Less than a month after he revealed that he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer, Eddie Money has died.
He was 70.
The rocker, best known for his hits “Baby Hold On,” “Two Tickets to Paradise,” “Shakin’” and “Take Me Home Tonight” died Friday morning.
On last night’s episode of his AXS TV reality show Real Money, Money revealed his diagnosis, though he’d made the news public at the end of August in a preview clip.
“The Money Family regrets to announce that Eddie passed away peacefully early this morning,” his family said in a statement. “It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to our loving husband and father.
“We cannot imagine our world without him,” the statement continued. “We are grateful that he will live on forever through his music.”
Born and raised in New York — born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island — Money was an NYPD trainee before moving to California in 1968 to pursue music.
After scoring a record contract, he released his self-titled first album, which featured his signature hits “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise.”
His fourth album, “No Control,” was a big hit on the strength of two singles — “Think I’m in Love” and “Shakin” — which received heavy airplay on MTV.
After an unsuccessful period during which he struggled with drug addiction, Money made a huge comeback with the 1986 single “Take Me Home Tonight,” a duet with Ronnie Spector. It featured her singing the hook from her classic song with The Ronettes, “Be My Baby.”
It reached No. 4 on the charts.
Money scored a few more rock and pop hits, including “I Wanna Go Back,” “Walk on Water” and “The Love In Your Eyes.”
In recent years, Money took advantage of his pop culture status to star in a GEICO insurance commercial in which he sang “Two Tickets to Paradise.” He also appeared as himself on the sitcom “The King of Queens.”
In 2018, “Real Money,” which featured Money, his wife Laurie and their five adult children, premiered. It was renewed for a second season, which recently premiered.
