Bad Company

After almost a decade of being free from the “bad” influence of his band and despite his brief flirting with Queen, it must have been lonely for Paul Rodgers to do gigs after gigs without his ol’ buddies.

This year, he finally asked the two other original/surviving members of his band to join him even if it’s just for very limited engagements in the United States. So, starting on the 17th he’s going to have some company onstage to do some crazy old school rock and roll at the Hard Rock in Florida to jumpstart their 2009 Tour.

Yes, Bad Company is back and I am lucky enough that they chose to hold one of the 10 exclusive 2009 concerts at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston. I will definitely watch them come hell (maybe not) or high water (Clarkston’s prone to flooding especially at this time of year, just FYI) on July 1st.



Bad Company was formed in 1973 by bandmates Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke when they decided to be free from Free. Mick Ralphs decided to hop in from Mott the Hopple while Boz Burrell abdicated the bass position in King Crimson. Together they formed one of the first rock supergroups of the 70s and had their debut album entitled, what else but Bad Company in 1974 which became a hit to rock aficionados worldwide.

I became aware of the band when a friend lent me a cassette tape entitled Slow Rock Memory in the early 80’s wherein their song “The Way I Choose” was one of the featured tracks which became one of the earlier songs that I managed to play on guitar and which to this day is my favorite Bad Company song.

So, come 1st of July, I will once again do the 1 ½ hour trek and traverse the lonely stretch of US24 aka the Telegraph Road for a pilgrimage to Pine Knob in Clarkston to keep Bad Company company and watch and listen to them rock and play the songs that I knew from the good old days.