Remembering Eddie Money

Edward Joseph Mahoney was born in Brooklyn, NY on March 21, 1949 to Seamus and Siobhan Mahoney. Eddie grew up in a large Irish Catholic family in Queens and Long Island. Little Eddie was not a good student and was eventually thrown out of school for forging his report card. Apparently he spelled his name wrong. He then decided to follow in the family footsteps. His father and grandfather were police officers, as well as his 4 uncles 3 brothers and 6 cousins.

Eddie quit the force in 1968 after they would not let him grow his hair long. Eddie told his father that he is pursuing a career in music. His father reacted as father’s often did in 1968 by ripping the Jimi Hendrix posters off of his sons bedroom wall.

This did not deter Eddie and he moved to Berkeley, California, took vocal lessons and changed his name to Eddie Money. He supported himself by selling Bell Bottoms and hashish. It was a wild hippie lifestyle of fast women and fancy hair dryers.

Eddie Money Illustration By Paul King Art

Eddie released his debut album in 1977 and it was a huge success containing the smash singles, “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise”. The rest is history. Money went on to score eleven Top 40 songs, including “Think I’m in Love”, “Shakin'”, “Take Me Home Tonight”, “I Wanna Go Back”, “Walk on Water”, and “The Love in Your Eyes”.

Eddie followed in the family footsteps of drinking excessively. Actually, we don’t know that, but we have heard Irish like to drink a lot. Eddie had substance abuse problems, eventually becoming clean and sober. He was married to his wife Laurie for 30 years and they had 5 children together. Eddie passed away on September 13, 2019. We Miss You Eddie, Thank You for the music Sir.