The Turtles co-founder Mark Volman dead at 78; also performed as Flo and Eddie

The co-founder of a legendary 1960s pop-rock band is dead at 78.

Mark Volman, best known for his work with The Turtles on hits like “Happy Together,” died Friday in Nashville, according to Rolling Stone. A cause of death was not named, but reps said he had a “brief, unexpected illness” and had previously been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia in 2020.

Volman and Howard Kaylan co-founded The Turtles in 1965, combining elements of folk-rock and psychedelic pop on flower power classics like “It Ain’t Me Babe” (a Bob Dylan cover), “You Baby,” “She’d Rather Be with Me,” “You Showed Me,” “Elenore” and the iconic “Happy Together,” which hit No. 1 in 1967. Kaylan was the lead vocalist and keyboardist, while Volman provided backing vocals, harmonies, guitar and percussion.

After The Turtles disbanded in 1970, Volman and Kaylan linked with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and became Flo and Eddie. Volman was “Flo,” short for “The Phlorescent Leech,” and Kaylan was “Eddie.”

Flo and Eddie released multiple albums, scored films and TV shows, and provided backing vocals for big names in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including John Lennon, T.Rex, Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, Blondie, Stephen Stills, and David Cassidy. Volman gave Zappa credit for helping develop their post-Turtles careers and turning their creativity “loose.”

“Frank opened the door for us to explore and be involved with a lot of really grown up music,” Volman told the Recording Academy. “I say ‘grown up’ because it had guitar changes and singing parts that we created for Frank. We couldn’t create those for any other place.”

Volman and Kaylan regularly worked in film and TV during the 1980s, including composing music for “The Care Bears” television series and the spoof comedy “Top Secret!” starring Val Kilmer. In the ‘90s, Volman returned to college and got his degree at Loyola Marymount University, eventually teaching music business courses at Belmont University in Nashville.

Rolling Stone notes Volman and Kaylan were also a part of several major music copyright cases, including suing De La Soul over a sample of The Turtles’ “You Showed Me” in 1991. They also filed a class action lawsuit against SiriusXM in 2013, accusing the satellite radio company of broadcasting songs recorded before 1972 without compensating labels or artists; SiriusXM settled with The Turtles for $99 million in 2016, leading to legislation for federal copyright protections to pre-1972 recordings.

“Mark and bandmate Howard Kaylan stepped up and set an example for decades, standing up for the rights of musicians in various legal actions, which had a great impact on the progression of the law in several different areas (including sampling, and the eventual protection of 60s recordings under the Music Modernization Act),” Volman’s lawyer Evan Cohen wrote in a Facebook tribute.

Volman continued to perform well into his 70s, including playing a 50th anniversary tour of with Kaylan in 2015. Volman also chronicled his life and career in the 2023 memoir, “Happy Forever: My Musical Adventures With The Turtles, Frank Zappa, T. Rex, Flo & Eddie, and More.”