Interview: The Moody Blues’ John Lodge talks ‘Days of Future Passed’ reimagining, his jukebox, and more

Ten years ago, a reunion between the original Moody Blues lineup would have been a completely valid possibility, with the exception of original bassist Clint Warwick, who died in 2004.

But last April, keyboardist Mike Pinder, the last surviving original member, passed away. Though he quit the Moodies in the late-‘70s, Pinder still remained in touch with his latter-day bandmates Justin Hayward and John Lodge (the band’s last two surviving full-time members, both having become Moodies in 1966), and even collaborated with the two a handful of times after his reign.

“If I was doing any concerts on the West Coast, he would come along to the concerts with his sons,” Lodge told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay during a phone call from his home in Naples.
But the bassman doesn’t see his predecessors’ deaths as a sign to slow down. Last summer, the now-80-year-old bassman released Days of Future Passed - My Sojourn, a reworking of the Moody Blues' sophomore, concept album from 1967, this time with Lodge at the wheel.

“Not really,” he replied when asked if he saw the record as an opportunity to make some changes, and add in some musical elements that he felt should have been on the original record. “I wanted to try and keep it as true to the original album, but not make it the same. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but with modern technology, you can do so much differently.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s just a rerecording worthy of being part of an "oldies but goodies" CD box set sold on 2 a.m. television, though.

Current Yes lead singer Jon Davison (who ended up becoming Lodge’s son-in-law this decade) took lead vocals on “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon),” respectively. The two met in early 2019 during a prog-rock cruise, during which Lodge’s daughter Emily began dating Davison. When that summer’s Royal Affair Tour kicked off (featuring Yes and Lodge, as well as Asia and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy), John and Jon would duet on “Ride My See-Saw” at the end of the former’s solo set.

“He was trying to get into the heads and the emotions of the other guys singing their songs [on the original album],” Lodge told CL.

The other special guest on hand was Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge in what appear to be his final recordings before his 2021 death.
Edge, who was the only member of the band that stuck with it from beginning to end, wrote the spoken-word poetry recited by Pinder on the original record. When the thought of a Days of Future Passed tour came to Lodge’s mind, he reached out to Edge (retired from drumming at this point), and asked his old friend if he’d be alright with reading the poetry on film, to be presented at these shows in between songs.

And in retrospect, it was really thanks to the drummer jumping onboard immediately that Days of Future Passed - My Sojourn came to be.

“While rehearsing the concert, I suddenly thought ‘well, we’ve gone through so much trouble to get these consoles. We should record [the album],” Lodge remembered. “Not a live concert, but go down to the studio and record it properly.”

Lodge believes that while the original Days of Future Passed was certainly something “totally, totally new” that the general public had never heard anything like before (“We didn’t let anyone in the studio when we were recording the album, so it was totally secret to the record company,” he added), the way it played on a stereo speaker set is what means the most to him.

“Decca wanted an album to show what high-frequency recording was,” he told CL. “I think it was the very first album to only be recorded in stereo.”

When he’s not onstage, music is pretty much what Lodge lives and breathes, in terms of his interests. One of his most prized possessions is a Wurlitzer jukebox, loaded with the 78s of his childhood. He never switches the records out (most of which he obtained in his teen years), and in the event of something going wrong with the jukebox, he can fix it himself, all thanks to a book surrounding antiques as such.

“These jukeboxes were made to be indestructible, really, because they were in speakeasies, and they’d be playing all the while,” he explained. “If the records get stuck, you just have to gently ease them out, because the trays actually move. It’s really interesting.”
Lodge does have a soft spot for “Doctor Who,” though. Like much of England, he was a fan of the original era, and when there was talk of canceling the show in the mid-1980s, him and bandmate Justin Hayward joined four of the show’s cast members, and musicians as big as Hans Zimmer for “Doctor In Distress,” a sometimes-forgotten nugget of the decade’s trend of supergroup charity singles. Lodge hasn’t seen the newer seasons of the 60-year-old sci-fi TV show (“I’m not really a television person,” he admitted), but he did recently get a photo with a Tardis (the Doctor’s time machine) at a studio in London where the show was filmed.

There’s absolutely zero chance that the charity single will be dusted off at Lodge’s solo gig in downtown Clearwater next week, but Days of Future Passed will be performed in full (much like the Moodies’ last-ever tour, which stopped at Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall in 2018), and Edge will, as promised, pop up to read that poetry.

And no, there won’t be an orchestra on-site. All of those parts will be done by keyboardist Alan Hewitt, a Bradenton resident.

“He’s my orchestra guy,” Lodge added. “He’s taken the whole thing to task, and he’s done an incredible job.”

Tickets to see The Moody Blues’ John Lodge play Clearwater’s Bilheimer Capitol Theatre on Tuesday, July 9 are still available and start at $39.50.

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