WCSX Classic Cuts : Shooting Star
WCSX Classic Cuts
Bad Company: “Shooting Star”
The Hook: Inspired by the rock and rollers who didn’t make it through their drug problems.
Year: 1975
Album: Straight Shooter
Writers: Paul Rodgers
Stats: Not released as a single.
Background: In 1975, former Free guitarist Paul Kossoff’s heart stopped beating for 30 minutes while in rehab for drug addiction. His former Free bandmate Paul Rodgers, who’d become the frontman of Bad Company, wrote “Shooting Star” at about the same time, so it was often assumed to be inspired by Kossoff — who died in March 1976. Rodgers says the song is really about more than just Kossoff.
Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers talks about his reason for writing “Shooting Star” and the drug problems of his former Free bandmate, guitarist Paul Kossoff. OC:…all of them. :23
“That song just came into my head and, actually, after the first couple of lines I thought I was singing someone else’s song. It’s strange, it happens like that some times. It wasn’t specifically about Paul Kossoff. I think it was about all of those great people that never made it, like Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison and Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix even – the casualties of rock and roll. I think that’s what it was about, all of them.”
