Paul Rodgers said, Thats it. But the band began to wonder where they would ever actually make it. Kossoff spent many hours jamming with Fleetwood Mac founder/lead guitarist Peter Green and picking his brain, a significant experience in Kossoffs development as a player. Earlier that summer, blues producer Mike Vernon asked Kossoff to play on New York singer Martha Velzs debut album, Fiends And Angels. And I wouldnt let him use the lift I got him walking up them stairs, all 24 flights. It wasnt easy. Koss girlfriend, Sandie Chard, tried to reason with him She stuck around. All rights reserved. By then, everybody knew the awful truth. One night Clapton approached Kossoff in the dressing room and asked, How the hell do you do that? talking about my vibrato, recalled Kossoff. Free was Kossoffs life.. We went to visit him and had a big jam. Kossoffs parents tried to intervene. He was like my brother - we were totally on the same page once." Free were between 16 and 19 at point of formation in 1968. For the sessions, Kossoff brought out a duo of Les Pauls, including a now-fabled late-era sunburst model, which was later stripped and painted black, as well as a black three-pickup custom. When they finally did in 1968, it was a transformative experience. 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; You can't make this stuff up, 20 years ago tonight Jeff Beck played the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver #backstagepast, Remember concerts? [8][9], In April 1968, Kossoff and Kirke teamed up with Paul Rodgers (vocals) and Andy Fraser (bass) to form Free. But when Kossoff went on another bender, Glover sheepishly returned the money. var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); He wouldnt just play an E chord, Bonamassa says. The press were told he was busy working on a solo album. Paul had approached Gibson in 1941, but it took 10 years, and Leo Fender introducing his solid body guitar for Gibson, for the company to develop what is now known as the Gibson Les Paul. Mostly for the concerts, 28 years ago tonight Guns N Roses played BC Place Stadium in Vancouver. var _gaq = _gaq || []; Free played a final show at Sydneys Randwick Racecourse on May 9 1971, and then flew home separately. Photo courtesy of Gibson, Tons of Sobs was recorded on a modest budget of 800 and was in some respects a recorded version of the bands live set. But he also loved all of those great soul and blues records from America. Kossoff was not a prolific writer and had begun to feel excluded from the Rodgers/Fraser clique. Shortly afterwards, another aspiring group, The Wildflowers, moved from their native Teeside and into a house near the Kossoffs in Golders Green. It was very full-on and I found it a bit aggressive., Glover told Blackwell he wasnt convinced. Its the timbre of your voice. Two years ago, Rodgers met Kossoffs son, Simon, for the first time. The members of Free were remarkably young when they formed the group. Chris said, This is John. March 19, 1976 - Paul Francis Kossoff (Free) was born September 14, 1950 in Hampstead, London. The band that would soon become Free jammed together for the first time on April 19 1968 at the Nags Head in Battersea. Id dealt with plenty of musicians who fancied themselves, before and since. At some point during the flight, Kossoff had visited the toilet and never come back. In the meantime, though, his ex-bandmates were moving on. Free drafted Tetsu and Rabbit for the album Heartbreaker (1973) after which the group disbanded. When he saw us at the Nags Head in Battersea after our first rehearsal he suggested that, but we kind of whittled it down to Free.. There was no time to pause or reflect. Just five months after the release of Fire And Water came Highway. There's a lot to be learned from Kossoff. Kossoffs solo album, Back Street Crawler, slipped out in November 73. He was in town playing with his group when we were in LA, remembers Rogers. The live album Free Live! That said, after Back Street Crawler were photographed signing their contract at Londons Olympic Studios, Kossoff climbed out of the bathroom window, jumped into his car and proceeded to crash into several stationary vehicles. It attracted the attention of Dave Murray, who at the time was about to be auditioned for Iron Maiden. David was trying to get him off the stuff, but Paul didnt get on with his dad at all. Kirke found the break-up hard, but Kossoff was devastated. Kossoff was born on 14 September 1950 in Hampstead, London, the son of Margaret (ne Jenkins) and actor David Kossoff. One of the great things about Koss was that he played every note like his life depended on it, declared Rodgers. . But as John Glover observes, It was Free against the world. I thought, Im onto a winner here., But it wasnt to be. So much like his Dad, wrote Rodgers, who lost his close friend and ex-bandmate in 1976 when the elder Kossoff died from heroin-related heart problems ona flight from L.A. to New York. After completing their first album, Free went on the road to try and make a name for themselves. The album cover offered an ants-eye view of a woman, sprinkled in stardust and silhouetted against the sky. Docherty had heard about this new group with a brilliant guitarist but quickly realised their name was misleading when punters turned up expecting to get in for free. Paul Kossoff The late great Paul Kossoff's son Simon Kossoff. A great example of that is Fire and Water., When Free decided to call it quits in 1971, Kossoff took it harder than anyone. Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! I had a blues band at the time called Brown Sugar. [18], Kossoff died on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City on 19 March 1976 from a pulmonary embolism after a blood clot in his leg moved to his lung, while touring America with Back Street Crawler. Kossoff, the pint-sized superstar with the lions mane hair-do, made an immediate impression: He walked on, plugged in and just unleashed those solos. Kossoff sold the guitar to Mike Gooch and in May 1994 it was sold for 12,000 at Christie's.[23]. Mouthful Of Grass, Ill Be Creeping and Lying In The Sunshine were a celebration of peace, love, Mother Nature and sex lots of sex. As the only one with a licence, Kossoff drove the bands Transit, clocking up hundreds of miles week after week. Back Street Crawler - Paul Kossoff (released in 1973) Gone to Dave Murray After Paul's death, his Strat somehow ended up on sale through an English magazine called Melody Maker. Koss often fell over on stage, forgot the chords or gave long, stoned, rambling speeches. I got myself a Gibson Les Paul Junior, which was the cheapest Gibson around at the time, he said. But the fact is nobody but Kossy could play that guitar through that amp.. Then in June of 1970, Fire and Water hit the shelves with the force of an atomic blast. It was just devastating. Kossoff was laid to rest at Golders Green Crematorium, his headstone marked with a simple epitaph: All Right Now.. Apparently, it took the crew some time to gain access to the bathroom, as his dead body was slumped against the door. Legendary blues-rocker Paul Rodgers finally got to meet the son of Paul Kossoff, the former guitarist in his old band Free. Kossoff immediately began working on his first solo record, Back Street Crawler, which featured guest appearances by his former Free bandmates as well as Alan White of Yes. How to Choose the Right Guitar String Gauges? He was appalled by what he found. ", "Selmer: The London Music Shop Where Clapton, Page, Beck, and More Bought Their Guitars", "The Short Life And Tragic Death of Paul Kossoff", "Anarchists, fire and rock'n'roll: the ultimate guide to the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival", "Paul Kossoff Live at Croydon Fairfield Halls 15 June 1975", "Paul Rodgers: "My greatest regret is not having Paul Kossoff around. I remember getting into Koss car and his dad had stuck these typed-out instructions on the dashboard: Are you fit to drive?, Turn on headlights. If music and guitar has never been part of your interests then this site may change your view and be a music lover. Backstage afterwards there was champagne flying everywhere, like the Grand Prix, remembers John Taylor. After the demise of Free in 1973 and tragic death of their guitarist Paul Kossoff three years later, Paul found even greater success with Bad Company. However, in Paul Kossoffs case, parts of 1973 and 74 were lost to his escalating drug use, which, for a time, also included heroin. Its your personality. [13], Kossoff then assembled a group called Back Street Crawler, which released two albums: The Band Plays On in 1975 and 2nd Street in 1976. You have to be together to do that, insists Rodgers. But it wasnt All Right Now. The absence of Free left a hole in Kossoffs life, which he was now filling with drugs. It was such an amazing thing that when we came off stage I said to him, Man, we have to form a band. The seeds of Free were born right there.. [2], In 1966 Kossoff joined the Chicago-style blues band Black Cat Bones. Free toured with Osibisa guitarist Wendell Richardson instead. I said, Look, Koss has gone off the rails. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He was gifted with the performance gene from birth. Kossoffwhos been a major influence on guitar greats likeJoe Bonamassamay be best known for supplying the raw riffs that propelled Frees All Right Now to the top of the charts in 1970. He went to a teacher in Golders Green, in North London, who taught him to read music, but he was partially dyslexic and wasnt actually reading the musiche was mirroring her and remembering everything. What I think we lacked was management, posits Rodgers. Pauls guitar of choice was a Gibson Les Paul for the most part of his career, and he was one of the people responsible for the spike in popularity of that guitar that occurred in the years following his death. or Albert would play and then answer themselves, we kind of picked up on that and consciously tried to emulate that and incorporate it into the music we did., Still without a band name, the quartet booked their first show at a modest club in London, where one of the kings of the nascent British Blues scene offered to help them out. Then there was a knock at the door and a dealer outside. Kossoffs solo in that very song rips my heart out, says Rodgers now. Within a year, Bad Companys debut album was a US No.1 hit. I was overjoyed at being in a real live professional blues band, Kirke told Jo Rishton for The Beat Goes On and On. Shortly after the release of 2nd Street, Back Street Crawler undertook a U.S. tour, which was again hampered by Kossoffs condition. As the frontman for Free and Bad Company, Rodgers's soulful, bluesy voice featured on some of the all-time classic rock songs: All Right Now, Wishing Well, My Brother Jake, Can't Get Enough, Feel Like Makin' Love and many more. God bless Wendell, but he wasnt Koss, and this wasnt Free, says Rabbit Bundrick. And they had another weapon: Paul Kossoff, a player who brought it all together and elevated their music into the stratosphere. Some commentators point to Paul's drug habit as a contributing factor in his death. [5], Aged nine Kossoff started classical guitar lessons with Blanche Monroe. ", "Iron Maiden's Dave Murray Talks About His 1957 Fender Stratocaster Guitar", "Gibson Custom Paul Kossoff 1959 Les Paul Standard", "Bonhams: Paul Kossoff/Free: A 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard with sunburst finish owned by Paul Kossoff, 19701976", "The unlikely life story of Paul Kossoff's guitar", 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection: The Best of Free, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Kossoff&oldid=1140982785, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 19:28. I used to sit in the front with him just to keep him awake., (Left to right) An unknown member of an opening band jams with Free bassist Andy Fraser, Free vocalist Paul Rodgers (holding Frasers bass), and Free guitarist Paul Kossoff in Croydon, England, in 1970. There were always lots of jam sessions at Island, says Digby Smith. Splitting up was big news. Ahmet Ertegun came into the picture. Ertegun, the Atlantic Records mogul whod signed Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, signed Back Street Crawler and publicly declared Paul Kossoff the emperor of the blues. Once again, it all fell apart in Newcastle, where he had a seizure backstage at The Mayfair. But the flight was undersold. Kossoff was delighted when old friend Rabbit Bundrick replaced Mike Montgomery. So I started having conversations with Paul and Andy individually, because I couldnt get them in a room together. I think everyone has some sort of death wish, before adding, But I dont want to die., John Taylor visited him in north Londons Northwick Park Hospital 10 days after his death, and was shocked by the transformation. But Simon got over it. Kossoff was soon hooked on Clapton, Peter Green and the three Kings Albert, Freddie and BB and working in Selmers music shop on Londons Charing Cross Road. And he certainly wasnt a drug casualty. The chemistry between the four was instantaneous. He would play a root/five, or reverse the root/five, so instead of having the root on the bassier end of the strings, hed have it at the higher end. Like the bands debut, Free didnt do much on the charts. Heartbroken Fraser lasted six weeks with Mayall before getting fired. Kossoff considered its soulful slow blues Be My Friend the best thing weve ever done. Contrary to rumour, Kossoff hadnt overdosed. Kossoff eventually called John Glover and moved straight back to London. Frees engineer Andy Johns recalled Kossoff getting embarrassed and uptight when Fraser had to teach him his parts. What bound Free more than anything elseespecially Kossoff and Rodgerswas their unconditional love of the blues. But the flight was only 30 per cent sold out, wed all moved around, so I didnt think anything of it.. After a few weeks, Kossoff was deemed well enough to visit Annabels nightclub on the tower blocks groundfloor. #backstagepast, Happy 77th birthday to Keith Richards, my close personal friend, as proven by this never-before-seen photograph of us partying together and touching skull rings, Happy birthday Phil #thinlizzy #therocker, Anybody remember full-page stories on wicked rock bands in newspapers? But as Back Street Crawler headed to the US for more dates and recording sessions, Rabbit realised his friend was in trouble. Aged nine Kossoff started classical guitar lessons with Blanche Monroe. Koss came up for the second set and said, Id like to come for a jam. I said, Have you got a guitar with you? and he said, Yeah, Ive got my Les Paul in the car., So he brought his guitar in and we jammeda really heart-stopping jam. He was just 25 years old. When Frees next single The Stealer tanked and Highway stalled outside the Top 40, the rows began. Kossoff came round to the house, recalls Rodgers now. It was what he wanted, but not enough for him to curb his drug use. But nothing long term came of these collaborations. It kicked the stuffing out of him, says Glover. But he was scoring again as soon as he was back in London. #acdc #backstagepast #glorydays, That time Alex Van Halen told me which drummer first blew him away with style and feel, Album review: David Lee Roth, Skyscraper (1988), That time Ratt's Robbin Crosby told me that Jethro Tull winning the metal Grammy in '89 was "bullshit', That time I asked Malcolm Young if AC/DC were from Australia and he politely set me straight, Tony Iommi on Heaven and Hell and how Frank Zappa always loved his "Supernaut" riff, Newt's top 10 (or 11) Metro Vancouver concerts in March, That time John Fogerty told me that dobro player Jerry Douglas was his favourite musician in all the world, That time David Lee Roth told me that a reunion with Van Halen was possible as long as he could "bang that high note like a freebie from a Vegas call girl", That time Blue Murder's John Sykes told me that Phil Lynott took him under his wing in Thin Lizzy, Rolling Stone can piss right off: here's the 100 Greatest Guitarists (that I've interviewed) and 50 that I haven't (yet), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSHEQSAYcfk&t=3s. Its just in your DNA. Just two months later, Free played the biggest gig of their career in front of an estimated 600,000 people as part of Englands Isle of Wight Festival. Taylor didnt see Kossoff again until the evening. It was hard to rekindle what we had prior to all that.. Gibson honored Kossoff in 2012 with a limited run of replicas of his later Free-era/Back Street Crawler Les Paul, debuted at NAMM by blues/rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, King, who has a fast vibrato. The way B.B. I hate to play just solos, said Kossoff. [21][22], In April 2017 Guitar magazine featured the 'stripped' Gibson Les Paul that Kossoff played at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. We had been together for such a long time, living so close, seeking success, and when we finally reached it, there was so much pressure., After the breakup Kossoff collaborated with Free bandmate Kirke, along with Japanese bassist Tetsu Yamauchi and keyboardist John Rabbit Bundrick to release Kossoff/ Kirke/Tetsu/Rabbit. Who gives the best guitar lessons on YouTube? In July, Free joined Eric Clapton and Steve Winwoods new group Blind Faith on a US tour. In the 1960s, England was up to its eyeballs in white-boy blues bands. I didnt know what to do.. [14], Kossoff's guitar playing was also much in demand for session work and he contributed solos on several albums including: Martha Velz's Fiends and Angels (1969); Michael Gately's Gately's Cafe (1971) and Mike Vernon's 1971 album Bring It Back Home; Uncle Dog's Old Hat (1972); Jim Capaldi's Oh How We Danced (1972) and Short Cut Draw Blood (1975); The Amazing Blondel's Mulgrave Street (1974).[8]. [10] The band played the Isle of Wight festival to both audience and critical acclaim and sellout tours in the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan followed. Rodgers and Fraser pursued unsuccessful solo projects. Kings, Alexis Korner had a band called Free at Last, Simon Kirke says in, John Bohlinger Plays The Beatles on a Lava ME3, Building a Pro-Level Home-Studio Mic Closet, DAngelico Guitars Introduces Deluxe Eric Krasno Brighton Signature Model, Free Pedal Giveaway: Electro-Harmonix Mod 11. 33 years ago tonight Aerosmith played Vancouver on the Permanent Vacation tour. The deal was reported as being worth a quarter of a million dollars. Island blamed the band, the band blamed Island; everyone blamed Highways insipid cover. He got well again and said he wanted to put a band together. But, for once, they did as he asked. Paul Kossoff wasnt one of them.. Kossoff eventually got it back, and used it in his new band Back Street Crawler. published November 05, 2015. He then accompanied John Martyn on a 1975 tour. As Paul Kossoff's Les Paul goes under the hammer, we take a look at the guitar's remarkable story, and get a glimpse behind the scenes at one of the world's oldest auction houses. Paul Kossoff: All Right Now by J.P. James Published by Matador Books ISBN: 978-1-78589-881-5 CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE In 1974, Paul Kossoff's drug problem was spiralling out of control. Nobody else remembers Kossoff leaving his seat. In thanksgiving to their skill 'and the Almighty, who helped also', Kossoff made a decision to give performances of his two famous one-man shows 'without fee, for charity, throughout 1976'. Around autumn 1974, David Kossoff called John Glover and told him Paul was drug-free. ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? Free reunited in January 1972. They told me afterwards that he pulled himself together for that night. KKTRs rootsy blues and funk rock lacked Frees bite and, most importantly, Paul Rodgerss voice. It took the doctors 30 minutes to revive him. Taylor was tasked with driving Kossoff to the airport in the morning. Geoff had promoted enough Free shows to know they were on the skids: Pauls playing had gone downhill, and you could see the frustration in Paul Rodgers face at the end of every song.. It was such a shamehe seemed to go down so fast, recalls Rodgers. Both the album and the single Wishing Well went Top 10. Docherty brought in Terry Slesser, a local bass player and drummer and hired a rehearsal space above a bowling alley. He was always trying to slow it down, get it just right., Another Kossoff trademark is doing more with less, making his guitar work within the confines of a group to produce the largest sound possible. All Right Now was released in May 1970. When we went in, wed drop in, do a couple of tracks, and wed have some band from South Ealing or somewhere peeping in the door going, Are you guys finished yet?. He saw Black Cat Bones backing New Orleans pianist Champion Jack Dupree at a pub in south London, and joined them soon after. The band played with touring blues piano player Champion Jack Dupree, often supporting Fleetwood Mac and other gigs with Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green. But the song changed them overnight, and Fire And Water became the first Free album to crack the Top 20, reaching No.2. We were recording the first Back Street Crawler album at Olympic Studios, and every night I had to search everywhere, including the toilets, to make sure nobody had left any little presents for him. Once out of the hospital, Kossoff went back on the road with his band, which subsequently recorded another album titled 2nd Street in 1976. He was my hero. Paul Kossoff on Jimi Hendrix, We used to listen to Albert King and B.B. Kossoff did sessions, toured with John Martyn, and formed Back Street Crawler, a band that received only scant attention from record buyers. Paul Kossoff: All Right Now: The Guitars, The Gear, The Music (Hardcover) from Matador. The first official time I met him I was playing in a blues club called the Fickle Pickle in Finsbury Park, Rodgers told Premier Guitar in a recent interview. 'My Brother Jake'. Kossoff's background had been classical and he had studied for years. Paul had started young and he had one, so he got the gig of driving us. utmx_section("Legacy Footer"). Andy Frasers first impression of Kossoff was that he looked like a little lion cub.. ": How porn, poop and chicken coops derailed Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy, Every issue delivered direct to your door. Twice in late 1975 the life of David Kossoff's younger son Paul, 25, was saved by the skill of young doctors. Paul Kossoff Born 14 September 1950, Hampstead, Greater London, United Kingdom Died 19 March 1976, United States Member of Black Cat Bones, Free, Back Street Crawler Notes Son of David Kossoff Also Known As Paul Francis Kossoff [birth name] Genres Blues Rock, Hard Rock Share Tweet Follow 467 followers ADVERTISEMENT Discography 26 Credits 39 Album The guitarist stayed with Fraser for 10 days in Sussex. Free At Last arrived in June 72, and gave the group a Top 20 hit with Little Bit Of Love. Blackwell wrote him a cheque for 20,000 on the spot. Fame, money, drugs and some unresolvable inner torment all played a part in his downfall. Veteran producer Mike Vernon best known for his work with John Mayall enlisted Black Cat Bones to back Champion Jack Dupreee on the legendary pianists `When you feel the feeling Album for Blue Horizon. Roused from a collective torpor, they blinked and stared as the stewardess ran down the aisle. '&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">')})(); With Kirke providing the backbeat, things started to move. Most importantly for Kossoff though, was the experience of playing the music he loved in front of people willing to hear it. In 1968 the group was given the plum assignment of backing acclaimed blues pianist Champion Jack Dupree for the record When You Feel the Feeling You Was Feeling, and subsequently joined him on a U.K. tour. Another relationship was also suffering. In March 2016, on the 40th anniversary of Kossoffs death, Rodgers is convinced that had he lived, the two of them would have undoubtedly worked together again. The cause of death was given as cerebral and pulmonary oedema; a legacy of the previous years cardiac arrest. There was no going back now, he admits, so we had to keep Koss in as good a nick as we could., John Taylor was hired as Back Street Crawlers tour manager and Kossoffs occasional minder. They had this energy, as if they wanted to prove themselves, says Docherty. Paul was a very together guy, a soulful, intelligent guy. Off stage, he was quick-witted, a sharp mimic and, many believe, could have been a good actor. Following Kossoff's departure from the band, his drug addiction got worse and in 1976, on a flight from Los Angeles to New York, he died from drug-related heart problems.