Remembering 2025’s Music Losses: Joey Molland

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Yesterday we lost Bob Weir, dwindling the number of surviving members of the Grateful Dead to three. Today I feature a musician who was the last surviving member of his band, closing the book on a great music chapter. Joey Molland The funny thing is that Joey Molland wasn’t an original member of Badfinger. He just happened to be a replacement before they hit their stride. Badfinger had a relationship with the Beatles. They were signed to Apple Records, and Paul McCartney wrote their first big hit, “Come and Get It.” Ron Griffiths left the band right after that, and Joey Molland joined. The hits included “No Matter What,” “Day After Day” (which, to me, sounds like an Eric Clapton song), and “Baby Blue” highlighted the “classic” era of Badfinger. Then Apple Records folded because of the split of the Beatles, and Badfinger’s success rug was pulled out from under them. Pete Ham, the lead singer and primary songwriter, died by suicide in 1975, blaming the financial problems caused by Badfinger’s manager stealing their money. In 1983, bassist Tom Evans also died by suicide. Mike Gibbins, the drummer, had a brain aneurysm in 2005. Molland, the last man of the classic Badfinger lineup, succumbed to the complications of diabetes in March 2025. Some may argue their wagon was hitched to the Beatles, and to a degree that is true. However, the quality of music that Ham and Molland wrote and the band created showed that they had the ability to be their own band. And they were. Joey Molland Born Joseph Charles Molland II, June 20, 1947, Edge Hill, Liverpool Died March 1, 2025, St. Louis Park, Minnesota (complications of diabetes) (age 77) The Badfinger classic “Day After Day”: