Justin Hayward - bio
Having chalked up over fifty years at the peak of the music and entertainment industry, Justin Hayward’s voice and guitar playing has been heard the world over. Though his song catalogue contains many of the most influential songs in popular music, Justin is not one to rest on his laurels. He continues to perform regularly, both here and in the US - and will tour the UK in 2024.
Known principally as the vocalist, lead guitarist and composer for The Moody Blues, his is an enduring talent that has helped to define the times in which he worked. Possessing one of the most distinctive voices in rock music, as well as being the driving force behind The Moody Blues, Justin penned classics like ‘Nights in White Satin’, ‘Question’, ‘New Horizons’, ‘I Know You’re Out There Somewhere’, ‘Tuesday Afternoon’, ‘Story In Your Eyes, ‘The Voice’ and ‘Your Wildest Dreams’.
Over the last five and a half decades the band has sold upwards of fifty-five million albums and, along with Justin as a solo artist and writer, received numerous awards. The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, whilst Justin was personally honoured in 2022 with an OBE.
From his early teens, Justin began playing in local groups in Swindon and, when he left school at 18, he answered an advertisement in The Melody Maker newspaper. He auditioned for UK Rock hero Marty Wilde and got the job with his band. Justin credits Marty with encouraging him to write his own songs.
A couple of self-penned solo singles followed and, when he was 19 years old, in the summer of 1966, he joined the Moody Blues.
Justin’s career as a songwriter took off immediately with his composition ‘Fly Me High’ for the Moodies that year. That was followed in 1967 with the classics ‘Nights in White Satin’ and ‘Tuesday Afternoon’ from the pioneering album ‘Days of Future Passed’, Hayward’s first with the band. The album was named one of the most influential of that year by Rolling Stone and, eventually, gave them a US Top Ten hit. It also helped set the template for what became known as Progressive Rock. The album was a favourite of the NASA astronauts and was taken aboard the Atlantis shuttle space craft on many missions by Chief astronaut "Hoot" Gibson. (In March 1997, Justin was chosen as the subject for the prestigious British TV programme ‘This Is Your Life’ where he had a chance to meet “Hoot” in person).
The band swiftly became a mainstay of US radio and, in 1968, the band first toured there. They became a fixture on the live music scene in the United States, and indeed all across the world.
The band followed ‘Days Of Future Passed’ with an incredibly prolific run of successful and influential albums that have cemented their legacy. 1968’s ‘In Search of the Lost Chord’ featured Justin’s song ‘Voices In The Sky’. That song gave the band a Top 40 single, whilst the album hit the Top 5 in the UK. The album also included Justin’s sitar playing which had been inspired by his friend George Harrison. The following year saw the release of ‘On The Threshold of a Dream’, the band’s first UK Number One album. This featured another single penned by Justin, ‘Never Comes The Day’. 1969 also saw the release of ‘To Our Children’s Children’s Children’ album which hit the Number Two spot in the UK and was the first release on the band’s own label Threshold, under licence to Decca. It was a US Top 20 hit.
1970 was a landmark year for the band, even by their standards. They appeared at the legendary Isle of Wight Festival, and also released the album ‘A Question of Balance’. The album powered to number 3 in the US charts, and topped the charts in the UK. Justin had written the key track ‘Question’ for the album and that became a UK number one hit for the band.
‘The Story In Your Eyes’ was another Justin song that was released as a charting single, this was released in 1971 and was taken from the album ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’ in the same year. Again, a Number One album in the UK, it reached Number Two in the States. His song ‘Story In Your Eyes’ also featured. The following year saw yet another album, the US chart-topping ‘Seventh Sojourn’. In 1972, a re-release of Justin’s ‘Nights In White Satin’ hit number 2 in the US singles chart, selling over a million copies on the way and winning him an ASCAP award; he has four! The track also cracked the UK Top Ten. After such an intense period of constant work on tour and in the studio, the band went on a break until 1977.
Justin’s career as a solo artist began that same year, with the release of ‘Songwriter’, which had three single releases ‘One Lonely Room’ / ‘Songwriter (Part 2)’, ‘Country Girl’ / ‘Doin’ Time’ and ‘Stage Door’ / ‘Lay It On Me’. In 1978, Justin had a worldwide hit single with the beautiful and timeless ‘Forever Autumn’ from Jeff Wayne’s ‘War of the Worlds’. He has featured in the stage production of the project in British arenas. His is the original voice of ‘The Sung Thoughts of The Journalist’ on the classic album.
In 1978 the band returned with a new album ‘Octave’. Their next album was 1981’s ‘Long Distance Voyager’ which really connected with fans globally: it hit the number one spot in the US and went Top 5 in the UK. The album contained another of Justin’s best-loved songs ‘The Voice’ – itself another hit single.
In between those band albums, Justin released his second solo album ‘Night Flight’, which was a mixture of his own songs and those of other writers. Two singles were released from that 1980 album, ‘Night Flight’ / ‘Suitcase’ and ‘Nearer To You’ / ‘It’s Not On’.
1983 saw The Moody Blues return with ‘The Present’ album and two years later Justin released another solo studio of original compositions entitled‘Moving Mountains’.
‘The Other Side of Life’ album was released in 1986. The band embraced a more modern sound a little on this release bringing in Tony Visconti, and the collection featured the Justin classic, ‘Your Wildest Dreams’. This was a US Top Ten hit and the video for the song won the band the Billboard Video of the Year Award.
Next came the ‘Sur Le Mer’ album of 1988, which featured Justin’s sequel to the song ‘Your Wildest Dreams’, another classic ‘I Know You’re Out There Somewhere’ which was to be the band’s final US hit single.
Justin continued his own work and released his solo album ‘Classic Blue’ in 1989, a collection of songs recorded with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
‘Keys To The Kingdom’ was the 14th Moody Blues album in 1991, its style set immediately by two singles penned by Justin – ‘Say It With Love’ and ‘Bless The Wings (That Bring You Back)’.
In 1996, Justin released the guitar-based ‘The View From The Hill’ album and in 2013 achieved great success worldwide with his acclaimed ‘Spirits Of The Western Sky’ LP.
The Moody Blues had for a while concentrated on live work, but returned with an album in 1999, ‘Strange Times’. This was the band’s penultimate album, and their final release was‘December’ which was released in 2003 and featured four covers as well as original compositions.
Justin Hayward’s songwriting catalogue, both with the band and also under his own name, continues to resonate. A ‘live in concert’ solo DVD ‘Spirits…Live’, reached No1 on the Billboard Video Chart. 2016 saw the release of ‘All The Way’, a compilation of material taken from Justin’s solo career.
Justin is featured with the Moodies on the Rock Walk ‘Hall of Fame’ on Sunset Boulevard and he was awarded ‘The Golden Note’ award from ASCAP, the top honour for a British writer. He has received two Ivor Novello awards and is a member of the famous ‘SODS’ (The Society of Distinguished Songwriters). In 2013, he was elected ‘King SOD’.
His latest release, his first since the 2020 EP ‘One Summer Day’ was the ‘Living for Love’ single, released in 2022 through BMG.
Justin spent much of 2023 on the road - with solo tours, the ‘On The Blue’ cruise, and also a sell-out tour co-headlining in the USA with multi Grammy award winner Christopher Cross. In September, Justin was privileged to perform with the Athens State Symphony Orchestra at the Herodes Atticus historic amphitheatre in Athens, Greece.
2024 will see Justin back on the road with some UK live dates as part of Justin Hayward’s ‘Blue World’ Tour.