and our place in the cosmos will touch generations to come,” Pinder’s family concluded their statement.