ROCK’N’ROLL
CONFIDENTIAL
JUSTIN HAYWARD
The Moody Blues singer talks his old band, cover versions and Clifford T. Ward.
In the Moody: the future’s orange for Justin Hayward.
Valeria Maselli
SPEAKING FROM Monaco, Justin Hayward is telling MOJO about his debt to Human League vocalist Phil Oakey. “He had a way of singing that I learned a lot from in the ’80s,” he says. “Which he’s probably quite sorry about…” Self-deprecating and humorous, Hayward was born in Swindon in 1946 and joined Birmingham’s The Moody Blues in 1966. Facilitating their shift from R&B into boldly progressive directions, he wrote their eternal signature Nights In White Satin in 1967, with that year’s Days Of Future Passed the first of seven extraordinary LPs recorded in their first ’67 to ’72 flush. Hayward found extra household fame with his 1978 hit Forever Autumn, recorded solo albums, and forged on with the Moodies until 2018. Now he’s back with a Mike Batt team-up and a UK tour scheduled for October.