In The Studio with Redbeard

Tag: Bad Company

Bad Company- Run with the Pack 50th- Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke

Fifty years ago, England’s Bad Company completed a top-selling album trifecta with Run with the Pack containing “Honey Child”, “Silver, Blue, and Gold”, and the circular refrain of the title song “Runnin’ with the Pack”. In a previous episode we learned that Bad Company lead singer/songwriter Paul Rodgers, guitarist/songwriter Mick Ralphs, and drummer Simon Kirke all agreed that being the first band signed to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label, as well as sharing management with them, was advantageous in the immediate popularity of their 1974 debut as well as the 1975 follow up, Straight Shooter. However, the expectations for this “supergroup”, containing Rodgers and Kirke from English bluesrockers Free and Ralphs from Mott the Hoople, were exceedingly high for Run With the Pack in February 1976.

Bad Company’s Burning Sky in 1977, and the hit album Desolation Angels two years later, are included here as well. Also in my classic rock interview is Paul Rodgers’ fascinating disclosure about the time during a Bad Company extended hiatus where Rodgers actually helped Queen reunite early in the 21st Century as Queen + Paul Rodgers , re-energizing BOTH Queen and Bad Company, as it turned out; plus a funny, touching tribute to original Bad Company bass player Boz Burrell. Bad Company lead singer/lyricist Paul Rodgers is joined here In the Studio by drummer Simon Kirke and the late songwriter/guitarist Mick Ralphs for the golden anniversary of the silver-clad Run with the Pack. – Redbeard

February 1, 2026
Bad Company- Runnin’ with the Pack- Dallas/Ft.Worth 7-10-13

Bad Company has the dubious distinction of being just about the only arena-filling Seventies band which never released a live album during its original incarnation. And even though the three original members Paul Rodgers, the late Mick Ralphs, and Simon Kirke rectified that omission after reforming in the 21st century for touring purposes, still it doesn’t get any better than this exclusive live performance of Bad Company “Runnin’ with the Pack”, no overdubs, just as the audience loved it July 10, 2013 in Dallas/Ft. Worth. –Redbeard

January 25, 2026
Bad Company Best pt 1- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

“Initially, Bad Company was not even supposed to be a group at all, ‘super’ or otherwise,” wrote Alex Williams in the New York Times in a warm tribute to guitarist Mick Ralphs back in June 2025 when the veteran guitarist died after a long illness.
Inexplicably, Bad Company, the British rockers synonymous with Seventies arena-filling rock, made up of equal parts of two of England’s most-beloved early Seventies bands, Free and Mott the Hoople, had never even been so much as nominated for the Hall of Fame in twenty-one years of eligibility. Can’t be. Must be a typo, right? Bad Company, fronted by Paul Rodgers, universally acclaimed by his peers and music writers as one of the greatest natural-born singers ever, can’t get enough of the Rock Hall’s love to even give the fans a vote…that is, until this year.

In rock’n’roll just as in life in general, justice delayed is justice denied, and the Rock Hall needed to be cognizant that Bad Company co-founding guitarist/songwriter Mick Ralphs had to be sidelined a few years back due to a serious health setback. The Hall of Fame dallied on the inductions of YES and Deep Purple until the deaths of Chris Squire and Jon Lord, respectively, made the omissions of these pillars of Progressive Rock and Hard Rock a PR problem for the organization. Without so much as nominating Bad Company for twenty-one consecutive years and thus opening up the fan vote, the Rock Hall risked another self-inflicted wound to its credibility until mercifully coming to its senses just this Spring 2025 by first nominating and then electing Bad Company for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame slated for this Saturday. Sadly, co-founding guitarist/songwriter Michael “Mick” Ralphs died before the official ceremony.

Listen here to Rodgers, Ralphs, and drummer Simon Kirke with me In the Studio for the best of Bad Company, part one, including timeless songs “Can’t Get Enough”, Mick Ralphs’ “Ready for Love” from his Mott days, “Movin’ On” also written by Ralphs, the first album’s theme song “Bad Company”, and “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad”, “Feel Like Makin’ Love”, and Hendrix-inspired “Shooting Star” from Straight Shooter. –Redbeard

November 6, 2025
Free- Fire and Water- Paul Rodgers

It’s now been more than a half century since the release of Fire and Water in early Summer 1970, the breakthrough album by the erstwhile teenage London band Free. With the exception of B.B.King’s Top 40 hit “The Thrill Is Gone”, most American white Baby Boomer teenagers had gotten our limited exposure to the blues second-hand via young English bands such as Led Zeppelin. And even though the members of London-based Free were no older than me in 1969 (bass player Andy Fraser was a veteran of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers at 15 !), the sound of lead singer Paul Rodgers’ voice and lead guitarist Paul Kossoff’s crying sustained notes, in very sparse arrangements, really appealed to me then.

I won’t hesitate to admit that indeed it was “All Right Now” on US Top 40 radio in 1970 that got me to check out Free’s essential third album, Fire and Water. But when he heard me play “The Stealer” by Free on my radio show in Findlay OH while he was waiting to do soundcheck before a performance, no less than Bob Seger approached me to discuss our mutual admiration for Free, and it was during that conversation that Seger turned me onto the earlier Free album and the even more obscure Tons of Sobs, both of which preceded June 1970’s Fire and Water.

Drummer Simon Kirke (far left) would go on with Paul Rodgers (2nd from right) to found Bad Company by 1974, & Kossoff (far right) succumbed to the ravages of heroin addiction in 1976, but not before recording six Free studio albums containing “Woman”,”Fire and Water”,”Heavy Load”,”All Right Now” written by Fraser (sadly Andy Fraser, bass player who as a teenager wrote and performed “All Right Now”, passed away a few years ago after a chronic illness); “The Stealer”,”Catch a Train”, the shoulda-been-a-hit “Little Bit of Love”, and often-covered “Wishing Well” from the breakup and seemingly swan song At Last in Summer 1972; and the actual finale, Heartbreaker, six months later. It’s all in this classic rock interview with Paul Rodgers documenting Free Fire and Water. –Redbeard

June 22, 2025
Bad Company- Straight Shooter- Paul Rodgers, late Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke

Bad Company’s second album Straight Shooter in March 1975 reminds us an the old cliche’ in the rock music business: you have your whole life to write the songs on your first album, but six months to a year to write the material for your follow up. And as Keith Richards responded when I asked what he had learned from fifty years in the Rolling Stones, he sagely replied, “That cliches are true.”

Bad Company had elbowed their way to the forefront of the rock world by the late March 1975 release of their second album, Straight Shooter, avoiding the sophomore jinx with timeless songs “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad”,”Feel Like Makin’ Love”, and “Shooting Star”. But as my guests Paul Rodgers, now departed Mick Ralphs, and Simon Kirke share here, strange things can happen eventually when that much success is achieved that quickly in lives so young.

The previous year 1974 must have seemed quite a whirlwind for Brit blues-rockers Bad Company. As former members of Free, singer/songwriter Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, along with guitarist/songwriter ex-Mott the Hoople Mick Ralphs , and bass player Boz Burrell who had a stint with King Crimson, had all tasted success in the UK early in their respective careers. But with their 1974 debut Bad Company the London-based quartet had been tagged with the blessing/curse of “supergroup”. “And we delivered,” Simon Kirke points out emphatically in this classic rock interview, pointing out that after recording their first effort, Bad Company paid additional “rookie” dues by touring the world as a support act even while that eponymous debut rose to #1-seller in both the UK and America. Still, Paul, Mick, and Simon remember it nevertheless as good times for Bad Company.

Certainly no sophomore slump after the 1974 Bad Company debut here. Even half a century later, the songs “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad”,”Feel Like Making Love” (a Top Ten hit in America), and “Shooting Star” are heard daily on US radio as well as essentials when Bad Company tours, helping to sell half a million copies of Straight Shooter in the first month of release and eventually over three million just in the US. Join my guests Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, and Simon Kirke here In the Studio to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Straight Shooter by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Bad Company. -Redbeard

March 23, 2025
Bad Company- Shooting Star- Dallas/Ft.Worth 7-10-13

Bad Company really impressed on their Summer 2013 40th Anniversary Tour and here is irrefutable evidence, as this live performance of “Shooting Star” originally found on their March 1975 second album, Straight Shooter, came straight off the concert mixing console the night of July 10, 2013 in Dallas/ Ft.Worth (Grand Prairie) Texas! – Redbeard

March 16, 2025
Foreigner- Feels Like the First Time- London 5-78

Like contemporaries Bad Company, Foreigner are on a very short list of arena fillers who never released the obligatory live album with the original members in their prime. Thankfully that omission has been remedied for both with impressive results, most recently with the release of Foreigner’s London Rainbow Theatre appearance about six weeks before their second album, Double Vision, was released. Here is the original Foreigner band performing “Feels Like the First Time” at the venerable London landmark in Spring 1978, a warm up to Foreigner’s upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. -Redbeard
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September 29, 2024
Bad Company- Bad Company- Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke

I clearly remember to this day the anticipation leading up to the time that the British band released Bad Company, that much-touted debut in May 1974. Easy to recall precisely because of the pedigrees of the young but, by then, veteran rockers Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, ex- of Free; Mick Ralphs from Mott the Hoople; and Boz Burrell from a stint with King Crimson. Eventually Bad Company would occupy the #1 sales slot in the US, making Bad Company one of the most successful debuts in rock history because of “Can’t Get Enough”,”Rock Steady”,”Movin’ On”,”Ready for Love”, “Seagull”, and the title song.

Here is my classic rock interview from Rodgers, Kirke, and Ralphs just prior to Mick suffering that stroke in 2016 which eventually took his life. May God bless the sweet heart and soul of Mick Ralphs. –Redbeard

May 5, 2024
Bad Company- Can’t Get Enough- Dallas/Ft Worth 7-10-13

One of the bands which defined arena rock in the Seventies ironically never released a live album until the 21st century, but this sizzling performance of “Can’t Get Enough” from the In the Studio archives is better than anything anywhere, and it is totally live, no overdubs! Makes a nice way to mark the actual release date of that unforgettable first Bad Company album in the US fifty years ago. –Redbeard

April 28, 2024
Bad Company- Desolation Angels- Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke

Bad Company’s Desolation Angels, released in early March 1979, came only five years after their 1974 debut album made them a “super group”. Prior to release there was real concern that Bad Company had augered in with a collective faceplant, due to a dearth of strong material plus sheer exhaustion from a non-stop cycle of recording and touring. After three consecutive million-sellers in as many years, the British foursome consisting of ex-Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, King Crimson bass player Boz Burrell, and Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, half of blues-rockers Free, all were as Rodgers told me,”burnt” by the time they recorded 1977’s spotty Burnin’ Sky album, no pun intended.

After a much needed two year hiatus, Bad Company re-emerged with Desolation Angels, their strongest batch of songs since that impressive debut, including the electrifying “Rock’n’Roll Fantasy”,”Evil Wind”, and “Crazy Circles” all from Paul Rodgers chronicling life on tour; Burrell’s simple but intoxicating groove on “Gone, Gone, Gone”; and the mid-tempo rocker “Oh Atlanta” from Mick Ralphs.

My guests In the Studio Rodgers, the dearly missed Mick Ralphs, and Simon Kirke share a humorous, touching tribute to the late Boz Burrell, plus you will hear the original Bad Company’s final recording, “Hammer of Love”, as we salute Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Bad Company. –Redbeard

February 25, 2024