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Paul Rodgers of Free & Bad Company


TheRambler

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Free were around at the same time as Led Zeppelin in the seventies and I saw them when I was 15 at The Eldorado in Leith, Edinburgh, which was a boxing arena. They and Paul Rodgers were fantastic and as there was no escape from the stage to their dressing rooms, they had to run through the audience and I managed to reach out and touch Paul Rodgers on the shoulder. I got his sweat on my hand and me and my pal cried all the way home!

Their sound was raw blues/rock and the lyrics were amazing. Bad Company were formed and their sound changed to a more sophisticated sound but the voice was still there at the fore, as were the lyrics. Paul Rodgers for me, has the greatest rock voice ever and I've seen him on his own and with Bad Company on numerous occasions.

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Great story :) My dad met him back in the 80s at a hotel, said he was a really nice guy.

Gosh your dad is dead lucky. I would love to meet him to just shake his hand and tell him that I've been a fan for 40 years! I've watched him being interviewed and he really does come across as a regular guy.

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He did a nice job with Joe Bonamassa too at the Beacon Theater.

My last concert that I went to in March of last year was Joe Bonamassa at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. After buying the album Live at Beacon Theatre I was hoping that Paul Rodgers would walk on but he didn't, I was so disappointed! The mix of Joe's guitar and Paul's voice is something else and I hope they do more together.

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Gosh your dad is dead lucky. I would love to meet him to just shake his hand and tell him that I've been a fan for 40 years! I've watched him being interviewed and he really does come across as a regular guy.

He was an absolute arse for a long time and known as the most hated man in rock - however that seems to have been substance- related and since cleaning up he is really quite well-liked. Amusingly he's often accompanied on the road by a Scottish super fan who followed him for years and years and became a bit of an odd job man for him and his family - and then won the lottery and found he could afford to join the tours and stay in the same hotels. Quite the character.

(BTW just re-read this and I hope you don't find it offensive - I was and am a big fan of his voice and music too ;) )

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I din't know that Paul Rodgers was hated for a while. I know there were differences with him and Andy Fraser regarding the writing of the songs and Simon Kirke seemed to talk about him disparagingly in one interview but I didn't realise that there was bad blood.

He's such a private man but when I saw him for the first time in years on the Guitar Expo '92, he had put on a lot of weight and his hair was thinning, I suppose that was the drugs that had made him look so awful. It was a fabulous concert with Brian May, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Joe Walsh et al and Steve Vai couldn't help but show how easy or even boring it was to play the guitar riff in All Right Now. When he came back on his on in 1995 to Glasgow Barrowlands, it was like a big party and there were all the bald headed and wrinkly people who loved him and Free in the seventies. He's never looked back since and his voice goes from strength to strength.

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  • 1 month later...

He was an absolute arse for a long time and known as the most hated man in rock - however that seems to have been substance- related and since cleaning up he is really quite well-liked. Amusingly he's often accompanied on the road by a Scottish super fan who followed him for years and years and became a bit of an odd job man for him and his family - and then won the lottery and found he could afford to join the tours and stay in the same hotels. Quite the character.

(BTW just re-read this and I hope you don't find it offensive - I was and am a big fan of his voice and music too ;) )

I didn't know about that time in his life. Can you tell me more? My memories of him were seventies, long hair, beard, very good looking, tight trousers and wonderful voice. Then he came back in the nineties and looked really fit and everyone was blown away with his still fantastic voice and the concert was like a big party. He's always been such a private man but I did realise that there was an undercurrent in The Free Story when Simon Kirke and Andy Fraser were talking about him.

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  • 11 months later...

I saw Bad Company iive a few times in the 70s and they were great. The first time I saw them, their first album had just come out. They opened for Foghat at Central Park in New York City. For their encore, Jimmy Page came out and joined them on stage. It was one of those old blues songs, could've been "Rock me Baby", I'm not really sure. The crowd went absolutely nuts when they announced Jimmy Page. I remember Rodgers saying something to the crowd like "Aw, c'mon, he's not that good!". It was pretty funny.

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Paul Rodgers for me, has the greatest rock voice ever and I've seen him on his own and with Bad Company on numerous occasions.

I agree and have felt the same way forever. His voice is amazing and he's still going strong. I missed Bad Company last year mainly because the ticket prices were too high and the 'cheap' seats were on the lawn where it rained pretty bad that evening. I also just got 'Bad Company at Wembley' from my library. 'Seagull' is one of my fave tunes. :)

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Huge fan of his - I got into his stuff after seeing him front Queen in 2005, I was a huge Queen fan but wasn't overly familiar with his stuff and was floored when I heard them play Wishing Well. Free quickly became one of my favourite bands after that show - definitely one of the greatest blues rock bands. I agree his guest spot on Bonamassa's Beacon Theatre record is superb.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Paul Rogers has a fantastic voice,deep,soulful,bluesy.Someone who reminds me of him was the late Jimmy Dewar the bassist/vocalist for Robin Tower in the 70s.Check out Bridge of Sighs album.Regarding Rodger unpopularity in the business he can be quick tempered and little difficult to work with.He once laid out Boz Burrell(he's black belt martial arts).That's what I have read anyway.I still think those two Firm lps were great and can't believe they get panned so much.

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  • 4 weeks later...

:yourock: Paul Rogers I`ve been a fan of P. Rogers since hearing the Free album in `73 tons of sobs... I`ve been following him from Free, Bad Co, The Firm, Solo `n` Queen. I`ve even seen him with the group The Answer cool band too. the soul sessions is a work of art.

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