In a new interview with Defenders Of The Faith, BAD COMPANY drummer Simon Kirke spoke about the British supergroup’s upcoming Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction, which was announced in April 2025 after decades of eligibility. Asked how it feels to finally be inducted, Simon said: “We’re very pleased. We’re very honored. Quite honestly, I think it’s about time [laughs], but I don’t want to appear ungrateful.
“BAD COMPANY, as you know, have been around 50 years. We influenced a couple of generations of bands, so it’s about time and we’re very happy,” he continued. “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.”
Asked if fans can expect to see him and BAD COMPANY singer Paul Rodgers perform a song or two at the induction ceremony, which will be held on November 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Simon said: “I don’t know. I know that we’ve been approached to play a couple of songs. I’ve spoken with Paul. Paul‘s health, as you know, is not good, but I think…I’m crossing my fingers that we will be able to play at least one song. I don’t know what it is yet, and I don’t even know who’s gonna be inducting us yet. I know they have a house band and they’re learning, I guess, a handful of BAD COMPANY songs just in case. Cyndi Lauper‘s gonna be inducted. There’s a whole bunch of other acts that are gonna perform. I think the odds of us performing are very good.”
Back in September 2023, Rodgers revealed for the first time that years earlier he suffered 11 minor strokes and two major strokes, which nearly ended his career. The now-75-year-old singer-songwriter suffered his first major stroke in 2016 and a second in October 2019, which required him to undergo a major surgery to recover from. At the time, Rodgers underwent a carotid endarterectomy, a procedure to remove plaque from the arteries running through your neck to your brain, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
This past June, Ralphs died at the age of 81 due to complications from a stroke he suffered in 2016.
Other inductees in the Performer category are SOUNDGARDEN, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, OutKast and THE WHITE STRIPES.
BAD COMPANY has been eligible for induction since 1999 and received its first nomination this year.
The induction ceremony will once again stream live on Disney+, and an edited version will air on ABC at a later date.
Asked by U.K. radio veteran Paul Stephenson of VRP Rocks if he ever got a reason why BAD COMPANY hadn’t been nominated earlier, Simon said: “No. Well… Hmm. There are several reasons. One of them being, I think because BAD COMPANY had three lineups, it kind of diluted our currency, if you will. If you can imagine a band like CREAM and they change Ginger Baker or they change Jack [Bruce] or Eric [Clapton], God forbid, a couple of times, it would kind of dilute and muddy the waters of the committee. So as I’m told by this insider, they wanted to do a FREE–BAD COMPANY doubleheader, as it were, like [when] THE FACES and THE SMALL FACES were inducted, but for some reason it didn’t show up. There was also a political thing that I can’t really go into without getting kind of into hot water, but it was a combination. I think the main thing was the triple lineup… It just wasn’t a clear-cut ‘Let’s induct BAD COMPANY.’ There were factors that now have dissipated.”
Back in November 2023, Kirke was asked by “The Bob Lefsetz Podcast” how he felt about BAD COMPANY not having been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He responded: “I think it’s such a travesty, quite honestly. And not just that, but FREE — FREE certainly should be [in the Hall], because FREE has been around since 1968, and the two bands have been responsible for influencing a lot of bands who are already in the Hall. So I feel pretty bad about it. But I’m not gonna go on too much about it. It’s just I think we should be in. Certainly FREE. And I think Paul Rodgers should be in on his own merits, as one of the great rock vocalists of all time. If Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck can be inducted as solo artists, then certainly Paul Rodgers should be in there. That’s my two cents.”
Later in the chat, Kirke offered one possible explanation for why BAD COMPANY had been overlooked by the Rock Hall.
“I think because of BAD COMPANY‘s changing lineups over the 50 years that we’d been together, it kind of devalued our currency a little bit,” he said. “You had the Brian Howe era, you had the Paul Rodgers era, one and two, when Paul rejoined the band, we had Robert Hart. So I honestly don’t know why we have not been nominated — not even inducted; you have to be nominated first, as you know.”
In September 2023, Rodgers told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that he wasn’t bothered by his absence from the Rock Hall. “Well, it doesn’t affect my daily life. It doesn’t affect what I do in any way at all,” he said. “It’s one of those things. But I remember years and years ago, Ahmet Ertegun, who was the head of Atlantic Records [and a co-founder of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame], said to me, ‘Paul, we’re making this museum of rock and roll. Do you guys wanna be part of it?’ And I said, ‘What, a museum of rock and roll? What’s it called?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s called the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t think rock and roll belongs in a museum.’ So it’s my bad, I guess. And he asked me a couple of times, and I kind of like refused, I guess, basically. So, you know, there you go. Onwards and upwards.”
