Update: Reports of a New Bad Company Album Shot Down
Bad Company's representatives have shot down a report saying that the legendary group are working on a new record. The band has not released a full new album with original singer Paul Rodgers in nearly 35 years.
The initial report came from MediaMass, who cited an anonymous source as saying that they have about eight songs recorded. “It’s still in the early stages,” the source said. “They got security on the doors to ensure no-one hears a whisper.”
However, Bad Company publicist Keith Hagan at SKH Music has since said that there is no new studio album in the works.
Rodgers left Bad Company for a solo career after 1982's Rough Diamonds. Following a few years' hiatus, original members Mick Ralphs and Simon Kirke brought in Brian Howe to replace Rodgers. Four studio albums followed, including the platinum Holy Water, before Howe quit in 1994. After two more records with Robert Hart, Rodgers reunited with the band and cut four new songs in 1998 that were tacked on to 1998's The Original Bad Company Anthology.
Since then, Bad Company have toured regularly, although original bassist Boz Burrell died in 2006. A full-page advertisement in the Winter 2016 issue of Red Hot Rock magazine says that a North American tour featuring Rodgers, Ralphs and Kirke will happen at some point in 2016, although again this is unconfirmed by the band.
Speaking to Ultimate Classic Rock last year, Rodgers said Burrell's death had been a big reason why the band hadn't recorded anything. "Well, you know, the immediate problem with that is that we don’t have Boz," he said. "Boz was a good part of what we did. It’s hard to realize it, [but] you take one member out and, yeah, you can limp along and you can do something similar, but I don’t know. That would be one aspect, [we would need] the right bass player. Actually, that’s probably what I’m trying to say – and the right material and the will to do it. We’d have to see if that was there. I’m not sure. But I keep an open mind."
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