![]() He persuaded his parents to buy him a £2 10s guitar on high purchase and formed his first band at eleven – wearing lens-less glasses to look like his idol. “I was ten when Buddy came along, but I knew exactly what I wanted to do.” One of them protested, “Hang on, we were here first and we’ve given you the Thomas Cook vouchers for the rooms” – but wiser heads prevailed and they crammed into one room in a different hotel until the British Consulate flew all the stranded Britons home.ĭavid Justin Hayward’s life changed in 1957, the moment he heard Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be The Day thundering out of a transistor radio. After recording a TV show in 1968, they got back to their hotel only to discover the invading Russians had commandeered it. Surreal moments included the time a fan unstrapped the false bottom half of his leg and threw it over his head onto the stage – “it had a very strange arc of flight because it still had a trainer on it eventually a roadie came on and kicked it back.” “it’s wonderful bull**** most of the time.” “The whole thing became very Spinal Tap,” Justin adds. “Then he met us and changed his mind and told everyone we were false messiahs…" In Texas, a crazed fan spent weeks on a street corner telling passers-by the Moody Blues were “the true messiahs” destined to save the world. We didn’t have an answer, we were still on a journey.”Ī journey that would involve befriending Timothy Leary – Ray’s song, Legend Of A Mind, gently teased the LSD-advocating psychologist – and for one band member, not Justin, an encounter with Cynthia the Plaster Caster. Lots of young people then and now want to find enlightenment and inner peace. “I tried psychedelics, I tried meditation, I gave everything a go. He pauses and adds, “I love the moment when I play Question live and the crowd reaction as it builds up.”īack in the day, he embraced the Haight-Ashbury ethos entirely. “Maybe we are to blame for not trying harder to change things.” I mention that the lyrics, targeting "a world of persecution that is burning in its greed" are still relevant today. “Not enough has changed,” he sighs. Make music, go on the road, make more music…” ![]() “But we only wanted to be true to our goal of making music, and that’s still true for me now. “I think we were on a journey to find enlightenment,” says Justin. Justin’s 1970 No 2 hit, Question, seemed profound to a new generation of fans – and compared to Edison Lighthouse it was. Hallucinogens were naturally involved and the band began to be seen as philosophers (stoned). “We were playing in San Francisco when the whole Flower Power thing was happening and got caught up in it,” he shrugs. With the follow-up, 1968’s In Search Of The Lost Chord, Haywards says “we found our soul and direction everything gelled.”
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