The rock artist, known for hits like “Two Tickets to Paradise,” was recently diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer
Singer-songwriter and rock musician Eddie Money has died, as Variety reports. He was best known for his hits throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s, including “Two Tickets to Paradise,” “Baby Hold On,” “Take Me Home Tonight,” and more. He was 70 years old.
Eddie Money (born Edward Joseph Mahoney) began his 50-year career in the late 1960s following a brief stint working as a police officer in his native New York. Two of Money’s earliest hits, “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise,” coincided with the release of his 1977 eponymous debut for Columbia Records.
In 1986, Money achieved his biggest hit with “Take Me Home Tonight”—a duet featuring former Ronette Ronnie Spector. The single was featured on Money’s Can’t Hold Back LP, and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Money released several more albums over the next twenty years, his most recent being 2006’s Wanna Go Back. In addition to writing, singing, and performing his own music, Money occasionally worked as an actor, appearing on “The King of Queens” as well as “The Drew Carey Show.”
In August 2019, Money and his wife announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in a video clip for his AXS television series “Real Money.” Money also revealed that the cancer had spread to his liver, lymph nodes, and stomach. “What I don’t want to do is I don’t want to keep the fact that I have cancer from everybody,” Money said in the clip. “It’s not honest. I want to be honest with everybody. I want people to know that cancer [treatment] has come a long way and not everybody dies from cancer like they did in the Fifties and Sixties. Am I going to live a long time? Who knows? It’s in God’s hands.”