Simon Kirke, the veteran drummer best known for his tenures in British blues rock stalwarts Free and Bad Company, stated during a podcast interview on November 23, 2023, that due to health issues, the latter’s 2019 tour dates were most likely its last.

I think a lot of people now already know that (singer) Paul Rodgers has had health problems. He went public with it a couple of weeks ago on CBS. They flew him out to New York and he came out with the fact that he has had some severe health problems in the last couple of years, a couple of strokes, quite a few mini strokes and heart troubles. And I honestly think that our, Bad Company’s days are pretty much over.

Kirke went on to point out that while he is personally in good health, the band’s other living original member, guitarist Mick Ralphs (bassist Boz Burrell died from a heart attack in 2006), has been incapacitated since suffering a stroke in 2016. He explained:

It’s paralyzed his left side, as most strokes do, so he’s really out of commission. He’s in a nursing home in England. So he’s really, his health is not good and certainly his playing days are over. So you know, we had a good run and I think we’re going to lay the old Bad Company to rest pretty soon.

In this light, a look back at the veteran band’s career is in order.

Bad Company started in 1972 as something of a supergroup, with all members coming from successful acts. Rodgers and Kirke were part of the heavy blues act Free, famed for the song “All Right Now,” and guitarist Paul Kossoff’s self-destructive drug habit that would take its ultimate toll in 1976. Burrell had served a stint in proggers King Crimson, while Ralphs had come to attention as part of Mott The Hoople. The four quickly gelled into a straightforward rock powerhouse, its eponymous 1974 debut album immediately stapling itself onto radio playlists and listeners' turntables alike, courtesy of the title track and especially “Can’t Get Enough.”

It didn’t hurt that the band was on Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label and shared Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant in the same role. However, this alone didn’t account for Bad Compamy’s rapid ascent into the rock stratosphere, a position it firmly held through the mid to late 1970s with hit after hit, including the band’s second and final US Top Ten hit, with 1975’s “Feel Like Making Love.”

The original lineup called it a day in 1982. Three years later, Ralphs and Kirke teamed up with vocalist Brian Howe and others. The following year saw the ensemble reassume the Bad Company name at their record label’s urging and embark on a fairly successful run that lasted through 1992, as far as recording was concerned. Howe died from cardiac arrest in 2020.

The original lineup briefly reunited in 1998 to record a few songs and play some shows but split for good in 1999, although different members used the Bad Company name for assorted projects in the ensuing years.

Despite the band’s lengthy run, its huge catalog of songs blasted daily on classic rock stations across the land, and Rodgers’ universally held status as one of rock’s all-time greatest vocalists, the band has never been so much as nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Frankly, that fact is hardly to its detriment. Bad Company was never flashy or fashionable. It went about its business with minimal fuss, filling a need for deeply satisfying, tuneful blues/rock and, like its label’s owners, letting the critics fend for themselves.

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