Mick Ralphs, a British guitarist and songwriter who glittered at the peak of glam rock with Mott the Hoople before joining forces with the vocalist Paul Rodgers to form Bad Company, the hard-rock quartet that rode high in the feathered-hair 1970s with anthems like “Can’t Get Enough” and “Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy,” has died. He was 81.
His death was announced on Monday in a statement on the official Bad Company site, which noted that he had suffered a stroke days after his final performance with the group in October 2016 and had remained bedridden until his death. The statement did not say where or when he had died, or give a specific cause.
Bad Company, scheduled to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November, combined muscular stadium rock with infectious hooks to become one of the most commercially successful groups of its era.
Formed in 1973, the group originally consisted of Mr. Ralphs (late of Mott the Hoople, known for the 1972 hit “All the Young Dudes”); Mr. Rodgers and the drummer Simon Kirke, both previously of Free, whose arena-shaking “All Right Now” was a No. 4 hit in 1970; and the bassist Boz Burrell, a veteran of King Crimson.
Bad Company became an FM radio force. It sold more than a million copies of its first three albums, starting with its 1974 debut, called simply “Bad Company,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and featured “Can’t Get Enough,” a bluesy thumper written by Mr. Ralphs that soared to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Although the members of the group had already established their names with other bands, Mr. Ralphs shrugged off the “supergroup” label, which was freely applied in those days to cornucopia-of-stars outfits like Blind Faith, which brought together Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker of Cream and Steve Winwood of Traffic.
“There is nothing preconceived about this group,” Mr. Ralphs said in a 1975 interview with The Daily Breeze, a newspaper in Torrance, Calif. “Our music is straightforward. There are no gimmicks. This is the way I’ve always wanted to play rock. It needs to be this way.”
Initially, Bad Company was not even supposed to be a group at all, super or otherwise. After leaving their respective bands, Mr. Ralphs and Mr. Rodgers had teamed up to write some songs and perhaps record a one-off album. “We didn’t actually plan to have a band,” Mr. Ralphs said in a 2015 interview for Gibson Guitars.
“It was all kind of accidental, I suppose,” he added. “Lucky, really.”
Mr. Rodgers was working on a new song called “Bad Company,” and when he mentioned the name to Mr. Ralphs on the phone, the guitarist reacted as if he had been struck by lightning. “He said, ‘Yes, that’s it! That’s what we gotta call the band,’” Mr. Rodgers recalled in an interview with Guitar Player magazine. “And I said, ‘No, it’s actually a song, you know, I’m just working on.’ And he said, ‘No, no, we’ve gotta call the band Bad Company. That’s it!’”
The song, featured on the group’s first album, was never released as a single, but it could be heard pumping through the speakers of Chevrolet Camaros for the rest of the decade — just like so many other Bad Company gems.
Michael Geoffrey Ralphs was born on March 31, 1944, in Stoke Lacy, England, a village in the West Midlands. He started playing guitar in his teens and formed a series of bands — one of which, Silence, eventually took the name Mott the Hoople, after the title character of a satirical novel by Willard Manus published in 1966.
Lacking a spotlight-worthy frontman, the band brought in Ian Hunter, a well-traveled singer-songwriter. Mott the Hoople built a cult following early on, but its first four albums scuffled commercially.
The group was ready to disband when David Bowie offered to help revive it, offering to produce its fifth album, “All the Young Dudes.” The record was made famous by the hit of the same name, which Mr. Bowie contributed to the effort; it became a cornerstone of glam rock and a gay anthem, never mind the fact that then members of Mott the Hoople were not gay themselves.
Despite that breakthrough, Mr. Ralphs bid adieu to the sparkle, departing in 1973.
“Ian has sort of taken the initiative now, which is great for the band as a whole but not very good for me as an individual,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone that year. “I should be singing and writing more than I am, but rather than fight with Ian all down the line, I thought it best that I just leave.”
With Bad Company, he once again ceded the spotlight to a dynamic frontman. But he made his presence felt with his grinding guitar riffs and his songwriting, which also included “Ready for Love” (a song he originally recorded with Mott the Hoople), “Movin’ On” and “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad.”
The group split up in the early 1980s. Mr. Rodgers formed another supergroup, the Firm, with the former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. In 1984, Mr. Ralphs showed a softer side with the first of many solo albums, “Take This,” featuring Mr. Kirke.
Bad Company returned with different lineups over the years, including, eventually, the original.
Mr. Ralphs’s survivors include his wife, Susie Chavasse; two sons, Ben and Jim; and three stepchildren.
At its zenith, Bad Company allowed Mr. Ralphs to escape the sequins and live as a globe-trotting hard-rock heavyweight. Even so, he managed to keep perspective — sort of.
“Our plane is more homey than Led Zeppelin’s,” he said in a 1977 interview with The Miami Herald during a tour of Florida. “We’re more down-to-earth. We take limousines in the United States. It’s expected. I’d be just as happy to walk.”
“But then,” he added, “they’d think I was a hick.”
Alex Williams is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk.
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