Out Sept. 22 is Midnight Rose, the first new solo album from Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers in nine years, and first of original material since 1999. Rodgers — who also fronted the bands Free, The Firm with Jimmy Page, The Law with Kenney Jones and Queen — recorded the eight-song set in Canada, where he resides, with members of his regular band as well as Bryan Adams' guitarist/keyboardist Keith Scott. The set was helmed by Rodgers' wife Cynthia and legendary Canadian producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith). Rodgers tells us that he had lofty goals for “Midnight Rose,” especially after so much time has passed between albums:
“Yeah, I think there's a certain expectation because of all the Bad Company and because of everything, you know, and Free and 'All Right Now' and 'Can't Get Enough of Your Love' and 'Feel Like Makin' Love.' There's an expectation, and I want to live up to that. I want to at least represent that and present more music along those lines. So I hopefully have done that here.” :22 (OC: done that here)
Since the 2014 covers album “The Royal Sessions” Rodgers released “Free Spirit,” a 2018 live set featuring performance of Free songs. He also released a series of albums from the Bad Company archives.
“Midnight Rose” was preceded by the single “Take Love,” which he'd originally written during his 2004-2009 tenure with Queen but pulled from the band's lone studio album, “The Cosmos Rocks” in 2008.
Rodgers has not announced any touring plans to promote “Midnight Rose.”