Condolences: Denny Laine

• British musician Denny Laine, best known as the co-founder of the Moody Blues and for his decade-long stint as a member of Paul McCartney & Wings, has died at the age of 79 after a long battle with interstitial lung disease, according to a social media post from his wife, Elizabeth.

As reported by Variety, Laine was born Brian Frederick Hines in 1944 near Birmingham, England. In the early ’60s Laine co-founded the Moody Blues, and in 1964 had an early hit singing their cover of Bessie Banks‘ breakup ballad, “Go Now,” which would be associated with Laine for the rest of his career. Laine left the band in 1967 and was replaced by Justin Hayward, who would lead the Moody Blues to become one of the biggest groups of the era with hits like “Nights in White Satin.”

Over the next few years Laine formed several groups, including the Electric String Band and Balls and Ginger Baker’s Air Force. However, his big moment arrived in 1971 when he joined McCartney in his first post-Beatles group, Wings. He remained with the group for 10 years, performing on tour and on the albums Band on the Run and Venus and Mars, and on songs like “Jet,” “My Love,” and particularly “Mull of Kintyre,” one of the biggest singles in British history, which Laine co-wrote.

Laine and McCartney’s late wife Linda were the two mainstays in Wings, which went through several lineup changes over the years, before disbanding in 1981 after John Lennon‘s death. Laine later contributed to McCartney’s solo albums during the early ’80s.

Laine later embarked on a solo career and released several albums and toured over the ensuing decades, although he met with limited success. He married Elizabeth Mele this past July, and earlier this year announced that he was working on a new album, although its status remains unclear.