Mark Volman (The Turtles, Flo & Eddie) has died at 78

Mark Volman, a founding member of The Turtles and offshoot Flo & Eddie, died on Friday in Nashville after a sudden illness. He was 78.

Born in Los Angeles in 1947, Volman formed The Crossfires with Howard Kaylan while still in high school. That group turned into The Turtles after graduation in 1965, and they scored their first hit with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” that went to #8 that same year.

For the next five years, The Turtles were regulars in the Top 40 with singles including “Let Me Be,” “You Baby,” “She’d Rather Be with Me,” “Elenore,” “She’s My Girl,” “You Showed Me,” and “Happy Together,” which went to #1 in 1967. While the music was sunshine pop, The Turtles’ lyrics were often cynical and sarcastic, and Volman and Kaylan — known as Flo & Eddie — broke up the band in 1970 and joined Frank Zappa‘s Mothers of Invention.

In 1971, Volman and Kaylan began performing as a duo as Flo & Eddie while maintaining a side career as session vocalists, singing backup for the likes of T. Rex, Steely Dan, Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, and more. Flo & Eddie never had the chart success The Turtles did but their caustic sense of humor and serious musical chops made them cult heroes. Their 1976 album Moving Targets contained one of their best songs, “Keep it Warm,” and with lyrics like “Kill another whale with your power / Shoot a bunch of kids from a tower / Snipe them in their cars, blood keeps them warm” feels like it could’ve been written today.

In the ’80s they started performing on the oldies circuit as The Turtles… featuring Flo & Eddie, and in 1991 famously sued De La Soul for sampling for sampling The Turtles’ “You Showed Me” without permission on their debut album Three Feet High and Rising. They settled out of court but it set a precedent for sampling clearance rights in the music industry (for better or worse).

Volman and Kayman continued to tour as The Turtles… featuring Flo & Eddie through the 2010s until Kaylan retired in 2018, leaving Volman as the only original member. Volman was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia in 2020 but continued to perform including some shows this year.

Rest in peace, Flo. Keep it warm.