Bad Company

Formed in 1973, the British hard rock outfit Bad Company assembled as a supergroup featuring ex-King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, plus singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, both of whom had previously played in Free. Driven by Rodgers’ muscular vocals and Ralphs’ blues-based guitar work, the band became the first act signed to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song vanity label. Their self-titled 1974 debut album achieved international success, reaching the top of the U.S. charts while delivering the number one single “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love.”

Issued the following year, Straight Shooter also proved a major commercial triumph with the hit “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” and 1976’s Run with the Pack marked the group’s third straight million-selling release. Following 1977’s Burnin’ Sky, the band delivered 1979’s Desolation Angels, which incorporated synthesizers and strings into its sound; after a three-year break, Rough Diamonds appeared as the final album from the original lineup.

Ralphs and Kirke revived the Bad Company name in 1986, bringing in former Ted Nugent vocalist Brian Howe to take Rodgers’ place. The new configuration’s first effort, Fame & Fortune, met with little commercial response, yet 1988’s Dangerous Age achieved modest chart success. Holy Water, released in 1990, performed even more strongly when the power ballad “If You Needed Somebody” climbed into the Top 20. Here Comes Trouble arrived in 1992, earning platinum certification and another Top 40 single with “How About That.” Marking the 20th anniversary, the band expanded to a quintet by adding bassist Rick Wills and rhythm guitarist Dave Colwell, then issued the live retrospective The Best of Bad Company Live...What You Hear Is What You Get.

Two further albums followed—1995’s The Company of Strangers and 1996’s Stories Told and Untold—and in 1998 the original quartet of Rodgers, Ralphs, Kirke, and Burrell reconvened to cut several new songs that appeared with earlier material on the 1999 collection The Original Bad Company Anthology. An extensive reunion tour took place that spring before the group again went its separate ways. Although assorted lineups reconvened during the ensuing decade, the 1999 shows marked the final occasion on which the four founding members shared a stage.

Burrell suffered a heart attack in 2006 and passed away at his residence in Spain. Live albums drawn from tours of that period surfaced in 2010 and 2011. In 2013, Bad Company teamed with Lynyrd Skynyrd for a co-headlining trek honoring the band’s 40th anniversary. No fresh recordings emerged, but the first two studio albums received deluxe reissues in 2015. Vocalist Brian Howe died at his home in Florida on May 5, 2020, from cardiac arrest at age 66.