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Bad Company and Joe Walsh on tour together? It’s about time
By John Benson
About bloody time is what classic rock fans are saying this summer regarding the co-headlining tour featuring Bad Company and Joe Walsh.
“Bad Company never toured with Joe Walsh in the past, but I played in a band with him when Ringo Starr did a VH1 ‘Storytellers’ episode,” said drummer Simon Kirke via email. “It’s a good fit because both bands are from an era in rock music which will never be bettered. Also, we both have similar influences.”
When it comes to super groups, Bad Company was one of the first. The group arrived in the early ’70s featuring Free’s Kirke and Paul Rodgers (vocals), Mott The Hoople’s Mick Ralphs (guitar) and King Crimson’s Boz Burrell (bass).
The band helped define the arena rock decade with platinum albums and memorable hits. Fans looking to relive the group’s heyday will want to check out the newly released “Live in Concert 1977 & 1979,” which boasts two previously unreleased concerts.
The first disc is a 1977 Houston show marked with highlights “Shooting Star,” “Ready For Love,” “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” The second disc is from a 1979 London show that featured “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy,” “Run With the Pack,” “Rock Steady” and “Can’t Get Enough,” as well as a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” recorded in Washington D.C.
“Yeah the band was at its height back in the late ’70s but quite honestly the current version of the band sounds better to my mind because we’re all sober,” said Kirke, whose daughter Jemima is an actress on HBO series “Girls.” “The feeling of the band at the time was that we were having a ball. I was like a kid in a candy store.
“(But) 1980 was a dreadful year in rock ’n’ roll and in Bad Company’s history. John Lennon was shot, John Bonham overdosed, Led Zeppelin broke up and I had a drug problem. Two years later we broke up.”
While Bad Company would continue on for the next decade and a half with different members, it wasn’t until 1998 that the original lineup reunited.
There’s no doubt that Bad Company members are looked upon as being rock ’n’ roll survivors. This notion was made abundantly clear recently with the genre’s high-profile deaths of Glenn Frey, David Bowie and Prince.
“I look on the deaths of these recent artists with sadness,” Kirke said. “Addiction is alive and well and thriving in this day and age. It’s a fact of life. Even Prince for all his comments about clean living and following the rules of the church, he fell victim to the strongest opiate you can get, fentanyl.”
These days, Kirke and company are living cleaner lives and having plenty of fun on the “One Hell of a Night Tour” with Walsh.
Speaking of the tour name, which act was crazier back in the day?
“I know I was pretty crazy back in the day, and I heard a story with Joe and his road crew glued furniture to the ceiling once in a hotel,” Kirke said. “But we are older and wiser now.”
Finally, when asked what he’ll have to say if and when Bad Company finally gets the induction call from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Kirke said, “It’s about bloody time.”