Key facts
- Origin
- London , England
- Genres
- Hard rock blues rock
- Works
- Discography
- Years active
- 1973–1982 1986–1999 2001–2002 2008–2019
- Labels
- Island Swan Song Atlantic Atco
- Spinoffs
- The Firm Queen + Paul Rodgers
- Spinoff of
- Free King Crimson Mott the Hoople
- Past members
- Simon Kirke Mick Ralphs Boz Burrell Paul Rodgers Brian Howe Steve Price Dave Colwell Rick Wills Robert Hart Jaz Lochrie Howard Leese Lynn Sorensen Todd Ronning
- Website
- badcompany .com
via Wikipedia infobox
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Bad Company were an English rock supergroup formed in London in 1973 by two former members of Free, singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and former King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. Kirke was the only member to remain throughout the band's entire run, while he and Ralphs were the only members to appear on every studio album. Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, also managed Bad Company until 1982. Burrell died in 2006, followed by Ralphs in 2025, leaving Kirke and Rodgers as the only surviving members of the original line-up.
Bad Company enjoyed great success throughout the 1970s. Their first three albums, Bad Company (1974), Straight Shooter (1975) and Run with the Pack (1976), reached the top five in the album charts in both the UK and the US. Many of their singles and songs, such as "Bad Company", "Can't Get Enough" (1974), "Feel Like Makin' Love" (1975), "Shooting Star" (1975), "Burnin' Sky" (1977) and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" (1979), remain staples of classic rock radio. They have sold 20 million RIAA-certified albums in the US and 40 million worldwide. Though they initially disbanded in 1982, Bad Company reunited on many occasions to record and tour until 2019, when Rodgers suffered a major stroke. In 2023, Kirke revealed that they would not continue as a band following the development of Rodgers' health issues.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Bad Company” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.