It’s often in music that the light shines bright and quick. The life in the fast lane approach of the rock n’ roll lifestyle takes a lot of casualties. This is one of these stories. Paul Kossoff was one of the best blues guitarists of his era but ended up with a reliance on drugs which played a part in his demise. This week the Beat Marches On to 19th March 1976.
Paul Kossoff started playing guitar aged just nine. He took lessons in classical guitar from Blanche Monroe. He carried on taking lessons until age 15 when everything changed. Kossoff went to a concert where John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers were on the bill. He was mesmerised by the guitarist playing in the band, Eric Clapton. After watching the Bluesbreakers he decided that he was going to shift from playing classical guitar to the blues.
Working in a guitar shop in London Kossoff met his first bandmates, and also an unknown Jimi Hendrix who brought his first guitar from him when he first arrived in the UK. Kossoff joined a band called Black Cat Bones. The band was a Chicago-style blues band that often performed with legendary blues pianist Jack Dupree and supported Fleetwood Mac.
Kossoff saw singer Paul Rodgers perform at a London club called Fickle Pickle and asked to jam with him on stage at their next set. After the successful jam Kossoff asked Rodgers to join a band with him and his previous band’s drummer Simon Kirke. Rodgers agreed and they went to look for a bass player.
This is where John Mayall comes into play again. Having just been fired from the Bluesbreakers bass player Andy Fraser was now looking for work. His mentor Alexis Korner knew Kossoff’s new band were looking for a bassist and suggested it to Fraser. Korner also suggested the band’s name: Free.
Free was different to most bands of the time. Most bands were going towards the psychedelic styles but Free stuck to the blues. All members of the band were in their teens and hungry to make it big.
The reputation of the band grew fast. Signing to Island Records they released two albums in quick succession, “Tons of Sobs” and “Free”. This helped them get a supporting slot with Kossoff’s idol Eric Clapton’s new band Blind Faith on a US tour. Clapton spoke to Kossoff and said he admired his playing especially his vibrato, which could be because of the classical training in Kossoff’s youth.
After the Blind Faith tour, Free started recording their next album, “Fire and Water” which would become their best album. The lead single off the album, “All Right Now”, went to number two on the UK charts and became the band’s biggest single. The success of the album led to an appearance at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970 where they performed in front of 750,000 fans.
The follow-up to “Fire and Water” wasn’t as successful and friction between the two main songwriters, Rodgers and Fraser was starting to strain. By 1971 the band was finished and the two concentrated on separate projects.
Kossoff took the breakup badly. He tried to carry on a version of the band with Simon Kirke by adding keyboardist John “Rabbit” Bundrick and bass player Tetsu Yamauchi they released an album together, but it didn’t chart. With Free splitting up Kossoff needed other ways to entertain himself.
During their time together Free wasn’t a hard-partying band like other popular ones at the time. The members of the band didn’t drink, smoke or take hard drugs. They smoked a few joints now and then but nothing like the mountains of cocaine that you hear bands of the time we’re taking.
This is what makes Paul Kossoff’s story so tragic. The drug abuse didn’t start until after Free split up. With nothing to do now, there were no tours or studio time Kossoff became friends with the wrong people who introduced him to hard drugs. His drug of choice was Mandrax a type of Quaalude and was hooked quickly with the help of a dodgy Harley Street doctor.
After failed solo projects and worrying about the grips of Kossoff’s addiction Free reformed for a brief time in 1972. They started touring again but with the drugs taking their toll on the guitarist it was 50/50 whether Kossoff could perform. They released an underwhelming album “Free at Last” but with the addiction, the initial fire had gone.
They recorded another album in 1973 and on the eve of a tour, Fraser quit the band because of not being able to handle Kossoff’s deterioration. During the recording of the album, they had to bring in Snuffy Walden to play some guitar parts. They brought in Yamauchi to fill in on bass.
The writing was on the wall for the band after that tour and the band broke up for good in late 1973. This time even Kirke left Kossoff and joined Rodgers in a new band Bad Company with Mick Ralphs of Mott the Hoople. There are rumours that an early lineup featured Kossoff but no proof.
The drug use was now including heroin along with Mandrax but Kossoff still managed to produce a solo album in November 1973. It was mostly jam sessions with people at Island recording studios and there were only glimpses of his previous talents.
In 1974 Kossoff’s family helped him get clean for a little while. They moved him out of London and by the Autumn he got back into contact with his manager and said he was ready to record again. Thrilled the manager went to Island Records for a deal and received £20,000. However, as soon as Kossoff got back to London he went to his regular haunts and got hooked again. The money had to be returned.
The same cycle carried on for a while but Kossoff did form a new band called Back Street Crawler and they released a debut album in October 1975. Although it was a solid effort, there wasn’t a lot of attention towards the music and more towards Kossoff’s ill health.
Before the band’s first UK tour Kossoff was taken to hospital after feeling ill. He slipped into a coma and was dead for 35 minutes until the doctors intervened. It was due to the drug abuse since the first breakup of Free.
You would’ve thought that being dead for 35 mins would get Kossoff clean and sober for good but no. Although he was a bit more reliable than before he still would go off the rails on a few occasions. There were flashes of the old Kossoff when the postponed UK tour finally took place, but it was too much of a crapshoot as to which Kossoff was going to show up. In a TV interview on The Old Grey Whistle Test, he declared Leo Sayer a better singer than Paul Rodgers however, his speech was slurred so people knew he was back in trouble. He was spotted with a known druggie earlier that day.
The band went on a tour of the USA at the beginning of 1976. Ending in Los Angeles on the same night that Bad Company were in town the two bands met and reminisced about the old days in Free. This was the last time that Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke would see their friend.
Crawler were going back home after the LA gig and had to take a connecting flight to New York. The flight was undersold and the bandmembers had their own rows. Kossoff went to the toilet midway through the flight. While in the toilet he suffered a cerebral and pulmonary oedema or in Lehman’s terms a blood clot that moved from his leg to his lungs which was a result of his previous heart problems.
Although it wasn’t an overdose like many assumed at the time, for obvious reasons, drugs did likely contribute to the death of Paul Kossoff. At the time of his death, he was only 25 and people at that age don’t tend to have heart problems for no reason. He influenced many people in his eight years in the limelight and if he had overcome his demons, he would have influenced many more. Following his death Kossoff’s father actor David Kossoff, launched the Paul Kossoff Foundation a charity that helps teach the dangers of drugs to children. He spent the rest of his life campaigning against drugs.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
Paul Kossoff: The Great Blues Guitarist That Got Away | Rocks Off Mag
The Short Life And Tragic Death Of Paul Kossoff | Louder (loudersound.com)
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