Joey Molland

Joey Molland didn't join Badfinger, the group that would define his career, until the power pop band was ready to launch, but he wound up being the member who kept their name and music alive through tragedy and beyond. The path wasn't always easy. At first he was aligned with Tom Evans, pairing with the bassist/guitarist for the group's 1978 reunion, then the two colleagues led concurrent versions of Badfinger. Dueling Badfingers evolved into the normal state of affairs in the 1980s, with Molland's version countered by a band led by keyboardist/guitarist Bob Jackson, but Joey Molland distinguished himself by releasing original collections of music at least once a decade. While many of these records were targeted at hardcore power pop fans, occasionally he had an album that played to a broader audience, such as 1992's The Pilgrim, which was released on Rykodisc, and 2020's valedictory Be True to Yourself, a Mark Hudson-produced album for Omnivore. Joey Molland began playing piano at five or six years of age at his Liverpool home, picking up the guitar when he was 11. His first band was the Assassins, who lasted three to six months. Molland's second group was the Profiles. He next became part of the Masterminds, a group who frequented a club called the Blue Angel. In 1965, the Rolling Stones' original producer Andrew Loog Oldham recorded a Bob Dylan tune with the band, "She Belongs to Me." Molland then cycled through a bunch of groups such as Merseybeats, the Fruit Eating Bears, the Cryin' Shames, and then Gary Walker & the Rain. That band also recorded, and Molland's stayed with them from 1967 to 1968. When an act named the Iveys signed to Apple Records, they changed their name to Badfinger and when they decided to move Tom Evans to bass, effectively removing the Iveys' bassist, Molland was brought in to play guitar. He performed on 1970's No Dice album and provided the definitive guitar sound that fueled the Top Ten smash "No Matter What."Molland was a survivor in the truest sense of the word, not because he was the one left standing after the dust cleared, but because he had genuine talent that put him in the same league as the famous people he rubbed shoulders and enjoyed friendships with. In 1999, he released Basil, demos from 1972 to 1999, sold through his website. Molland released the new album This Way Up in 2001. During the next few decades, he continued to tour under the name Joey Molland's Badfinger, issuing new albums like 2013's Return to Memphis on occasion. In 2020, Omnivore released Be True to Yourself, which was produced by Mark Hudson and featured cameos by Julian Lennon and Micky Dolenz. 2023 saw the release of No Matter What: Revisiting the Hits, credited to Badfinger, in which Molland re-recorded some of the band's best-known tunes with guest appearances from Todd Rundgren, Matthew Sweet, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Rick Springfield, and more. After a period of poor health, Joey Molland died on March 1, 2025, at the age of 77.
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