Drummer Simon Kirke believes that Bad Company’s decision to replace lead singer Paul Rodgers ultimately “tarnished” the band.
It was 1982 when arguments within the group led Rodgers to quit. At the time, Bad Company was riding high, having released six studio albums and earning multi-platinum success along the way. After a few years off, the remaining members – Kirke, guitarist Mick Ralphs and bassist Boz Burrell — decided to revive Bad Company with a new frontman. At the suggestion of Foreigner’s Mick Jones, they enlisted singer Brian Howe.
“I was coerced,” Kirke recalled during a recent appearance on Billy Corgan’s podcast, The Magnificent Others. “I was doing a lot of drugs and drinking and I wanted to tour. I wanted to continue [Bad Company’s] name. And we did. I mean, we sold millions of albums with Brian, but it kind of tarnished — I think it tarnished the reputation a little bit.”
Bad Company Made a ‘Knee Jerk Decision’ With Brian Howe
Kirke noted that Howe was “eager” and “wanted to work,” but in hindsight his fit wasn’t right. “The whole direction of the band kind of skewed away from the blues, [and] became more heavy metal… It was a period which I do regret. And I’ll put my hand up and say, me and Mick [Ralphs] kind of made a knee jerk decision and we took this guy on board.”
Brian Howe performing with Bad Company in 1987. (Michael Uhll, Getty Images)
Further elaborating on the situation, Kirke recalled a quote from BB King, who once said “You have to like someone to live with them.” In this case, the drummer noted that Howe’s personality clashed with the rest of Bad Company.
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“I was hoping that that piece of the jigsaw, Brian Howe would fit with the other three [members],” Kirked recalled. “It wasn’t there from the get-go and it didn’t — it kind of got worse as the years went by.”
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Howe and the other musicians began “butting heads,” especially when the singer started giving politically charged speeches during the intro to “Bad Company.”
“Don’t you use this band as a political forum!” Kirke recalled yelling at Howe in the dressing room one night. “He was a little red around the neck, shall we say. And it just got worse and worse.”
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Howe exited Bad Company in 1992, having released four studio albums with the group during his tenure. “We asked him to leave,” Kirke remarked. “He’d say he left, but we did ask him to leave. And It’s a shame because I know that his heart was in the right place.”
Still, if given a do-over, the drummer was clear he’d handle the lineup change differently. “I wouldn’t do it again.”
Watch Simon Kirke’s Interview on ‘The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan’
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Signed to Led Zeppelin’s label, the supergroup faced member changes and later experienced public indifference on its path to induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
