A few weeks after fans learned of his stage 4 esophageal cancer diagnosis, rocker Eddie Money has died.
A statement from the family said Money passed away early Friday morning at the age of 70.
“We cannot imagine our world without him. We are grateful that he will live on forever through his music,” they said, in part.
With a string of hits including “Two Tickets to Paradise,” “Take Me Home Tonight,” “Baby Hold On,” “Think I’m in Love” and “I Wanna Go Back,” the 70-year-old Brooklyn native was a durable presence on rock radio in the ‘70s and ‘80s and experienced a resurgence on MTV.
In 2011, Money helmed the "Money in the Morning" radio show on The River 97.1 (which he recorded in Los Angeles), an experiment that lasted about three months.
“No one else really sounded like him,” said English Nick, the midday host at The River. “Of all the classic rock artists we play, when you play Eddie Money, you know it’s Eddie Money.”
The station will honor Money at noon on Friday with a “rock block” of his music and play double shots of his songs throughout the weekend.
Money last played the Atlanta area in June 2018 at The Fred amphitheater in Peachtree City (with Starship featuring Mickey Thomas).
The gritty-voiced singer and songwriter endured a series of health issues in recent years. He canceled his summer tour after developing pneumonia following heart valve surgery, but what fans didn’t know at the time was that Money had also been diagnosed with cancer last fall.
That disclosure came with an early released clip from of the Sept. 12 episode of his AXS TV series, “Real Money.” In the show, Money’s wife, Laurie, confirmed that the tumor was at the top of Money’s stomach, in his esophagus, and had spread to his liver.
“What I don’t want to do is I don’t want to keep the fact that I have cancer from everybody,” Money said in the episode. “It’s not honest. I want to be honest with everybody. I want people to know that cancer [treatment] has come a long way and not everybody dies from cancer like they did in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Am I going to live a long time? Who knows? It’s in God’s hands.”
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