Getty Eddie Money has a big family. Here he is with two of his children.
Eddie Money, the ’80s singer behind such iconic hits as “Take Me Home Tonight” and “Two Tickets to Paradise,” leaves behind a wife of many years and a large family of five children. Some viewers were introduced to Money’s family through the reality television show Real Money or because they performed on stage with him.
Money has died at age 70.
The cause of death was esophageal cancer. “The Money Family regrets to announce that Eddie passed away peacefully early this morning,” the family said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to our loving husband and father. We cannot imagine our world without him. We are grateful that he will live on forever through his music.”
Eddie Money’s family includes his wife, Laurie Money, and the couple’s five kids: Zach, Joe, Jesse, Dez, and Julian. Eddie’s son Desmond Money is a musician and his daughter Jesse Money and son Julian Money are too.
“Eddie and Laurie’s five children each have a hand in the music industry. The Moneys’ daughter, Jesse, and sons’ Dez and Julian, each join their father onstage as members of his band. Son Joe opts for a different music genre as a dubstep producer, and the eldest Money child, Zach, helps to run the family business,” according to AXS TV.
Here’s what you need to know about Eddie Money’s kids and family:
1. Eddie’s Wife, Laurie Money, Used to Confuse Him With John Mellencamp
Facebook/AXS TVLaurie Money, Eddie Money’s wife, pictured in a promotional image for the family’s reality TV show.
Eddie Money was married to wife Laurie Money, a model, in 1989. She told People Magazine that, at first, she wasn’t sure who he was despite his 1980s-era musical success. They met in 1985 and he credited her with helping him get sober.
“I really didn’t know who he was,” she told People. “I used to get him mixed up with John Mellencamp.” She basically made sobriety an ultimatum, the magazine recalls. “He was really interested in having children, but he had to stop doing what he was doing. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have stayed.”
Before he met Laurie, life was a rock star’s stereotype. “I had a girl in every port,” Money said to the Herald Courier. “I drank a lot of alcohol. I did cocaine. Never did heroin. Drank a lot of booze. Wrecked a lot of cars. I was snorting South American countries during the 1980s. I overdosed twice, one that the public knows about and one they don’t.”
But then he saw Laurie. “It was in Nashville,” Money said to the Herald Courier. “She was beautiful. I was singing ‘Two Tickets to Paradise.’ Tears were streaming down her face. I looked down and she said, ‘You’re standing on my fingers!’”
2. Eddie Money Settled Into Suburban Life With His Kids & Wife, Who Were Featured on a Reality TV Show & Mostly Joined the Family Business
People Magazine recalled how Eddie settled into a life of suburban family normalcy, where his biggest vice was getting caught speeding. He drove a Volvo, the family joined him on the road, and he cancelled concerts to go to his children’s events, the magazine reported.
“You turn around one day and you’ve become a father. It’s like, ‘Whose kids are these? Wait! They’re mine!’” Eddie Money told People Magazine in 1996 when he was 47 years old. “Suddenly you find yourself doing things you never thought you’d be doing.”
Money and his family, including their eight dogs, were featured on the reality show “Real Money,” which aired in 2018 on the AXS cable network. “I hope this TV show does well because I want my kids’ careers to take off. If they don’t, I don’t think I’m ever going to get the empty nest I’m looking for,” Money said, according to Inland360. The show was renewed for a second season and followed the family as Eddie’s wife and kids joined him on tours throughout the country.
Money joked to Rolling Stone about his children being in his band, saying, “I want to fire them for not showing up on time, not doing the music correctly and stuff like that, but if I fire them, I think my wife would fire me. You know what they say, a happy wife is a happy life.”
AXS TV described each of the kids this way:
Desmond Money (Dez Money):
“Dez Money is a part of the family band: He joins his rock star father out on stage night in and night out as his guitarist. He’s also a singer-songwriter and frontman in his own band. Playing alongside him in his band is his brother Julian on drums, and sister Jesse on background vocals.”
Jesse Money:
“Jesse Money is Eddie and Laurie Money’s only daughter. She’s a singer who performs beside her rock star father, as well as in her brother Dez’s band. As she says, ‘I was born and raised as a rock star’s daughter and continuing the legacy by doing it myself.’”
Zach Money:
“Eddie Money doesn’t have to go too far to get a good workout in. His oldest son, Zach Money, specializes in fitness and is Eddie’s personal trainer. Besides making sure his family stays in shape, Zach also uses his analytical side of his brain to maintain the family business.”
Joe Money:
“Classic rock isn’t the only music played around the Money household. Joe Money keeps the family dancing as a dubstep producer. Oh, and did we mention he does a killer impression of his father?”
Julian Money:
“Meet the man who keeps the beat going in the family… Julian Money is the drummer in both his father’s and brother’s band. He credits his rock star father for his impressive musicianship, calling him a ‘huge inspiration.'”
3. Eddie Money’s Dad, a Police Officer, Wanted Him to Be a Cop to Avoid Vietnam
Musicians Jesse Money (L) and Eddie Money perform on stage during the iHeart80s Party 2017 at SAP Center on January 28, 2017 in San Jose, California.
Eddie Money was born in Brooklyn, New York to Daniel Mahoney and his wife Dottie on March 21, 1949.
Money told the Herald Courier that his father had a different occupation in mind for him: Law enforcement, even though he was already in a band back in high school. There was a reason for that though: The Vietnam War.
“When I was in high school, I was in a rock band (The Grapes of Wrath),” Money said. “My father said ‘Go to the police academy so you can get an occupational deferment from Vietnam.’”
His father was a cop. Money described his father to Rolling Stone as “one of the last foot cops.”
He acquiesced, joining a police force for two years before moving to Berkeley and starting his musical career. To the Herald Courier, Money described his father as a “devout Catholic.”
Eddie Money was born Edward Joseph Mahoney. His mother was Jewish.
4. Eddie’s Daughter Jesse Money Was a Backup Singer for Him
Jessica Money, sometimes called Jesse Money, followed in her dad’s singing footsteps and would sing backup vocals for him. She toured with him and once referred to him as her best friend.
In one episode of the reality show, Jesse and Eddie sing some of his old hits together. “He’s used to his own music,” Eddie’s wife, Laurie, explained to AXS TV. “And then he’s put into ‘Ok, where am I gonna find myself in this song?’”
AXS described season two this way: “Season two finds them having to leave their home as the Woolsey fires threaten the area; hitting the studio to record new material; rocking a sold-out crowd in Motor City; taking the Big Apple by storm for a raucous Money family reunion; saddling up for some Old West fun in Deadwood, South Dakota; smashing through a ‘rage room’; and welcoming great dane puppy Bette to their growing pack of dogs.”
5. Eddie Money, Who Has Four Siblings, Was Raised on Long Island
Musicians Desmond Money (L) and Eddie Moeny perform on stage during the iHeart80s Party 2017 at SAP Center on January 28, 2017 in San Jose, California.
According to the News Times, Money has three sisters and a brother.
His mother worked in banking and later died of cancer. In high school, at Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn, Money was an athlete – he ran track and was an All State soccer player, News Times reports.
The newspaper described how Eddie went to the same high school as John Gotti, but the family moved to Long Island when he was a sophomore. By then, he was listening to the Beach Boys, Beatles, and Otis Redding.
“I started singing on the corners, on the streets in these doo-wop groups,” Money said to News Times. “I was really young. And I was in a rock ‘n’ roll band before the Beatles came out, man – singing Chuck Berry and Sam & Dave, all that stuff.”