Mick Ralphs, the British rock guitarist, passed away on June 23, 2025, at the age of 81 due to complications from a stroke he suffered in 2016. Ralphs had a versatile career that spanned from his time with the glam rockers Mott the Hoople to his work with the melodic blues-rock band Bad Company.
Ralphs initially gained recognition with Mott the Hoople, where he collaborated with lead singer Ian Hunter. The band, despite facing initial commercial challenges with their albums, gained a dedicated following through their relentless touring efforts. Their career received a significant boost when David Bowie wrote their hit song “All the Young Dudes” in 1972, saving the band from the brink of dissolution.
However, Ralphs grew disillusioned with the direction Mott the Hoople was heading in, leading him to depart from the band in 1973 in pursuit of a more authentic musical path. He then joined forces with vocalist Paul Rodgers, drummer Simon Kirke, and bassist Boz Burrell, forming the band Bad Company. The new group quickly found success, supported by connections to Led Zeppelin through their record label and management. Bad Company managed to deliver on their potential, establishing themselves as a prominent presence in the rock music scene.
Pursuing a more melodic brand of heavy blues than either Free or Led Zeppelin, Bad Company came bursting out of the gate in 1974 with its eponymous debut album. Led by the Ralphs-penned “Can’t Get Enough,” which reached #5 on the American Top 40, the album hit #1 in the United States, setting the stage for multiple years of gold and platinum albums accompanied by tours that packed arenas across the land. Bad Company was one of the rare acts to get massive airplay on both AM Top 40 and FM rock radio. Despite never being a critic’s favorite — too commercially popular for that — Bad Company had a run that was second to none.
The original band petered out in 1982. In 1986, Ralphs and Kirke teamed up with Brian Howe, whose previous work included a brief time as Ted Nugent’s singer, to resurrect the Bad Company name. The partnership spawned five albums between 1986 and 1992 and was moderately successful, although it never approached the heights of the Rodgers years. Howe left the band in 1994. He passed away from cardiac arrest in 2020.
Bad Company’s classic lineup reunited in 1998 to record four new songs for an anthology collection. The quartet toured in 1999, but after a show in Los Angeles in August of that year never played together again. Burrell died from a heart attack in 2006. The surviving members went on scattered tours throughout the following years, but Ralphs’ 2016 stroke left him incapable of performing. Somewhat ironically, the band will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland later this year.
Ralphs was a solid albeit unspectacular guitarist who knew his limitations and worked well within them. His strength was composition, writing classic tunes such as the aforementioned “Can’t Get Enough” along with “Ready for Love,” “Movin’ On,” and many others written by him either solo or in partnership with Rodgers, all lustily sung along as the tunes blasted away on the eight-track player in cars both cool and clunker dotting high school parking lots and secluded make out points throughout the 1970s. Bad Company was never the hip band. But they were deeply loved both then and now, a cherished memory of a time when music mattered, and hard rock meant inclusiveness rather than alienation and abrasion.
Godspeed, Mick Ralphs.
