Mick Ralphs, guitarist with Mott The Hoople and Bad Company, has died at the age of 81. The news was confirmed in a statement from Bad Company.
“Our Mick has passed, my heart just hit the ground,” says frontman Paul Rodgers. “He has left us with exceptional songs and memories. He was my friend, my songwriting partner, an amazing and versatile guitarist who had the greatest sense of humour.
“Our last conversation a few days ago we shared a laugh but it won’t be our last. There are many memories of Mick that will create laughter. Condolences to everyone who loved him especially his one true love, Susie. I will see you in heaven.”
“He was a dear friend, a wonderful songwriter, and an exceptional guitarist,” adds drummer Simon Kirke. “We will miss him deeply.”
Ralphs was born in 1944 in Stoke Lacy, a small village in Herefordshire, and began playing guitar after being inspired by a song he heard on Radio Luxembourg.
“It was Green Onions by Booker T and the M.G’s,” he told Classic Rock in 2016. “Up to that point I wasn’t that into music. The music of the day when I was growing up was syrupy pop like Cliff and the Shadows. It was all very white sounding. I listened to Radio Luxembourg and I heard this song that turned out to be Green Onions.
“I loved the nasty guitar of it and the groove. I had never heard anything like it before and that inspired me to want to play guitar like that. It basically got me into blues and soul music and people like Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry. That was the trigger, I heard it and thought, ‘Yes, I like that.’”
He became a member of the Doc Thomas Group aged 22, in a lineup that also included bassist Pete “Overend” Watts. Eventually signed to Island Records, they were joined by singer Ian Hunter and changed their name to Mott The Hoople.
Ralphs stayed with the band until 1973, departing after their breakthrough hit All The Young Dudes to form Bad Company with former Free men Rodgers and Kirke. “I wanted something more bluesy, more simplistic, more earthy,” Ralphs told Classic Rock.
The antidote to the glitter overkill that Mott now personified, Bad Company were defiantly unprogressive, their music influenced more by blues and soul than by any passing fads. Joined by former King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, the band hit big with their first single, Can’t Get Enough, which hit the US Top 10.
“A lot of people got really excited about it,” Ralphs told us. “But I couldn’t understand what they were all raving about. It was a three-chord bash. It was only when Paul put his vocal on it that turned it into something a bit special. Of course, when we had the big hit everyone said: ‘Write another one!’. I said: ‘Well, it’s really not that easy. What do I do, play it backwards?’.”
The accompanying debut album sold five million copies in the US, while the follow-up, Straight Shooter, went triple platinum. Ralphs continued to play with Bad Company until they broke up in 1982, when Rodgers left the band after the recording of Rough Diamonds.
“I expected it, really,” Ralphs told us. ” Because all the time we were having the success I kept thinking, well, this is great but it ain’t gonna last. It was like, well, we’ve had our run and maybe we should just retire gracefully.”
Ralphs joined David Gilmour’s band as a touring musician in 1984, but returned to play with various Bad Company line-ups in 1986, 2001 and 2009. His final show with the band was at London’s O2 Arena in October 2016, but he suffered a debilitating stroke days later and remained bedridden until his passing.
A month before his stroke, Classic Rock asked Ralphs to rate himself as a guitarist, on a scale of 1 to 10.
“Minus 20,” he responded. “I never think about things like that. I like to be an all-round guitar player who can play rhythm and lead breaks. That’s because I’m a songwriter and songwriting is all about doing what the song dictates and not what you want to do for the song.”
Ralphs is survived by his partner Susie Chavasse, his two children, and three step-children.
