Denny Laine, founding member of the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney’s Wings, dead at 79

Denny Laine performs in January 2019 at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles. In 2018, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues. (Associated Press)

NEW YORK — Denny Laine, a British singer, songwriter and guitarist who performed in an early, pop-oriented version of the Moody Blues and was later Paul McCartney’s longtime sideman in the ex-Beatle’s solo band Wings, has died at age 79.

Laine, inducted five years ago into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues, died Tuesday in Naples, Florida. The cause was interstitial lung disease, according to an announcement on Laine’s Instagram page by his wife, Elizabeth Hines.