Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers Discusses Major Health Scares That Nearly Ended His Music Career

Paul Rodgers of Bad Company is getting personal as he discussed a recent health scares.

As reported by Billboard, the Free rock star opened up about his health issues in an intimate discussion on CBS Mornings on September 27. He revealed that he went through two terrifying strokes — once in 2016 and again in 2019, as well as some 11 other minor strokes. They almost brought about the end of his performing career.

[RELATED: Why Paul Rodgers Didn’t Sing the Free Hit “All Right Now” for Nearly 20 Years]

“I couldn’t do anything to be honest,” he explained. “I couldn’t speak. That was the very strange thing. You know, I’d prepare something in my mind and I’d say it, but that isn’t what came out and I’d go, ‘What the heck did I just say?’”

He went through a carotid endarterectomy in 2019 to get rid of plaque in his arteries. He spoke about the risks, especially since doctors informed him that the procedure would happen in the proximity of his vocal chords. “‘Oh, well, that’s a plus, isn’t it? Fingers crossed, you know?” he said to CBS. “And when I woke up, I opened my eyes, I thought, ‘Oh, I’m still here.’”

It took about six months, but Rodger returned to his music career without issue. He just released his first solo album in more than two decades titled Midnight Rose.

Produced by Rodgers’ wife of 26 years, Cynthia, with Bob Rock, Midnight Rose was recorded at Roper Recording and The Warehouse in British Columbia, Canada. It also marks Rodgers’ first solo album of new music in nearly 25 years since Electric, released in 2000.

The singer-songwriter revealed in a recent interview that he didn’t sing the hit “All Right Now” for nearly 20 years. “After I left Free, I didn’t play ‘All Right Now’ for many, many years because I thought, ‘I’ve gotta move on. I was doing the Bad Company thing, and then I did the Firm. We didn’t do much Free then.”

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Photo by Mahkaila Lusch / Courtesy of The Press House