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Bad Company Co-Founder Simon Kirke on the Band’s Members and Their #1 Debut Album

by Greg Brodsky

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Simon Kirke, in an undated photo from his archives; used with permission.

Ten months after Bad Company’s long overdue induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as members of the class of 2025, the band’s co-founder and drummer, Simon Kirke, will take the stage at the Cutting Room in New York City. At the September 18, 2026, concert, he’ll join Marc Ribler and Little Steven’s Disciples of Soul for a special live tribute to the Bad Company catalog, presented by Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door and available here.

Kirke has credited Stevie Van Zandt as one of the Rock Hall members who pushed for the English band’s recognition over the years. Now, Kirke will revisit that music live with Little Steven’s band—whom the drummer describes as “some of the best musicians in New York” in one of the city’s great, intimate settings.

[The night will also celebrate Donnie Vie of Enuff Z’Nuff and the newly remastered and expanded release of his 2019 album Beautiful Things on Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records. Vie will perform with an all-star band featuring Alex Kane (Life, Sex & Death), Andy Shernoff (the Dictators, the Masterplan), Matt Starr (Ace Frehley, Mr. Big) and Josh Decker (Black Oak Arkansas).]

Best Classic Bands interviewed Kirke, born July 28, 1949, on the eve of the performance via email. It’s reprinted here, with minor modifications for clarity and context.

Best Classic Bands: Can you share what it meant to you and your range of reactions to being selected by the Rock Hall… from the joy to finally being acknowledged… to the sadness that Mick Ralphs died months before the ceremony? And then, of course, your gracious acceptance speech, which I just re-watched.

Simon Kirke: I’m very grateful to Little Steven Van Zandt for his help in getting us into the Hall of Fame.

It was a curious time at the Hall of Fame last year. I was happy, of course, that Bad Company had finally been nominated and inducted, though I was very sad that Mick couldn’t be there and [vocalist] Paul [Rodgers] was not well and unable to make the trip.

I don’t know how [bassist] Boz [Burrell] would’ve felt about the whole thing. I don’t think award shows were his thing, really!

Funny how things worked out. I was talking to Nicko from Iron Maiden, who is a good friend of mine, and they’ve been nominated 11 times for the Hall of Fame and never once been inducted. And I spoke to [Rock Hall Foundation chairman] John Sykes about that last year, and lo and behold they’re being inducted this year. [Editor’s note: They were actually nominated three times before being inducted.]

So we’re just passing it on….

Watch the acceptance speech from Kirke and Paul Rodgers (the latter, pre-taped) at Bad Company’s induction

Can you think back to the time when Bad Company was preparing to go into the studio together for the first time, choosing songs, submitting them to Swan Song/Atlantic, and then seeing the music accepted immediately by radio and the public when the album was released in June ’74?

The great thing about hooking up with Swan Song was that it came like a perfect storm.

Here you had the biggest band in the world, Led Zeppelin, launching their own record label with huge publicity, and their first signing was a band made up of members of three beloved British bands—all young, all very good on their instruments, in particular Paul Rodgers, who was shaping up to be one of the greatest singers of all time.

You have to remember that the first album was not a typical recording scenario. Headley Grange was where Zeppelin were recording, and John Paul Jones got the flu, so they were unable to stick to their schedule. [Zeppelin manager] Peter Grant called Paul and said, “Are you ready to make your album? Because Headley Grange is completely empty.”

So we raced down there and knocked off the album in about a week.

The buzz was pretty incredible from the get-go. In particular, there was a lot of affection for Free in England, and the fact that we’d finally let that band go, left it behind and moved on with something fresh came as something of a relief to the record-buying public.

We also wanted to counteract the glitter thing that was so prevalent in the U.K. at that time—Gary Glitter, Bowie to a lesser extent, T. Rex, Sweet, etc. We wanted to get back to more muscular, stripped-down, bluesy rock ’n’ roll.

Can you possibly recall—and clear up—was it late ’73 or not until January ’74 when the four of you finally came together?

For clarity, the latter half of ’73 was when Mick, Paul and I got together and auditioned various bass players.

Boz came in, I believe, in January or February ’74.

Do you want to give a shout-out to any execs who worked so hard on the band’s behalf [for the debut]? Any specific anecdotes?

I am reluctant to give anyone a shout. Most of them have probably passed away now! But I would like to mention Danny Goldberg, who was our press officer at the time and has gone on to bigger and better things.

This ad appeared in the June 24, 1974 issue of Record World.

And as things worked in the music business in those days, the album’s steady climb resulted in its topping the U.S. chart 12 weeks after it was released. Do you remember when you heard the news? What had been the band’s expectations?

The first album went gold at the end of our debut tour. It was in Boston at the Tea Party.

Peter Grant had flown in to present us with the albums. We didn’t know that it had achieved gold status. No internet back in those days, so it was a complete surprise when he presented the four albums in the dressing room before we went onstage.

Wonderful, wonderful feeling.

Lightning round: How would you best characterize the talents of Paul Rodgers? Mick Ralphs? Boz Burrell?

Paul Rodgers: Amazing singer, one of the greats. A great songwriter. He really deserves some kind of award from the Royal Family for services to music.

Mick Ralphs: Vastly underrated guitarist. Great rock ’n’ roll songwriter. Funny guy. I still love him.

Boz Burrell: A lovable rogue, an extremely good bass player and a natural musician. He and I had some great times together on the road. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of music.

How would you describe your drumming skills?

I am a good drummer who plays sympathetically with any song that he is presented with.

I’m not a great drummer. I prefer to think of myself as a musician who plays different instruments.