Eddie Money Dies at 70

Singer, Songwriter Eddie Money Dies

(Los Angeles, CA) — Eddie Money, one of the top singers and songwriters of the 1970s and 80s, is dead. The 70-year-old performer’s family released a statement this morning saying he died peacefully today. Money earned fame with hits such as “Take Me Home Tonight” and “Two Tickets to Paradise.” He released eleven albums during his career and sold more than 28 million records. He was born in Brooklyn in 1949 as Edward Joseph Mahoney and dreamed of a music career as a child. However, he ended up following his father as a police officer in New York. After two years, he left for Berkeley, California where he began playing music at local clubs. That’s where he changed his name. He earned his big break in 1976 when he met legendary promoter Bill Graham in the San Francisco Bay Area. Columbia Records signed Money in 1977.

He had four albums make it into the Top 40 and a number of singles reach the Hot 100 chart, including “Baby Hold On” which peaked at number eleven. The singer’s struggles with drug addiction in the mid-1980s threatened to end his career, but the song “Take Me Home Tonight” made him a star again. That song reached number four on Billboard’s Hot 100 list and earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. He released six more Hot 100 hits after that success.

Money disclosed on his AXS TV reality show, Real Money, that he had been diagnosed with stage four esophageal cancer in August.

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Ken Sain/jas