Last week was very emotional for Moody Blues bassist John Lodge -- his childhood friend and former bandmate Ray Thomas died of a heart attack on January 4th.
Speaking to Lodge backstage Saturday night before the band's show in Clearwater, Florida, he told us he has been reminiscing about so many of their good times together.
"Ray's older than me, but I learned to drive before him. I gave him his first driving lessons. So, you know, I was thinking about things like that, and the first day when we were about 17 and thinking, 'Ah, let's pretend we're professionals this weekend and we'll stay at a hotel.' I spoke to him just before Christmas and of course we talked about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And he said to me, typical Ray, he said, 'Hey Rocker, that means we're famous, doesn't it?'"
John also spoke to Ray's widow Lee a few times during the week, as well as Ray's son Adam, adding that he was thankful she waited until the Moody Blues Cruise was back in port before announcing her husband had passed.
While the band had four days to deal with their emotions before the first show of their tour, Wednesday in Hollywood, Florida, it still wasn't easy:
"It was unbelievably emotional. At the end of the concert I was gonna say something, you know, and to be honest I couldn't do it. And I thought, I'm never gonna get to do this. So when we came on to do 'Ride My See-saw' at the end, we've just got the drums going, I just said, 'This one is for Ray.' The audience knew and that was it. Ray would like that because Ray always had a smile on a face. Anything tongue-in-cheek. Ray was like that."
When the photo montage of Ray flashed on the screen before Saturday's show in Clearwater, the audience gave him a standing ovation.
The Moody Blues take their tour to New Orleans on Tuesday.