He possesses one of the most recognized, most respected and most powerfully evocative voices in the history of rock and roll music. For five decades, through various bands and solo incarnations, Paul Rodgers has captivated millions of fans spanning multiple generations, with his impressive catalogue of music, which features classic songs that continue to garner massive worldwide airplay and earn vociferous roars of approval from appreciative audiences as soon as the first notes of these songs are played.
First with Free, then Bad Company, later with The Firm (with Jimmy Page) and The Law (with Kenney Jones of The Faces and The Who], through an enviable and varied solo career, to a jaunt with his good mates in Queen for two tours, two live albums and one studio record, and back to touring with Bad Company over the last decade and a half, Rodgers has built an unassailable reputation for vocal and songwriting excellence.
A youthful and exceedingly fit 68-year-old native of London, who is now a naturalized Canadian citizen living in the temperate tranquility of British Columbia, Rodgers’ most recent release is a live album recorded last year entitled Free Spirit. It captures a live concert where every single song performed came from the catalogue of his first band – the first time such an enterprise had been entertained since the band itself did so more than 40 years previously.
Free was the musical entity that then 18-year-old Rodgers formed with friend Paul Kossoff (who was 17) in early 1968, later adding bassist Andy Fraser (who was only 15) and 18-year-old drummer Simon Kirke. They released their debut album Tons of Sobs, later that year and a self-titled record a year later. In 1970, on the strength of the now iconic single All Right Now, Free’s third album Fire and Water was a critical and commercial smash, but by the end of that year, rifts in the band due to drug abuse issues, and musical differences started to rend the group asunder. A couple more records would be released under varied lineups before the inevitable break-up in 1973.
Rodgers would shortly thereafter join former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs in forming Bad Company, with Kirke eventually joining alongside former King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. That band would go on to eclipse Free in terms of international acclaim and record sales, but not in the hearts and minds of legions of admirers.
Free still has an incredibly devoted and diverse fan base, especially in the U.K., where the band’s soulful brand of blues rock and somewhat hardscrabble story was readily identifiable for many people. As well, the music is seen as being somewhat more innocent and even primal compared to a more polished sound expressed by Bad Company.
Understanding this and witnessing the response Free songs – even deeper cuts – have received in his concerts over the intervening decades, Rodgers decided he wanted to create an entire show dedicated to the music of Free. That led to a tour, including a stop at the prestigious and venerable Royal Albert Hall in London at the end of May 2017, which was recorded for a live album and DVD. Paul Rodgers: Free Spirit will be released worldwide on Quarto Valley Records this week and features his unmistakably potent and powerful voice backed by what is in effect British blues rock singer Deborah Bonham’s backing band.
Interestingly, and quite serendipitously, it was a simple charity concert in aid of a special wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre about an hour north of Aberdeen in Scotland that led to the Free Spirit project – a concert that was encouraged by Rodgers’ wife, Canadian fitness guru and wellness advocate Cynthia Kereluk (best known for her long-running syndicated TV program The Everyday Workout).
“Her charity works leads me to things the often blossom into something pretty special. She wanted to support this Willows Animal Sanctuary and she that Deborah Bonham’s band was nearby and that we should play together and do a charity show. The bottom line was I did a show with these guys and I loved the way they played, and we did this show every year for about three years, and when the venue closed down I told the guys we were going to take the show on tour, and that’s what we did,” he said.
“And then we fell into the idea of doing Free music. Free material is so popular in England; it really is loved deeply. So, we did a whole tour in England playing Free material with this band and we ended up at the Albert Hall and recorded it and that all came about because Cynthia asked me to support Willow.”
Rodgers said there was indeed a frisson and ebullience to the music of Free. The band was essentially a group of teenagers imbued with a deep passion and commitment to their craft and who because of their sense of innocence, were unencumbered with any sense of intimidation or fear of the unknown. It led to music that was unbridled, soulful, deeply melodic and scintillatingly authentic.
“We were very adamant that we were free to do what we wanted to do. And there were no restrictions as far as we were concerned. We just let it roll. We used to come offstage sometimes and look for the fifth member, even though there were only four of us in the band. It was spooky sometimes, and we would say ‘there’s four of us but it seemed like there was another member onstage.’ That’s how it was. There was definitely a spirit there,” he said, adding that the complications and internal struggles related to being a young, somewhat naïve group of musicians trying to deal with the often-unseemly business side of the music business ultimately led to the band’s downfall before the true extent of their potential and talent could fully be realized.
“I think one of the problems that we had was that we tried to manage ourselves. And in the face of the music industry, that’s a very tough thing to do when you’re 18 years old. We thought if we put everything into the music that’s all we’re going to need to do. But there’s so much more. You have to have an organization; it’s almost military that way you have to organize things to be able to tour and record and release albums.”
Lessons learned from the negative implications of this arrangement led to a more professional approach to their careers. When Bad Company was formed, they were signed to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label, and also had Led Zep’s imposing and experienced manager Peter Grant handling their managerial duties as well.
Rodgers also spoke of what he perceives as the differences between the music created by Free and Bad Company, as well as how there are also similarities, not the least of which is his iconic voice.
“I think Bad Company took it a step further – they went into harder rock. But we did have a lot of the qualities of Free. You take songs like Ready for Love, which is a Mick Ralphs song actually, it’s consistent and comparable and fits seamlessly together with the Free material. And it’s amazing to see how many bands have come up to me and told me they loved Free. Queen loved Free; they said that Fire and Water was their Bible in the early days. And I have toured with Lynryd Skynyrd a lot with Bad Company in recent years and they were always telling me how much they loved Free. But Free was always kind of underground, especially in America. We were the most famous unknown band in the world in many ways,” he said, adding that the Free Spirit project was not planned to coincide with the band’s 50th anniversary, it was just good fortune and good timing that it has.
“It’s kismet, really. I didn’t plan it at all, but yes it does happen to fall in the 50th year anniversary of the band. In 1968 we went into the studio for the first time and started to really put things together. And the idea of calling the project Free Spirit was that the band and the whole idea behind it really awakened the spirit of the original band. And it’s an amazing thing to say because no one has ever done that before or since. It was just magical the way it occurred. There is a lot of material that Free recorded and walked away and we never played it live. So, I was very interested in delving into all of that and seeing how audiences react. We were so young and so into writing and creating that we just recorded songs like Catch A Train and Love You So and walked away to work on something else.”
The American version of the tour with his Free Spirit band was supposed to be a low-key affair, perhaps focussing on smaller, more intimate venues and soft seat theatres. But soon long-time pal Jeff Beck was paired with Rodgers as a co-headliner, and then Ann Wilson of Heart was added in support, making for a truly epic and powerful collection of artists and their music. It’s unsurprisingly called the Stars Align Tour and is making only one stop in Canada this summer, on Aug. 1 at the Budweiser Stage in Toronto.
“Obviously I know Jeff Beck. He was also on my Muddy Waters album [Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters, released in 1993] and we have also done some movie music together. We’re good friends actually. Ann Wilson and I have bumped into each other many times. I once was doing a session in Seattle and it was a classical version of Beatles songs and I was doing Norwegian Wood. She was in the next studio and popped her head in and said it sounded good. And I said, ‘come in Ann,’ and she asked if I wanted her to add a harmony on one of the parts. And of course, I said yes,” Rodgers said.
“So, she came in, walked straight up to the microphone and put the most beautiful, perfect harmony on it. She came back into the control room and said, ‘how was that?’ I said it was fantastic. She asked if I wanted her to do it again and I said no, it’s all there. And she simply said, ‘okay see you later’ and left. What a gift. She is such a beautiful person.”
Although the tour will not feature Free songs exclusively, there will be a large selection of material from that band’s repertoire in Rodgers’ set, along with some key Bad Company hits.
“In the U.K. I wanted to specifically do an undiluted walk down memory lane, if you know what I mean. And I had a feeling that the Free fans in England would like it. Well, they absolutely loved it. And it was so good that we were asked to come to America, but I was only going to do a theatre tour. But then Jeff came on board, and I have always loved and admired Jeff, and Ann Wilson came on board and the enterprise got a lot bigger. And that’s okay, but because of that I had to widen the appeal of my set for larger venues,” he said.
“Because I do believe that when I go to see Randy Bachman, for example, I want to hear certain songs, like Takin’ Care of Business. And people will expect me to do some of the material from the Bad Company catalogue, but I think it merges quite well with much of the Free material. I think of Ready for Love, Shooting Star, Feel Like Making Love and Rock Steady – I will definitely interject some of that material as well.”
They will be performed by the same collection of talented musicians who played the charity dates and the Free Spirit shows in the U.K. led by guitarist Pete Bullick.
“He is a great guitar player. I have always said that if anyone could play Koss’s parts it would be Pete, because he just does it so well. He gets right into the technicalities of it – how Koss used to get his sound, what reverb he used. But it goes further than that because Pete has captured the magic too. And then there’s Rich Newman on drums. He is a fantastic drummer and I love him to bits. And actually, his mom is a session musician and she did the backing vocals on Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix. We’ve got Ian Rowley on bass and he is a lovely bass player and as you will hear on the album, he does a lovely bass solo on Mr. Big. Then there’s Gerard ‘G’ Louis on keyboards and he is amazing,” Rodgers said.
While based on the interview so far it seems to make perfect sense that the project, tour and album would be called Free Spirit, Rodgers said the moniker originally came, once again, via the connection with the Willows Animal Sanctuary.
“They rescued a Shetland Pony. It had been abandoned. It was a female and had been abandoned on this island in the Shetlands and it was starving and it was in a really, really bad state, and was pregnant. They all felt that they would lose the foal, but the foal survived against all odds. And it’s a beautiful little Shetland pony, it’s absolutely gorgeous. And [Willows staffer] Jenny Gray called him Free Spirit and I just went ‘wow, that’s it right there,’” Rodgers explained.
Returning to the subject of his partner in life and in business Cynthia, Rodgers credits the fact that he is as healthy as he has ever been, and his voice continues to be as strong, vibrant and expressive as its always been thanks to her support, and practical advice related to exercise, nutrition and health and wellness in general.
“Cynthia has made a big difference to my life. We like to think ourselves as a good team. When I first met her, she was doing that exercise show and she was actually doing everything related to the show and her business. She was the whole corporation. She was the star, she was the producer, she produced her own DVDs and videos and we used to go down to the postal centre and she would mail out hundreds of these videos, so she was her own shipping department as well,” Rodgers said.
“I remember saying, ‘wow, you’ve really got this together. It’s a shame we can’t do this in the music industry because I have so many middle men it’s ridiculous.’ And she said we could do it, so that’s when we teamed up business wise as well. When it comes to my health and my singing, I will always give her a lot of credit. She has encouraged me to slow my pace and to save my energy. I think the danger is to hammer it too hard and to do too many shows and just burn yourself out. Everybody can do that; it doesn’t have to be show business people. You can burn out in any business, I do believe. And that’s a big danger in music, so that’s why I do only about 20 to 30 shows a year.”
For more information on Rodgers, Free Spirit, and the Stars Align Tour, visit http://www.paulrodgers.com.
For tickets and info on the Aug. 1 Stars Align show in Toronto, visit https://www1.ticketmaster.ca/event/10005431004B33FF.
For information on the Willows Animal Sanctuary, of which Paul and Cynthia are official patrons, visit http://www.willowsanimals.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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