ROCKERS IN RECOVERY
AN INTERVIEW WITH LEGENDARY DRUMMER SIMON KIRKE BY RICKY BYRD
Not only is Simon Kirke a pal of mine, but I must admit he’s also one of my favorite Rock ‘n’ Roll Drummers. I was a huge fan of the bands he played with (Free and Bad Company). Way back when I was a young lad just starting my musical journey. I spent many a garage rehearsal trying to get the drummer to play the song “like “Kirke” would play it!”
Boston treatment center run by our mutual friend Woody Giessman.
Simon always played to the song and kept it simple, throwing in an occasional full to accent a Paul Rodgers lyric or as an off ramp to guide us listeners into the next section.
Ricky Byrd: You were only in your late teens when you were a part of the band Free. That’s pretty young to have the kind of success you guys had. Money in the pocket, everybody wants to be your friend, night after night on stage in front of thousands of fans. Let’s just say the ego gets quite the boost. Tough enough to deal with if you have some life experience under your belt, but in your teens it seems like a recipe for bad choices [laughs].
My kind of drummer!
I called Simon last week and asked if he would let me interview him for Rockers In Recovery magazine and without missin’ a beat (he never does) he said, “Sure Ricky.” My kind of pal!
How did that experience tie in with your drug and alcohol use in those early days? Simon Kirke: Well in the beginning blind ambition kept me on the straight and narrow. I left home at 18 determine to give my dream a shot. I was drinking a little bit here and there, just beer and wine occasionally. I didn’t smoke dope until I was 19 and even then, it never got the better of me. Free was pretty much a beer and dope band until Paul Kossoff got into downers; Mandrax which were the English equivalent of Quaaludes. But in his defense, he only started that after Free had split up for the first time. RB: Tell ya a bit about the downward progression of addiction and when you first thought things were getting out of hand.
I’ve been lucky enough to share a stage with him more than a few times. Back in the 90’s he was kind enough to join up with me and Kasim Sulton for the semi acoustic trio I put together after I left the Blackhearts.
SK: Things got really bad for me when I started doing coke. My drinking went through the roof and I had to take downers to take the edge off and sleep.
Most recently we were part of a Benefit for Right Turn, a
I got seriously into the hard stuff when Bad Company
24 MKR Magazine September 2021
