Mick Ralphs (81) was born March 31, 1944 in Stoke Lacy, a small village in Herefordshire, England. As a kid he was not really too impressed with the music of the time, as it did not possess the rawness he was looking for.
He 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 later said in an interview. “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.’”
Ralphs then began his career apprenticeship in music as a teenager, playing with blues-rock band the Buddies. He released a single with that group in 1964 before joining the Mod Doc Thomas Group in 1966, in a lineup that also included bassist Pete “Overend” Watts. After changing names twice and an eponymous Italian debut album, they were joined by singer/songwriter Ian Hunter and changed their name to Mott The Hoople and were subsequently signed to Island Records.
The band’s initial single was an instrumental cover of “You Really Got Me,” long before the Van Halen’s did their version of this Kinks classic.There was a buzz on that first Mott the Hoople album, it had the aforementioned Kinks cover, and it also featured a distinctive album cover, 
M.C. Escher’s “Reptiles. The other big cut on the debut was “Rock and Roll Queen,” which was Mott’s signature cut before “All the Young Dudes,” and it was composed by Mick Ralphs. But the album was not a commercial success, and the three Atlantic LPs which followed the eponymous debut were not either, even though “Brain Capers” got good reviews.
But the more popular Mott the Hoople became in insider circles, the more Ian Hunter’s songwriting became emphasized over the other members’; Hunter’s increasing ambition was more and more at odds with Ralphs’ taste for simple, riff-driven hard rock. Ralphs remained with the band until 1973, but leaving soon after they achieved their commercial breakthrough with the David Bowie-produced album All the Young Dudes. Ralphs’ last appearance with Mott The Hoople was on the Mott album released in 1973, which featured the hit ‘’All The Way From Memphis’’. The song chronicles the story of Ralphs losing his guitar in Memphis in 1972 and opened the legendary Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and Ralphs wrote it.
Upon exiting Mott the Hoople, he founded Bad Company along with vocalist Paul Rodgers from the band Free, who he had met in 1971. After an inspired jam session and a mutual sharing of songs, Ralphs had made the bold financial decision to leave Mott The Hoople and form a new band with Rodgers, and Bad Company was born. Adding former King Crimson bassist/vocalist Boz Burrell and drummer Simon Kirke, the band was complete. With the help of Led Zeppelin’s legendary manager Peter Grant, Bad Company became the first band signed to Zeppelin’s Swan Song label. The group’s success was meteoric. Their 1974 self-titled debut went five-times platinum, producing classic hits like “Can’t Get Enough” and “Movin’ On,” alongside electrifying rock anthems such as “Ready for Love,” “Rock Steady,” and the title track “Bad Company”.
”The band’s debut album included the Ralphs’-penned monster hit “Can’t Get Enough”, for which Ralphs tuned his guitar in the open-C tuning C-C-G-C-E-C, stating, “It never really sounds right in standard tuning. It needs the open C to have that ring.” Coincidentally it was also the reason why Mott the Hoople was unable to record “Can’t Get Enough” because of the vocal register in which it was written. The Ralphs penned song became an immediate hit and pushed the group’s 1974 debut album to number one in the U.S.
The first album was a tell-tale of what was to come, but the second album broke Bad Company wide, that made the band ubiquitous. That’s right, as huge as the debut was, “Straight Shooter” was even BIGGER in attitude, albeit not in sales numbers. And “Straight Shooter” opened with a bang, Mick Ralphs’s “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad.”
But the true breakthrough cut on the second album was the second song, with its stinging guitar emphasis, a Ralphs/Rodgers co-composition, a song that you heard everywhere in 1975 and those addicted to the radio still remember, FEEL LIKE MAKIN’ LOVE! Yup, that staccato guitar, wow! And how about that guitar on the two opening cuts on the second side, “Deal with the Preacher” and “Wild Fire Woman”? Just listen! It’s not how fast you play, but what you wring from the instrument, a sound, a soul, a feeling that goes alternately straight to the heart and straight to the genitals.
As for the third album “Run with the Pack” produced in France, was not equal to what came before but still with merit, it opens with Mick Ralphs’s “Live for the Music”, as it lifts the tip of the veil over rock and roll music.
“Some people say I’m no good
Laying in my bed all day
But when the nighttime comes I’m ready to rock
And roll my troubles away”
Released in 1977, Burnin’ Sky fared the poorest of their first four records, reaching No. 15 in the US and No. 17 in the UK. Desolation Angels, inspired by Jack Kerouac’s 1965 novel of the same title, released in 1979, did better than its predecessor, peaking at No. 3 in the US and No. 10 in the UK. Desolation Angels also embellished the group’s sound with synthesisers and strings. It had two charting singles: “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” at No. 13 and “Gone Gone Gone” at No. 56.
By the early 1980s, however, the band grew increasingly disenchanted with playing large stadiums. In addition, Peter Grant lost interest in the group and management in general after Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died on 25 September 1980. In the words of drummer Simon Kirke, “Peter was definitely the glue which held us all together and in his absence we came apart”.
A three-year hiatus from the studio ended with the release of Rough Diamonds in August 1982. This would be the sixth and final LP in the group’s original incarnation until four new songs were recorded in 1998. The album was the worst-selling Bad Company album of those featuring Paul Rodgers as the front man. The album peaked at No. 15 in the UK and No. 26 in the US.
After the release of Rough Diamonds, Bad Company disbanded. Mick Ralphs said,
“Paul wanted a break and truthfully we all needed to stop. Bad Company had become bigger than us all and to continue would have destroyed someone or something. From a business standpoint, it was the wrong thing to do, but Paul’s instinct was absolutely right”
“I expected it, really. 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.”
In 1984 he toured with Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour on Gilmour’s About Face tour, although he did not play on the album. In 1985, he released a solo album, Take This, which included Free’s and Bad Company’s drummer Simon Kirke. He teamed up with future Bad Company guitarist Dave Colwell for a limited four-run live support of the album, which also featured drummer Chris Slade of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and keyboard player Lindsay Bridgewater, who performed with Ozzy Osbourne. He did one performance with a band called Cold Turkey.
Bad Company reformed with different line-ups between 1986 and 1998. But after a reunion tour with the original foursome in 1999, Ralphs announced that he was giving up touring, something he had never been comfortable with in either band since he had an extreme fear of flying.
Ralphs second solo album It’s All Good, an instrumental, came out in 2001. Two years later his That’s Life – Can’t Get Enough album was released, including a demo version of “Can’t Get Enough”.
In 2004, he once again teamed up with former Mott colleague Ian Hunter, playing second lead guitar (along with Andy York) on Hunter’s UK tour. Ralphs performed at Hunter’s May 2004 concert at the London Astoria, which was filmed and released as a DVD titled “Just Another Night” the following year.
On 2 July 2008, it was announced that the original line-up of Bad Company (minus Boz Burrell who died in September 2006) would do a one-off gig at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida on 8 August 2008. According to Rodgers, the band played this show to “protect the legacy they have built and cement the rights to the trademark Bad Company for touring.”
In 2011, Ralphs formed The Mick Ralphs Blues Band with musicians he met while guesting at a jam session at the Nag’s Head pub in High Wycombe: Stuart Son Maxwell, harmonica/vocals; Jim Maving, guitar; Sam Kelly, dribs and Dickey Baldwin, bass. The band’s website stated that Ralphs sought to explore his blues and soul roots, playing covers of classic blues and R&B songs. The band made its debut as Mick Ralphs and Co at Jagz Club in Ascot, Berkshire in June 2011, changing the name to the Mick Ralphs Blues Band soon afterwards.
In 2013 and 2014, Bad Company and Lynyrd Skynyrd jointly toured throughout the United States and Canada, initially commemorating the 40th anniversary of Skynyrd’s first album release and Bad Company’s formation.
In 2016, Bad Company announced a U.S. tour with Joe Walsh. Ralphs initially announced that he would not participate in this tour and that Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes would be standing in for him. In June 2016, the group announced a UK arena tour with special guests Richie Sambora and Orianthi culminating in a show at London’s O2 Arena on 29 October. Ralphs rejoined the band for the duration of the tour, but following the band’s concluding performance in London, it was reported that Ralphs had been hospitalized, having suffered a stroke. He never returned to the band with his lead guitar parts being played by second guitarist, Howard Leese and keyboard parts being played by Rodgers.
Ralphs was bedridden after the stroke he suffered in 2016 and died of complications from it on June 23, 2025, aged 81.
Mick Ralphs was more than a guitar player, MUCH MORE, but he was a great guitar player TOO! All those legendary Bad Company records, that was HIM, up front and center, that was MICK!
A month before his 2016 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.”
At long last Bad Company will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later in 2025.
