Bad Company’s two surviving original members, singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, will reunite to play two songs during the band’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on November 8th.
Kirke revealed the news in an interview with Lyndsanity! with Lyndsey Parker, telling the host, “I think the secret is out that we will perform. I don’t know — I might get into trouble, but I saw some Google news that Bad Company will perform at the Hall of Fame. So, I will cautiously say yes. I’m not at liberty to say which songs. I mean, quite honestly, I don’t give a shit. We’re gonna play, and whatever Paul chooses is fine by me.”
He added, “And just to play with [Paul] again is gonna be a real thrill for me, ’cause I missed him. I missed playing with the band. I miss playing particularly with Paul, ’cause he’s such a wonderful singer.”
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Kirke went on to say, “We did our last show over five years ago, in Las Vegas, of all places where Bad Company and Lynyrd Skynyrd were flip-flopping a headline tour. And it was one of the best gigs we ever played on. So thank God we finished on a good gig and not a shitty one.”
A few years ago, Rodgers revealed that he had suffered multiple strokes throughout the years, nearly ending his singing career. Asked by Parker about the frontman’s current vocal abilities, Kirke responded, “I haven’t heard him sing since [we last played together], quite honestly. I know he has sung, and we are gonna do a couple of rehearsals for the cameras and so on and so forth. But when you have a voice that naturally good, it’s gonna take a hell of a lot for it to fray or devalue or whatever. So I think he’s gonna be fine for the two songs that we’ve chosen.”
Sadly, fellow original Bad Company member Mick Ralphs died at age 81 in June of this year, but Kirke takes solace in the fact that the guitarist learned of the band’s induction into the Rock Hall before he passed away.
In an interview with Defenders of the Faith over the summer, Kirke said, “I’m also happy, because dear old Mick Ralphs, our guitarist who passed away a couple of months ago, learned that Bad Company was going to be inducted just a couple of weeks before he finally passed away. That made us very, very happy indeed.”
Bad Company’s other original member, bassist Boz Burrell, died at age 60 in 2006.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place November 8th at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, and will stream live on Disney+. Along with Bad Company, other 2025 inductees include Soundgarden, The White Stripes, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, OutKast, and more.
Watch Simon Kirke’s interview with Lyndsanity! with Lyndsey Parker below.