Q&A

Paul Rodgers

The former Free and Bad Co. singer on his influences, meeting his soul mates and honouring the spirit of his former bandmates.

Paul Rodgers is a man of complementing tastes. Once a notorious hellraiser in the traditional rock-star manner, these days he meditates and emanates positive vibrations. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is that voice. Listening to him singing on his new CD/DVD release Free Spirit, a collection of Free classics recorded at the Albert Hall last year, is to be transported. Not back in time, but ahead to a place where the musical spirit really does move you. And it’s not just the hits such as All Right Now, Wishing Well, My Brother Jake et al, but also several deep cuts, including two songs that Free never actually performed live: Love You So and Catch A Train. Also included, unusually, are the opening performances on the night by his singer-songwriter daughter Jasmine Rodgers and singer Deborah Bonham (sister to John).

The Free Spirit band first came together in 2017, playing a charity concert in the UK for Willows Animal Sanctuary And Assisted Therapy Unit. All of the proceeds from Rodgers’s autographed items sold at merchandise on the tour were donated to the charity.

Paul’s wife and manager, Cynthia Rodgers, recalls being at the show when Paul stood way back from the mic during Be My Friend, “and just sang, and you could still hear it all around the Albert Hall. Jimmy Page was sitting next to me and he was gobsmacked. He said: ‘How does he do that?’ I said: ‘I don’t know! But he does!’”

Can you give me a major memory from the Free Spirit shows? Yes. A couple sitting in the front at one of the shows just broke down when I went into Love You So. This woman lost it! Her husband was crying as well. Afterwards I had to find out what those people’s story is. Luckily, they came to the meet-and-greet afterwards and I got to talk to them. They told me about their son, who was just twentythree. He’d been working with a young band in New York and been killed in an accident. It was so tragic. It had happened a year before. Then at his funeral they played Love You So, as a memorial. When they came to the show and I sang the song, they hadn’t been expecting it at all. They loved it, but it just hit their hearts.

Hearing this music fresh, it comes across how timeless these songs are. There’s almost a spiritual dimension to it.

There’s a lot of spirituality in it. Which I can also see from the music that influenced me, from Ray Charles to Otis Redding to John Lee Hooker… There’s a lot of spirituality in the nature of their being. So it came out in their music, no matter what they were singing about.

The recording comes from the final night of the tour. Was there a lot of pressure to get it right that night?

No, actually. It takes a bit of guesswork deciding which show on a tour to record. It rarely comes together just right. We were so lucky with this one, though. The Albert Hall turned into absolutely the best one to record. I record my shows anyway, just for my own benefit, so I can hear things in the set that can maybe be improved. But this was a proper full-on album recording and it came out sounding incredible. They’re all usually an eight out of ten, but this was a twelve out of ten! It was a really good night, and we captured it. Your voice just seems to get better with age. With most singers, as they get older, bits fall off.

It’s true that time is the master, and we are all subject to that. But I went to see Tom Jones and I thought he was fantastic! When he did Delilah, it’s so dramatic. There’s a lot of great singers out there.

Yeah, but they don’t sound as good or better than they did when they were young, the way you do.

Well, thank you. I learned from performing, from actually singing and doing different things. And I take on challenges, which helps too. When I did the whole Queen thing, it was a huge challenge to me. When I first broached that subject, my immediate reaction was: no, I don’t think so. Then I thought, well, why not?

It also helped usher in a new era where famous musicians could regroup and work with each other in previously thought impossible situations – Axl Rose and AC/DC being the most obvious recent example.

You learn as you go. In the past we were very locked into ‘that’s the band you’re with, and that’s all you do’.

On that score, you’re touring America this summer, doing all sorts of things – shows with Bad Company, your own shows, touring with Jeff Beck and Ann Wilson…

We’ve just done three shows with Bad Company and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and we’re about to do three more. It’s really a Lynyrd Skynyrd crowd. They’re doing a farewell tour, so it’s like thirty thousand people in a great big venue. It’s such a good combination of music that it’s fantastic. And they’re such lovely guys. Actually, they introduced me to [Rodgers’ wife] Cynthia. I was touring with them with my soul band, in 1997. They were like: “Look, when we get to Vancouver, we’re going to introduce you to someone very special – and you better behave yourself.”

We played the show, and halfway through, this vision of loveliness came down the aisle, and I looked out at her and I was like, “Wow!” Johnny Van Zant brought her backstage afterwards and said: “This is Cynthia,” and it was ‘boom’! She turned my whole life around.

Do you believe in fate?

I believe in lots of things. I do believe in spirit. I believe in the power of spirit. I think it pervades music. That’s one of the reasons I called what we’re doing now Free Spirit. It’s not the band Free, but it certainly is the spirit of Free. The band really do capture the feeling of what it was like standing in front of Paul Kossoff, Andy Fraser and Simon Kirke like nobody else I’ve ever played with.

Do you still do karate?

I don’t do karate any more, but I do stay as fit as I can. I don’t want to be decrepit. I want to be as mobile as I can for as long as I can. That’s why I keep working, you know? You’ve got to move, as the old song goes.

Free Spirit (live CD/DVD set) is out now via Quarto Valley.