\n<\/p>\n
In April 1970, Mr. McCartney announced that he was leaving the Beatles, initiating a famously nasty split. Still, Badfinger remained in their orbit. The band played on Mr. Harrison\u2019s triple album \u201cAll Things Must Pass\u201d (1970), for example, and Mr. Molland and Mr. Evans backed John Lennon<\/a> on some tracks of his watershed 1971 album, \u201cImagine.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Badfinger eventually signed with Warner Bros., although their affairs had turned nearly as nasty as the Beatles\u2019. The band became entangled by fierce battles over money with their manager, Stan Polley, who was embroiled in a messy legal tangle with Warners. At one point, the label halted distribution of the band\u2019s 1974 album, \u201cWish You Were Here,\u201d despite a strong critical response.<\/p>\n With tensions rising within the band and anger mounting over Mr. Polley\u2019s stewardship, Badfinger began to fray. Mr. Ham killed himself in 1975, leaving a note that read: \u201cStan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Molland spearheaded various incarnations of Badfinger over the years, including collaborations with Mr. Evans on the albums \u201cAirwaves\u201d (1979) and \u201cSay No More\u201d (1981). Still, disputes about royalties festered, and in 1983 Mr. Evans, too, died by suicide. Mr. Gibbins died of a brain aneurysm in 2005.<\/p>\n Mr. Molland continued to tour with a band called Joey Molland\u2019s Badfinger into his later years.<\/p>\n In addition to his partner, Mr. Molland is survived by two sons, Joseph and Shaun, from his marriage to Katherine Wiggins, who died in 2009, and a brother, Douglas.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople say things like \u2018the saddest story in rock,\u2019 and I guess they always will,\u201d Mr. Molland said of Badfinger to Guitar World. \u201cWe had two people in the band take their own lives,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s a tragedy on a human level. Who knows what drives people to do such a thing? But I can\u2019t think about \u2018what might have been.\u2019 You go crazy if you live your life like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n