https://variety.com/2025/music/news/mick-ralphs-bad-company-mott-the-hoople-dead-1236438527/
I think I'm just gonna stop reading the news. Seems like another of my idols dies every day.
Farewell to Mick Ralphs - known mostly for his work in Mott the Hoople and Bad Company, though he played with many others.
I've posted many times over the years of how I self-learned guitar (at that point) via various tab books. When Bad Company hit the airwaves I went to the local record store and found the tab book to their self-titled debut. I had a pretty good ear for rhythm but I learned the chords from those dot diagrams. I was playing Bad Company songs before I actually knew how to play guitar!
I loved Bad Company and the interplay between Mick and Paul Rogers. An older friend gave me a chart of barre chords and pretty soon me and some high school buds had a little garage band. We learned other stuff, too but we were a Bad Company cover band for the most part. I miss those days and I still love those albums!
I'd read that Mick had suffered a severe stroke a couple of years ago and had been living in a skilled nursing facility. Thank you, Mick Ralphs for the inspiration and the good times.
I bought the self titled Bad Company debut album too.
Wasn't the lead singer on All Right Now by Free? It was a hit too.
RIP the great Mick Ralphs.
Yes Paul Rogers sings and co-wrote All Right Now for Free.
1970.
And Bad Company
See several things in the comments sections on YouTube citing Mick Ralphs as the musician who inspired them to learn the electric guitar.
Remember reading an interview with Ralphs years ago and he cautioned young players from using a cheap and bad amp. Said at least spring for a lower price Fender amp.
And to get away from cheap guitars as soon as possible too. But first and foremost is a decent amplifier.
Ralphs said when he's had to he could tinker with knobs and get a decent sound out of a bad guitar providing you have a good amp. If you can't afford both a good guitar and amp, get the amp first!!
It makes sense I think.
Sorry to hear this news. I couldn't call myself a fan, but I appreciated Mick Ralphs going back to before Bad Company. I'll bet most here cannot say they saw Mott The Hoople. I did, and the main thing that reveals is that I'm old. The Hollywood Palladium in the early 70's used to have these mind-blowing triple bills and Mott was an opener on one of them. It's been so long (1972) that I can't even remember who Mott opened for, it may have been West, Bruce and Laing. Yeah, Mott was good, of course! A classic British rock and roll band. No jamming, just stood and played from their records, but so what? Their records were great. And man, did they ever have the look! Especially Overend Watts on bass (LOVE that name!)
Mott the Hoople was one of those acts that I had to do a double ... TRIPLE take on. They (via Bowie) pretty much came up with the genre known as Glam Rock. Instead of plowing along with the usual blues-derived forms of rock and roll, they put a new bend on things and created their own style.
The first thing that most folks noticed was the hair and makeup - the visual aspect. If you play the songs without looking at them you find that the lyrical content is interesting from various perspectives.
Mick Ralphs was a great guitarist. Aside from Mott and Bad Company, he did gigs with George Harrison, Alvin Lee and many others.
When bands attempt Bad Company tunes, they rarely get them exactly right (even with the tab book! 😉 ). This is because Mick (like Keith Richards) didn't play in a standard tuning. Mick used an open C tuning with a variation (I'll get back) so imitators never sounded exactly like him when they covered the songs.
He was a songwriter, too - responsible for many of the Mott and Bad Company hits. Here' one of my favorites:
Mott The Hoople’s ‘Brain Capers’ was the first LP I ever bought and I saw them just before ‘All The Young Dudes’ blew it wide open for them. I loved the early albums and stayed with it up to the ‘Mott’ album then Mick left and it was never the same. He was an underrated guitarist and songwriter. In fact his song writing had a greater impact than his playing IMHO. I saw Bad Co with Nazareth as support back in the day and then witnessed Mick’s last ever gig at the O2 with Bad Co in October 2016. He had a severe stroke shortly after and lived in a care home. His solo albums are fun too. He’s kinda been with me since I discovered rock n roll. I never knew him of course but I‘ve spent countless hours in his company and his passing feels specially poignant RIP Ralpher
Like most players, Mick Ralphs cut his teeth on American Blues music. One of his last musical ventures was the Mick Ralphs Blues Band. Yeah, I know - another old white guy playing the Blues but this is worth hearing:
Alan Paul in his Low Down and Dirty newsletter shared this wonderful tribute to Mick Ralphs written by Bob Lefsetz. GREAT STUFF!
@robslob Thanks for sharing! Great article!
In my own jabbering I forgot to mention that Mick toured as a second guitarist wit David Gilmour.
@rusty Just listened and enjoyed it. Gilmore is mostly rhythm on this cool track. Is that Mick Ralphs playing most of the fills and lead?
Ooops. I see now it's much more than one song. Guess I'm just getting started listening to this.
