It was no surprise when The Moody Blues were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018: after all, they’d created numerous massive hits, including “Nights in White Satin,” “Gemini Dream,” “The Voice,” “Your Wildest Dreams,” “The Other Side of Life,” “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere,” and many more. But in 2021, after the passing of drummer Graeme Edge and multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, the remaining members announced that The Moody Blues would not continue. However, vocalist/guitarist Justin Hayward has begun a new chapter as a solo artist. In that capacity, he recently released a cover version of “Life in a Northern Town” (originally by The Dream Academy), and he’s currently on his “Blue World Tour” across North America (full list of dates below). As Hayward told The Big Takeover during a phone call from Florida, where he was preparing to kick off his tour, he always knew he was destined for a music career.
What can people expect when they come to one of your shows on this tour?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: I do things from most of the Moodys albums, and solo things that I’ve done. I’m true to the way the songs were recorded, and how I first felt them, so I hope there’s something there for everybody. I believe there is.
What made you decide to cover “Life in a Northern Town” now?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: A few years ago, my friend Mike Batt and I did an album together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra of songs that we just liked, and we thought would work in an orchestral setting with my voice and without a rhythm section. We were lucky enough that the director of the London Philharmonic went along with that idea. Last year, we were able to have the opportunity to do that again with the London Philharmonic. “Life in a Northern Town” is a song that’s been on our list [to play in] that kind of format. I think it’s a beautiful song. Very English, if you like. I think Mike did a great arrangement, and it suited my voice just fine.
That song is very evocative, and that’s something that I’ve always noticed with your work, too. How did you learn to write like that?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: After I left school, I answered a lot of ads in The Melody Maker and [other] music business magazines, just trying to find work. I had a reply from a rock and roll singer named Marty Wilde, and I auditioned, and I was his guitar player for a couple of years before I joined the Moodys. I was seventeen. Marty was already my hero, but to be playing with him was just wonderful. Hard work, but wonderful. And he always said, “To survive in the business, you must create your own identity, and that is done by writing your own songs, and having something recognizable.” So I started writing then. And I think I came to the Moodys as a songwriter, actually, not necessarily the singer.
Did you have a particular sound in mind when you started, or did it evolve into what you became?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: There’s never been any plan or any strategy. Whenever I’ve tried to do that, I’ve failed miserably! These things happen in a beautiful, wonderful way. You do what comes naturally. I’ve been lucky enough that people do like it. For me, now, it’s just about the songs. That’s the [live] show I’m doing: it’s about songs that I’ve written.
Do you find yourself returning to any particular themes or emotions with your songwriting?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: I think the things that happen to us in our youth are always hugely important. Particularly the love affairs that we’ve had. Emotional things, of course, are always what you draw on. These things stay around with us, don’t they? They stay in our hearts, and we carry them around with us.
Being in the music business can be difficult, so what keeps you motivated?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: I feel that the people who like this music keep me motivated because I feel some kind of responsibility to them. I know that as a live performer, as well, the audience brings something into that room. That’s a feeling that I don’t want to give up. You can do “Nights in White Satin” perfectly at the soundcheck, and it’ll be very nice, but an audience comes in and they bring some magic into that room around songs, and that’s tangible. You can feel it. You can just kind of touch it. That’s a wonderful feeling that scares me and excites me and motivates me.
How did you know you should be a musician in the first place?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: I knew, as a small child, that I loved music. When I was four or five years old, when I very first went to school, we used to sing songs from the New English Hymnal, and I’d think, “I’m really enjoying this. The melodies are so lovely.” My parents knew that music was what my life was about, and they gave me some piano lessons. Then I pestered them for a guitar. They bought me a ukulele. I pestered them for a guitar a bit more, and they bought me a guitar. Then I was forming groups at school. There was never any doubt about what I was going to do. I think if you have a desire and it’s strong enough, then you make it happen. I mean, playing guitar is not easy, so you have to really want to do it. You have to make your fingers hurt. You have to persevere.
Do you remember the first song you wrote where you realized you actually could do this?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: I wrote a lot of awful things before I wrote anything that was nice. But I think there was the song that I did when I first came to the Moodys all those years ago [in] 1966, it’s called “Fly Me High.” When we recorded that, I thought, “I’m really kind of getting somewhere now.”
What do you think about the legacy that you’ve created so far?
JUSTIN HAYWARD: I’m not sure that I do think about the legacy, to be honest. I’m interested in what I’m doing now. Yes, of course there’s a huge body of work – but I like now.
Justin Hayward’s Blue World Tour:
April 18 – Clearwater, FL – Bilheimer Capitol Theater
April 19 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live
April 21 – Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theatre
April 23 – Atlanta, GA – Center Stage
April 27 – Minneapolis, MN – Pantages Theatre
April 29 – Peoria, IL – Scottish Rite Cathedral
May 1 – St. Charles, IL – Arcada Theatre
May 2 – Brookfield, WI – Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts
May 10 – Vancouver, BC – Great Canadian Casino Vancouver
May 13 – Tacoma, WA – Pantages Theatre
May 15 – Salem, OR – Elsinore Theatre
May 17 – Stateline, NV – Harrah’s Lake Tahoe
May 20 – San Francisco, CA – Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
August 30 – Rockport, MA – Shalin Liu Performance Center
August 31 – Derry, NH – Tupelo Music Hall
