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Bad Company

A London supergroup built from Free, Mott the Hoople and King Crimson, signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label, whose first album went to number one in the United States in 1974.

Origin
London, England
Years active
1973-2019
Genres
hard rock, blues rock
Labels
Swan Song, Atlantic, Island, Atco

Three bands in one

Bad Company formed in London in 1973 from the wreckage of three other bands. Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke had been the singer and drummer of Free, whose All Right Now was a number one in more than 20 territories. Mick Ralphs had left Mott the Hoople, where, he said, songs such as Can't Get Enough and Movin' On were never used because Ian Hunter could not sing them. Boz Burrell had been the bassist of King Crimson. Rodgers and Ralphs found they had a dozen or more unused songs between them, and recruited Kirke and Burrell. Management and the record label thought Bad Company a "terrible name", and Rodgers fought hard to keep it.

They shared a manager with Led Zeppelin, Peter Grant, and signed to Swan Song, the Zeppelin label, with Atlantic in North America and Island elsewhere. Rodgers later said of Zeppelin: "They wanted to share some of their glory, I suppose, and give people a chance." The band went on to release six records on the label, and the association ended in 1982.

The Swan Song years

Bad Company was made in November 1973 at Headley Grange, the Hampshire house Led Zeppelin had used, with a mobile studio parked outside. It reached number one in the United States and number three in the UK, and gave radio Can't Get Enough, Bad Company and Movin' On. Straight Shooter followed in March 1975, also number three in both countries and gold in the US within a month, with Feel Like Makin' Love and Shooting Star. Run with the Pack (1976), recorded in France in a mobile truck, reached four in the UK and five in the US, so that the first three albums all made the top five in both countries. The debut ranks as the 46th best-selling album of the 1970s.

Burnin' Sky (1977) did the least well of the first four. After a tiring 1977 tour the band took two years off, and Desolation Angels (1979), made at Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey with synthesizers and strings added, brought Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy and a number three placing in the US.

Break-up and substitutes

Rough Diamonds appeared in August 1982, and the band disbanded. Ralphs said: "Bad Company had become bigger than us all and to continue would have destroyed someone or something." Kirke said: "Peter was definitely the glue which held us all together and in his absence we came apart." In 1986 Atlantic pressed Ralphs and Kirke to revive the name. Rodgers was busy with the Firm, so Brian Howe sang. Fame and Fortune (1986), Dangerous Age (1988), Holy Water (1990) and Here Comes Trouble (1992) followed, and Holy Water sold more than a million copies. Robert Hart fronted the band from 1994 to 1998, and recorded Company of Strangers (1995) and Stories Told & Untold (1996) with them.

Rodgers came back in 1998 to record four new songs for an anthology, and the four originals toured the United States in 1999, finishing at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles on 8 August. Boz Burrell died on 21 September 2006.

Afterwards

Rodgers, Ralphs and Kirke played a one-off show in Hollywood, Florida, on 8 August 2008, later released on Blu-ray, DVD and CD, and in 2013 the band toured with Lynyrd Skynyrd to mark forty years. The band played London's O2 Arena on 29 October 2016, and Ralphs did not return to the band afterwards. In November 2023 Kirke said on a podcast that Bad Company were "pretty much over". Ralphs died on 23 June 2025, aged 81.

That year Bad Company were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Mick Fleetwood. The Hall said their straightforward, no-frills approach "inspired rockers to embrace melody over bombast, songs over jams, tight, short solos and unforgettable choruses", and Joe Perry of Aerosmith said: "you hum along to not just the song but the solos." A tribute album, Can't Get Enough, described as the first sanctioned by the band, gathered Slash, Def Leppard, Halestorm and others, with Rodgers and Kirke appearing on it. The band has sold 40 million albums worldwide.

Members

Records

Songs

Free, Mott the Hoople, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd

Where to go next

Official

  • Bad Company The band's site, carrying the 2025 tribute album and its tracklist.

Reference

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Sources

  1. Bad Company, Wikipedia
  2. Mick Ralphs obituary, The Guardian (2025-06-25)
  3. Bad Company: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  4. Bad Company, Rolling Stone review, Rolling Stone (1974)
  5. Swan Song Records history, Ultimate Classic Rock
  6. Paul Rodgers, Wikipedia
  7. Boz Burrell, Wikipedia