Justin Hayward

Justin Hayward

Justin Hayward is an English rock musician from Swindon, United Kingdom, best known as the songwriter, lead singer and guitarist of The Moody Blues. He is also associated with Disaster Plan. He is born in 1946 and is linked with the label Justunes Ltd.

Career with The Moody Blues

Hayward becomes known through his work with The Moody Blues, and he is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the group in 2018. He also learns Transcendental Meditation in 1967 alongside other members of the band.

Early life and musical start

He is born in Dean Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, and is educated at Shrivenham School in Berkshire and the Commonweal School in Swindon. He starts playing in bands while still a teenager and buys a Gibson 335 at 15, along with a Vox AC30 amplifier. That guitar becomes a major part of his career, although he also uses other instruments over the years. In his early local work, he performs in clubs and dance halls around Swindon, largely playing Buddy Holly songs.

One of his early groups, All Things Bright, opens for The Hollies and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. At 17, he signs an eight-year publishing contract with Lonnie Donegan, a decision he later regrets because the rights to songs written before 1974 remain with Donegan’s Tyler Music.

Work in the 1960s and later instruments

In 1965, Hayward answers an advertisement in Melody Maker and auditions for Marty Wilde as guitarist. He then works with Wilde and his wife in The Wilde Three. Over time, he mainly uses a red Gibson ES-335, but he also plays a 1955 Martin D-28 Dreadnought, a James Olson six-string acoustic, a black Guild acoustic, a Squier Stratocaster, a Fender Telecaster, a blonde Guild 12-string acoustic tuned to open C for “Question,” and a black Gibson Les Paul. Between 1965 and 1968, he does not have his Gibson 335 and uses other guitars, especially a 1964 Fender Telecaster and a hand-built 12-string guitar he later buys from Donegan’s widow. He also says in a later interview that his 1963 Gibson 335 has been with him since 1967. More recently, he plays a Collings D3 on stage and on recordings.

Selected songs and recordings

Hayward plays mandolin on A Question of Balance and sitar on In Search of the Lost Chord. He describes “Nights in White Satin” as being written at the end of one love affair and the beginning of another, and says that it is “in adoration of all women.”

Personal life

He marries model Ann Marie Guirron in 1970. His daughter Doremi, who sings on “Raised on Love” from his 1977 album Songwriter, is born in 1972.