Bassist-singer of prog rock pioneers the Moody Blues

He played on the band’s best-known hits, including ‘Nights in White Satin.’

- MIKAEL WOOD POP MUSIC CRITIC

A BLEND OF ROCK AND CLASSICAL

"There's a beautiful and approachable honesty about the poetry and a natural intelligence" in Moody Blue's music, Heart's Ann Wilson said. "You can lie back and listen to any one of the albums, beginning to end, and go out of the world."

John Lodge, who played bass and sang in the Moody Blues — including on the English band’s “Nights in White Satin,” a No. 2 hit in the United States in 1972, and on “Your Wildest Dreams,” which cracked the top 10 more than a decade later —has died. He was 82.

His death was announced in a statement by his family, who said he died “suddenly and unexpectedly,” but didn’t specify a cause or say when or where he died.

“John peacefully slipped away surrounded by his loved-ones and the sounds of the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly,” the statement said. According to Lodge’s website, he had tour dates scheduled this year starting Dec. 4 in Cerritos.

Born in Birmingham, England, in 1943, Lodge joined the Moody Blues in 1966 along with singer Justin Hayward; the two replaced Denny Laine (who went on to form Wings with Paul McCartney) and Clint Warwick.