Ray Thomas was a British musician, best known as one of the founding members of the UK rock band The Moody Blues.

Thomas, who played flute, sang and wrote a number of the Moody Blues’ songs, performed in rock and blues bands in Birmingham, England, before founding the group in 1964 with Denny Laine as lead singer and guitarist, Mike Pinder on keyboards, Graeme Edge on drums and Clint Warwick on bass.

In 1967 they released what is considered a progressive rock landmark, the album “Days of Future Passed.” Thomas’s solo on the single “Nights in White Satin,” which became the group’s signature song, was one of the album’s defining moments.

Along with fellow Moody Blues members Justin Hayward and John Lodge, Thomas appeared as himself in the “Viva Ned Flanders” episode of The Simpsons in 1999.

Thomas died January 4, 2018, in Surrey, England. He was 76.