5 Reasons Bad Company Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Bad Company already had quite a resume before releasing their five-times platinum 1974 self-titled debut.

Frontman Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke had been in Free, a shooting star of a band that hit in 1970 with the international Top 5 single “All Right Now.” Guitarist Mick Ralphs was a founding member of Mott the Hoople whose stint included 1972’s breakout All the Young Dudes. Bassist Boz Burrell gained early notice with King Crimson, appearing on 1971’s Islands.

Ralphs was a contributing writer in both Mott the Hoople and Bad Company, and his knack for creating hooky songs led him to this new group. He’d amassed a growing pile of material that Mott frontman Ian Hunter felt was unsuitable for his voice. Ralphs was also becoming restless as the group shifted toward glam rock. “I wanted something more bluesy, more simplistic, more earthy,” he later admitted.

READ MORE: Top 10 Bad Company Songs

Then Rodgers ran into Ralphs and they successfully ran through a few of these leftover tracks. Bad Company was born. Four of the group’s first five albums were certified platinum or multi-platinum in the U.S. Unfortunately, the partnership fractured when Rodgers left Bad Company following 1982’s Rough Diamonds. Burrell played on a subsequent tour, but declined to record without Rodgers. Bad Company somehow survived, though with two other frontmen and an often era-specific approach.

The original founding quartet finally reunited to complete four new songs for 1999’s The ‘Original’ Bad Co. Anthology. Rodgers, Kirke, Ralphs and Burrell also did a short promotional run, but they’d never tour together again. Ralphs left the road with health issues. Bad Company came to an official end in 2023, after Rodgers suffered a series of strokes. Their subsequent nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was somewhat bittersweet, Kirke told New York City’s Q104.3.

“I was saying to a friend of mine earlier on that I hope that we can get on the podium, because Mick, our guitarist … is not well and we don’t know how long he’s gonna be around,” Kirke admitted. “But it would be wonderful if me and Paul could get on the stage and say, ‘This is for Mick as well.'”

Here are five reasons why Bad Company should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:

They Helped Set the Supergroup Template in Rock

It wasn’t just that the original lineup featured name-brand members of Free (Rodgers and Kirke), Mott the Hoople (Ralphs) and King Crimson (Burrell). Bad Company was a supergroup that actually operated like one: After signing to Led Zeppelin‘s Swan Song label, everyone made key contributions: Their first single, 1974’s U.K. Top 20 hit “Can’t Get Enough,” was written by Ralphs. Their self-titled theme song was composed by both Rodgers and Kirke, the latter of whom was the band’s only continuous member. Rodgers and Ralph shared credit for 1975’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” a Billboard Top 5 rock-radio staple. Everyone contributed to “Honey Child,” a single from 1976’s Run with the Pack. Rodgers wrote 1979’s gold-selling “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy,” then Burrell composed the follow-up single, “Gone, Gone, Gone.”

Few Bands Have Overcome as Much Adversity

Bad Company rose from the ashes of Free, whose troubled guitarist Paul Kossoff died early. Unfortunately, the new group started by former Free members Rodgers and Kirke had its share of medical issues, too. Burrell died of a heart attack in September 2006 at just 60; his last collaborations with Bad Company dated back to the late-’90s. By then, Bad Company had already cycled through two replacements for Rodgers, who left in the early ’80s. The most successful LPs were with Brian Howe, who died at age 66 in May 2020 after suffering cardiac at his Florida home.

Still, the Bad Company brand remained: Rodgers was part of a partial reunion with Kirke in the early 2000s that produced 2002’s In Concert: Merchants of Cool. Rodgers, Kirke and Ralphs appeared as Bad Company off and on between 2008-19, but health problems – including a debilitating stroke just after a partial reunion tour in 2016 – eventually pushed Ralphs off the road. A rotating group of bassists replaced Burrell. Former Heart guitarist Howard Leese and Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes both subbed for Ralphs. Bad Company was finally grounded for good in 2023 when Rodgers suffered his own series of strokes.

Bad Company Was a Marvel of Consistency

Bad Company arrived with plenty of momentum based on their past musical exploits. Then they made good on all of those expectations, scoring gold or platinum albums in every decade from the ’70s through the ’00s. Their first two LPs, 1974’s Bad Company and 1975’s Straight Shooter, were multi-platinum international Top 5 hits. Then 1976’s Run With the Pack went platinum. They scored gold sales with 1976’s Burnin’ Sky before returning to multi-platinum status with 1979’s Desolation Angels and the 1985 compilation 10 from 6. The retooled band then reached gold sales with 1988’s Dangerous Age and 1992’s Here Comes Trouble. They sold more than a million copies of Holy Water in 1990. Finally, 2002’s In Concert: Merchants of Cool was also certified with gold sales.

They Weren’t Afraid to Push Back Against Their Label

The new group’s road manager had earlier worked with Led Zeppelin, and he connected Rodgers with their powerful manager Peter Grant. In a happy coincidence, Grant was also launching a new label under the Led Zeppelin aegis to be known as Swan Song. Grant became their manager and Bad Company signed with Swan Song – but then a familiar issue with label executives popped up again. “They thought it was a terrible name,” Rodgers later remembered. “I told them that I had been through this before with Free as Island Records had wanted to call us the Heavy Metal Kids. We agreed to go in and tell them that we were going to be called Bad Company and that was the end of the story. As soon as Peter heard how strongly I felt about the name, he became very supportive and together we turned the record company around.”

Bad Company Cemented Peter Grant’s Legacy

As Led Zeppelin’s manager, Grant undoubtedly learned a thing or two about breaking U.K. acts in America – and he did it all while balancing the creative and personal conflicts that arise with any supergroup. Replicating Led Zeppelin’s success with the newly signed Bad Company would confirm his status as a rock Svengali. Bad Company was the first band signed to Swan Song and they added another layer of platinum-level credibility to Grant’s fledgling label. Kirke once described Grant as “the worst enemy you could ever have and he was the best friend. The thing is, we had the goods to back it up. So when we came out of that starting gate, everything went boom!” Grant also played a crucial role with their blockbuster debut: He alerted Bad Company that the mobile studio at Headley Grange was available after Led Zeppelin was delayed – but only for a short two-week span. Bad Company finished their first LP in just nine days.