In a career that spans many decades, vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter
Paul Rodgers and his various groups have sold in excess of 125 million records around the world. Best known for his expressive vocals on songs that have become rock & roll staples, like "All Right Now," "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Can't Get Enough," and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy,"
Rodgers has been cited by dozens of 1970s and '80s rock groups and musicians as a major influence. U.S. groups like
the Black Crowes and
Guns N' Roses have cited
Rodgers and his various groups --
Free,
Bad Company,
the Firm,
the Law -- as an influence on their styles. As a vocalist and songwriter,
Rodgers had great admiration and respect for the classic African-American blues and R&B vocalists.
Rodgers credits his father for buying him a guitar in his youth, but he later taught himself bass and piano as well. He began writing songs when he was in his early teens, before he had mastered any instrument.
Rodgers began playing out in clubs around Middlesborough, in northern England, when he was 13, taking singers like
Rod Stewart as his role models. Right after he left school, he set out for London in a van with a band called
the Roadrunners. The van broke down en route, and while the other members hitchhiked back north,
Rodgers went south to London. After a short time he returned home to his parents, who were supportive of his musical endeavors. But having seen the club scene in London, he became determined to go back and make his mark there.
Returning to London, he formed the blues band
Brown Sugar, deciding to see how far he could go as a vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist. In the mid- and late '60s, London was in the midst of a huge blues revival, and
Rodgers had the opportunity to see
Muddy Waters and dozens of other American blues musicians perform at London's Marquee Club and other blues and R&B venues. Seeing
Waters live had a lasting effect on
Rodgers, and his early experiments,
Brown Sugar and
Free, started out as blues bands.
Rodgers was working with
Brown Sugar when guitarist
Paul Kossoff heard him sing.
Kossoff was so impressed with
Rodgers' voice that the two decided to create a new band, joined by
Simon Kirke on drums and bassist
Andy Fraser. After seeing them at the Nags Head Pub in Battersea, Britain's godfather of blues,
Alexis Korner, suggested they call themselves
Free. A song
Rodgers co-wrote with
Fraser, "All Right Now," hit number one in 20 territories around the world in 1970. The song remains a rock staple, having been entered into ASCAP's "One Million" airplay singles club. By the early '70s,
Free was one of the biggest-selling British blues-rock groups; by the time the band dissolved in 1973, they had achieved an uncanny level of superstar success: they had sold more than 20 million albums around the world and had played more than 700 arena and festival concerts.
In 1973,
Rodgers formed
Bad Company, then a prototype "supergroup," with
King Crimson bassist
Boz Burrell,
Mott the Hoople guitarist
Mick Ralphs, and
Free drummer
Simon Kirke. But this time,
Rodgers learned from the mistakes he'd made with
Free; he was determined to have bandmates who shared his musical vision -- the overnight success that
Free experienced put undue pressures on the personalities in the band.
Rodgers contacted Peter Grant,
Led Zeppelin's notorious manager, who was fortuitously starting Swan Song Records, the group's vanity label. By the close of the 1970s,
Bad Company had recorded six multi-platinum albums, which spurred classic blues-rock and rock staples like "Can't Get Enough," "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Shooting Star," and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy." By the time
Bad Company called it quits, they had played to over ten million people around the world and sold 30 million albums.
Other highlights of
Rodgers' career include a showstopping version of
Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" at Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary party at Madison Square Garden in 1988, and his formation of a new group with
Jimmy Page of
Led Zeppelin,
the Firm, in the mid-'80s. Following that band's two albums,
Rodgers formed
the Law with former
Small Faces/
Who drummer
Kenny Jones.
Since the early '80s,
Rodgers has also released a number of solo albums. They include
Cut Loose (1983) and The Morning After the Night Before/Northwind (1984), both for Atlantic Records. His 1990s output includes Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters (1993, Victory Records) and The Hendrix Set, a mini-CD released that same year. Muddy Water Blues was nominated for a Grammy and features guest performances by
Slash,
Richie Sambora of
Bon Jovi,
Jeff Beck, Steve Miller,
Buddy Guy, and
Pink Floyd's
David Gilmour.
Rodgers then put together a backing band featuring guitarist
Geoff Whitehorn, bassist Jaz Lochrie, and drummer
Jim Copley, recording Paul Rodgers Live (1996) and Paul Rodgers Now (1997) for the New York-based Velvel Records.
After a
Bad Company reunion in 1999,
Rodgers switched over to CMC International, issuing the album
Electric in 2000. Taking a break from his solo career in the middle of the decade,
Rodgers joined
Brian May and
Roger Taylor in a version of
Queen for some live shows, one of which was documented on 2005's Return of the Champions, a double disc on the Hollywood label. In 2007 Eagle Rock Entertainment released a new solo album, Live in Glasgow, taken from a October 13, 2006, concert at Clyde Auditorium in Scotland. Released on both CD and DVD, it highlighted both
Bad Company and
Free material, some of which
Rodgers hadn't performed in 35 years.
Rodgers continued to perform live with
Queen through the end of 2009. Not long afterward, he reunited with
Bad Company for a 2010 tour that was documented on two separate live releases. After this,
Rodgers turned to his solo career, releasing a collection of classic soul covers called The Royal Sessions early in 2014. ~ Richard Skelly