The two greatest drummers Simon Kirke has ever seen: “He was not a nice guy”
Of all the supergroup ventures that litter the popular music canon, Simon Kirke and his Bad Company are right up there, along with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Cream, as a rock conglomerate that arguably eclipsed their former day jobs.
Enjoying their heyday across the 1970s, Free drummer Kirke and their frontman Paul Rodgers nabbed Mott the Hoople’s guitarist Mick Ralphs, plus King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, and strutted confidently into the day’s classic rock FM radio, straddling a swaggering middle ground of the day’s Humble Pie with just the faintest lean toward the likes of Boston’s shimmering pop beckon. Throughout, Kirke remained fixed behind the drum kit, staying put as the sole founding member til Bad Company’s latest hiatus in 2019.
Holding the beat behind both Free and Bad Company among a smattering of other side-projects, the chance to glean an insight into the drummers he celebrates as the best in the business is naturally a tantalising prospect for any rock fan. Appearing on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman quizzed Kirke on the greatest drummer he ever saw live.
“Buddy Rich, honestly,” Kirke states without missing a beat. “I mean, shocking talent, and he knew it, which is the best. I met him a couple of times and and I was just in awe of him. But yeah, he had that ball and chain around his leg that he was not a nice guy, but my god, what a player.”
A titan of the big-band jazz era, Rich’s lightning speed and deft control ensured a seismic legacy for many a future drummer to learn from, especially anybody deploying the traditional grip as Rich did. Kirke’s cautious skirt around his personality is attested by legend, however.
Infamous for his short temper, Rich had once received a hard slap from Dusty Springfield after fatiguing from his incessant put-downs, and Frank Sinatra had come to blows with the aggy jazz drummer back when they were both in trombonist Tommy Dorsey’s band early on in their careers.
Similarly, wasting no time to jump to his second lauded drummer, Kirke reached into rock’s hall of fame to pluck out one powerhouse percussionist that stands tall as one of the greatest in most people’s estimations, Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham. “I saw Bon many, many times, and he floored me with what he did,” Kirke simply put it.
Kirke then regaled a story during the mixing of 1982’s Coda compilation, the farewell collection of studio odds and ends released two years after Bonham’s death; Kirke’s sit-in alongside Jimmy Page behind the mixing desk unveiled a glimpse of Bonham’s magic prowess in the band. Listening back to Bonham’s drum tracks, his hammering thunder was raised by Page’s increasing of the surrounding Neumann mics, making Kirke’s jaw drop on the playback.
“Bonso, oh my god, what a drummer,” Kirke concluded when casting his mind back to those sessions. “He said, ‘I want my drums to sound like fucking cannons.’ Well, he got there.”
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