In Memoriam: Eddie Money

Eddie Money On Stage at Aviator / photo © 2010 by B.L. Howard Productions

Brooklyn-born Edward Joseph Mahoney, known to the music world as Eddie Money, died on September 13, 2019, at age 70, after a battle with esophageal cancer. Over the course of his 40-year career he scored 16 Top 40 hits, including “Baby Hold On,” “Two Tickets to Paradise,” “The Love in Your Eyes” and “Take Me Home Tonight.” That last song featured one of his idols, Ronnie Spector, and helped relaunch her musical career.
Money also released 11 studio albums and was preparing to launch his 12th, “Brand New Day,” at the time of his death. On the title track, released as a single in May 2019, he looks back at the ups and downs of his life, without regret, and looks forward to what’s ahead: “I’ve turned the page … I’m feeling OK, yeah, it’s a brand new day.”

He is survived by his wife, Laurie Harris, and their five children, three of whom were members of the latest incarnation of his touring band. The entire family starred in the reality series, “Real Money,” currently in its second season on AXS TV.
Back in September 2010, Money graciously gave Brooklyn Roads Magazine backstage access and front row seats to a benefit concert for the Wounded Warriors Project — a cause near and dear to his heart – at the Aviator Sports and Events Center at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field. Here is an excerpt from our coverage of that special event:

Right on the Money

Eddie Money -Two Tickets / photo © 2010 by B.L. Howard Productions

Following a rocking set by local favorites The Gray Riders, Eddie [Money] stepped onto the stage and brought the audience to its feet. Singing in his familiar husky, raspy voice and playing killer saxophone between vocals, the East New York native opened with “Two Tickets to Paradise” and, as they say, the hits just kept on coming. Ably supported by guitarist Tommy Girvin, bassist Lee Beverly and drummer Glenn Symmonds, Eddie played to an enthusiastic crowd of longstanding fans — and many new ones. In a pre-show interview, he told Brooklyn Roads that his songs resonate across all generations because, “I write from the heart.”

Eddie’s Aviator show was itself a multi-generational affair, with his five-year-old nephews joining him onstage for “Wanna Be a Rock Star” and niece Kerry Mahoney handling the Ronnie Spector part on “Take Me Home Tonight,” capably subbing for Eddie’s daughter (and frequent touring partner) Jesse Money. The emotional highlight of the evening was “a new song I just recorded about our heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he told the crowd. “It’s called, ‘One More Soldier Coming Home.’”

Eddie Money With Some of The Wounded Warriors / photo © 2010 by B.L.Howard Productions

Royalties from the song, written by Greg Stryker (“a friend from a military family”), are being donated to the Wounded Warriors Project, dedicated to providing programs to meet the needs of injured armed services members. “The song is about a kid who comes home deceased,” Eddie explained, adding, ”It’s an honor to perform it every night.”

He felt especially privileged to sing it for his hometown fans. “I loved growing up in Brooklyn,” he told us as he waxed nostalgic about “vanilla malteds, silver dollar candies and ring-a-levio,” “dances at St. Michael’s on Jerome Street,” “seeing Jackie Robinson and Gil Hodges at Ebbets Field, where my father was an usher” and attending Franklin K. Lane High School. It was there that Eddie formed his first musical group, a doo-wop quartet, in 1963. He paid tribute to that era during his Aviator show with covers of “A Million to One” and “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me”. Forty-seven years later he’s still busy writing, recording and touring.