Bad Company in The Studio For 'Straight Shooter' 50th Anniversary

03-24-2025

The 50th anniversary of Bad Company's "Straight Shooter" album is being celebrated by the syndicated radio show In The Studio With Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands.

Redbeard shared this synopsis for the episode: On the fiftieth anniversary of Bad Company's second album Straight Shooter, we are reminded by the oldest cliche' in the rock music business: you have your whole life to write the songs on your first album, but six months to a year to write the material for your follow up. And as Keith Richards responded when I asked what he had learned from fifty years in the Rolling Stones, he sagely replied, "That cliches are true."

Bad Company had elbowed their way to the forefront of the rock world by the late March 1975 release of their second album, Straight Shooter, avoiding the sophomore jinx with timeless songs "Good Lovin' Gone Bad","Feel Like Makin' Love", and "Shooting Star". But as my guests Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, and Simon Kirke share here, strange things can happen eventually when that much success is achieved that quickly in lives so young.

The previous year 1974 must have seemed quite a whirlwind for Brit blues-rockers Bad Company. As former members of Free, singer/ songwriter Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, along with guitarist/ songwriter Mick Ralphs ex-Mott the Hoople, and bass player Boz Burrell who had a stint with King Crimson, had all tasted success in the UK early in their respective careers. But with their 1974 debut Bad Company the London-based quartet had been tagged with the blessing/ curse of "supergroup". "And we delivered," Simon Kirke points out emphatically in this classic rock interview, pointing out that after recording their first effort, Bad Company paid additional "rookie" dues by touring the world as a support act even while that eponymous debut rose to #1-seller in both the UK and America. Still, Paul, Mick, and Simon remember it nevertheless as good times for Bad Company.

Certainly no sophomore slump after the 1974 Bad Company debut here. Even half a century later, the songs "Good Lovin' Gone Bad","Feel Like Making Love" (a Top Ten hit in America), and "Shooting Star" are heard daily on US radio as well as essentials when Bad Company tours, helping to sell half a million copies of Straight Shooter in the first month of release and eventually over three million just in the US. Join my guests Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, and Simon Kirke here In the Studio to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Straight Shooter by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees Bad Company.

Stream the episode here