Mark Volman (at l.) with Howard Kaylan performing with the Turtles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967.
Mark Volman, who with fellow frontman Howard Kaylan formed the backbone of the popular ’60s music group the Turtles, died today (Sept. 5, 2025) at age 78, in Nashville, Tenn. The news was confirmed by Ron Dante, who sings the Turtles’ songs on the popular “Happy Together” tour. [As recently as the 2024 edition of the tour, Dante and Volman shared the vocals.]. Published reports by reliable sources attribute Volman’s death to a “brief, sudden illness,” although, in 2023, Volman revealed that he was suffering from a progressive neurological disorder known as Lewy body dementia (LBD).
“My dearest friend Mark Volman has passed away,” Dante wrote on Facebook. “My heart is broken. RIP Mark. You will not be forgotten.”
Volman shared the news of his illness in an interview with People on the eve of the publication of his autobiography. Happy Forever: My Musical Adventures With The Turtles, Frank Zappa, T. Rex, Flo & Eddie, and More, written with John Cody, was published on June 20, 2023. The book was timed to coincide with the 2023 edition of the “Happy Together” tour of ’60s hitmakers—named after the Turtles’ 1967 chart-topping single—in which Volman regularly performed before bowing out of this year’s edition. Kaylan had retired from the tour in 2018 due to his own health issues.
From the 2023 People feature: Volman had been experiencing hallucinations, tremors and struggles with concentration for several years but he wasn’t diagnosed until 2020. The progressive brain disorder is the second-most common form of degenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s. Actor Robin Williams also suffered from LBD for years before taking his own life in 2014.
Volman began to notice his symptoms in 2018, while teaching a music business program at Belmont University in Nashville. “I remember slurring, and I wasn’t sure what was going on,” he told People. “My brain wandered. I’d go off track. It made no sense.”
The Turtles emerged in 1965 out of an instrumental surf music band, initially called the Nightriders and then the Crossfires. After earning their first hit as the Turtles with 1965’s Bob Dylan cover “It Ain’t Me Babe,” the group went on to achieve enormous pop success with such singles as “She’d Rather Be With Me,” “Elenore,” “You Showed Me” and the #1 1967 hit “Happy Together.”
When the Turtles called it quits in 1970, Kaylan and Volman joined Zappa’s band the Mothers of Invention as Flo & Eddie (originally the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie, nicknames for Volman and Kaylan, respectively), due to contractual reasons. They continued to perform live and on recordings as a duo.
Noted Variety, “In his late forties, Volman returned to school to complete his Bachelors Degree at Loyola Marymount University. He graduated in 1997 and then completed an M.F.A. in 1999. He then began teaching music business courses at the college level, most consistently at Belmont University in Nashville.”
On the 2023 edition of the “Happy Together” tour, Volman fronted the Turtles with singer Ron Dante, who had no connection with the original group.
“Mark is one of the most indomitable yet gentle spirits I’ve ever met,” noted Alice Cooper in his foreword to Volman’s autobiography. “He will always be one of my favorite artists I’ve ever worked with. And someday, when I grow up, I want to be just like him.”
The People article noted, “Over time, the effects of the disease will progress into a ‘slow decline that will eventually interfere with his ability to function,'” said Kristen Pilote, who specializes in cognitive neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Mark Randall Volman was born April 19, 1947, in Los Angeles, and was raised in the suburban town of Westchester, Calif., where he met Kaylan at the local high school. Volman joined Kaylan’s surf band, for which they both played saxophone and which ultimately became the Turtles. A true son of Southern California, Volman went from topping the charts with the Turtles to earning underground credibility with Zappa. After leaving Zappa’s outfit, the pair continued as Flo & Eddie; Volman and his longtime singing partner Kaylan were the “not-so-secret ingredient” on many other artists’ records, taking Bruce Springsteen into the Top 10 for the very first time with the single “Hungry Heart” and singing on numerous recordings by T. Rex, including “Bang a Gong (Get It On).” Then came the Ramones, U2, Blondie, Duran Duran and so many more; their list of credits is long and varied.
Volman’s autobiography is available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here. Several titles in the Turtles’ catalog are available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.
Related: Musician and celebrity deaths of 2025
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