Keeping Good Company: Bad Company Bassist Todd Ronning Talks Working With Paul Rodgers And More

In September, Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers made a triumphant return with his first solo studio album in nearly 25 years, Midnight Rose. The album, released on the legendary Sun Records label, finds Rodgers in top-form on eight new songs. It’s even more remarkable considering the album was made after a series of mini-strokes around 2019 cast doubt that Rodgers would be able to perform again.

“The album really is a gift in a way because there was a time there where Paul couldn’t communicate, couldn’t play his guitar, couldn’t even read,” says bass player Todd Ronning, who played on the album and is a member of Bad Company and Rodgers’ touring solo band. “He really worked himself back to a point to be able to achieve something like this. It’s pretty amazing and it’s a true gift to his fans for sure.”

Ronning is thankful that he’s been able to lend a small hand in Rodgers’ recovery. As Rodgers was starting to feel better, Ronning reached out to the singer about gathering with some friends to play some music and jam. They were joined by drummer Rick Fedyk (who performs in Rodgers’ solo band) and guitarist Ray Roper. Their goal was to “help him in that rehabilitative mode” and have fun, but things got more productive as Rodgers’ health improved. 

The album was produced by veteran producer Bob Rock as well as Rodgers’ wife Cynthia. It was recorded at Roper Recording in Coquitlam, British Columbia and The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, and also features contributions from Bryan Adams’ guitarist Keith Scott and organ player Chris Gestrin.

After more than three decades in the music industry, Ronning can attest to the power of rock and roll. Among his credits, Ronning has played with Fedyk and Roper in the Heart tribute band Barracuda and Fedyk in the band King Karma. That band’s 2003 debut was produced by Jimmy Johnson of Muscle Shoals’ The Swampers fame. 

As for Rodgers, Ronning has known the singer since 1996, when the two met for the first time and had the opportunity to perform together. The performance left such a good first impression that Ronning was asked to join Rodgers for solo gigs. In 2012, he became a member of Bad Company. 

Scummy Water Tower recently caught up with Ronning to discuss what it meant to work with Rodgers on his new album, how he’s created a career through connections and the biggest lesson he’s learned as a musician.

What’s it been like to see the response so far of the new album you recorded with Paul? 

The response has been awesome, really. I’ve read some of the reviews and just really nothing but good things. You never know how it’s going to go, how people are going to perceive things and all that sort of thing. But I think his fans have really embraced this album. 

When did you find out that Paul was planning to record a new album? 

He had some medical issues just around 2019, so we kind of had to shut down all Bad Company operations and that sort of thing. And as he was working himself back, which took quite a while, I just thought “why don’t I get together with him and our solo drummer and a guitar player we know that lives close to him and just start jamming and just help him in that rehabilitative mode.” And it was just kind of getting together for fun and that sort of thing. 

As we started playing some of the songs that he had written in the past few years and that we used to put in the set list once in a while, they really started to come together. And his rehabilitation, he was getting stronger and just came to a point where it’s sounding good, let’s start recording this stuff. It wasn’t our intention to do that, but it just started. Everything just started getting good. 

Recording of the album was kept secret for 18 months until the June 23 release of the album’s single “Living It Up.” Was it tough to keep a secret that long?

For that long, yeah. I had lots of people calling me, picking my brain, “what’s happening,” “when are you going to play again,” “what are you going to do” and all that. And then I just had to kind of keep everything close to the vest. We didn’t want to release anything about his health issues at that time and the actual recording that we were doing. We just wanted to keep it secret. I guess the lucky thing is we are in the interior of British Columbia where it’s not a huge population there, so we’re able to sneak around here and there without being seen or noticed, if you know what I mean. 

The album was recorded at two different studios, and it sounds like you mainly worked at Roper’s studio, the Okanagan.

Ray Roper studio is close to where Paul lives, and it made that all easy for him. Just a short trip to record and really kind of an isolated place and it allowed us to just not have any pressure, just kind of play and no eyes on you at the time, and I think that’s exactly what Paul needed. That’s what this album needed. 

What did you like most about the experience recording the album? What were some of your favorite memories? 

A few of the songs are songs that Paul had been kind of kicking around for a decade or so, and we just continued to tweak them, refine them, and then finally record them. And then I think there were about three songs, two in particular that we had never heard before. I’d never heard before, and I’d been playing with Paul for 15 years or so, so I think they were brand new ones. He just showed up with an acoustic and said, “okay, I got this one that goes like this.” 

So, we just kind of tracked him playing his guitar. We had a guide track, and then we worked on it overnight. And within 24 hours we had a bed track relatively ready for him to hear, and we would just kind of be waiting when he shows up around one or something like that to have a listen to what we’ve done to see if he likes it or gives it the thumbs down. And two of them for sure, he gave us the thumbs up, and he was really happy about it. And I think that was kind of exciting, basically turning around just a demo acoustic with Paul, singing into a full bed [recording] ready for production within 24 hours and we were all high fiving and those days really felt good. We did that on a couple songs in particular. It was “Midnight Rose,” the title track was one of them, and the other one was “Highway Robber.”

You co-wrote the album’s first single “Living It Up” with Paul. Can you talk about writing that song? What were you going for in the demo?

I used to always send Paul bits of music that I had demoed or recorded just to see if he was interested in working with it, doing anything with it. And this is one of those songs where he said, “Hey, I do like this one. I think I have an idea for it.” I demoed it with Rick, our solo drummer at Ray’s studio and Paul just right away got some ideas for this and he kind of put down some vocals and we started working on it from there. And I guess it really came together quickly and it was a real surprise just hearing his vocals, his idea on it and the whole concept of it being something about his whole musical journey. 

I imagine it was exciting to see how the song developed from the demo to the finished version. 

Yeah, we got to take it from the demo and record it again, refine it even more. I remember Paul saying he didn’t like some things that were happening and wanted us to retrack it, and so Rick and I, we just kind of went over what we’re going to change, what we’re going to do, and then we tracked it. And the take that’s on the album is the first take of that redo. 

We just captured the element of it al right then and there. I mean that doesn’t always happen, but we kind of looked at each other and said there it is. 

I really like that song. It really reminds me of the classic Bad Company songs.

Yeah, for sure. I mean that’s the kind of music I grew up with. My influences are from the late seventies. And I just knew that when I had this riff in my head that Paul needed to hear it. I just figured that he would know what to do with it as far as lyrics and melody and I had a feeling he’d like it and he did. 

You’ve been playing with Paul in Bad Company since 2012 and you’ve known him since 1996. What’s your recall of your first time meeting and playing with him? 

Well, the first time I met him was at a small bar in a place in South Surrey called White Rock. I believe it was him and Cynthia, his now wife. They were pretty new to the area, and she knew some musicians around here and Paul wanted to just kind of do a surprise, one of those small sort of “don’t tell anybody we’re going to just go and play five, six songs at a club and just for fun.” And the musicians that she knew, I was amongst that circle, and they said, Hey Todd, do you want to play bass? I said, of course I do. So, I show up at the club and it’s supposed to be like hush hush. Nobody knows and there’s a line around the block trying to get in. So, I pushed my way in there and then I finally got upstairs and Paul’s up there, and that’s when I actually first met him and we started talking about what we were going to do, what he wanted to do in this quick set and obviously we just blew the doors off the place. 

It was a little bit later that you were asked to play with Bad Company. 

That’s right. Yeah, we did a few more shows back in the nineties, but then I think the original Bad Company got back together and started touring. And then Paul had a new manager that got some other group of guys to do some solo stuff for him. But then I got asked to come back to his solo band in 2011. And from there when Bad Company got back together again, we got together in Sweden. That’s where it all started…At the Swedish Rockfest 2012, they had me as bass player there. And from that point on, I guess the rest of the guys in the band liked what I did, and I was in. 

How does working with Paul and  Bad Company compare with playing with him in a solo band? 

Well, I think that the guys in Bad Company like Simon [Kirke] and Mick [Ralphs], they just made me feel very comfortable. They never came off like they’re all that or anything like that. They were just real down to earth guys. And we’re playing, we’re smiling. I mean, playing with Bad Company, you do feel pressure. They’re an iconic band. Obviously, the Bad Company shows might be a little bigger with production, but I think with Paul’s solo band, the same amount of care and conviction is all there. Paul, he’s 110% every time. He puts so much into his shows, whether it’s Bad Company or himself.  

What did it mean to see Bob Rock become involved? 

I’ve known Bob for quite a while. During the eighties, Bob was engineering for the likes of Bon Jovi, then he moved into the producer’s seat with Motley Crew and Metallica and his career just went through the roof because he’s so good at what he does. And having him there for the end product of what we have, you can just tell that it’s just he gave it that sound, that big sound, and just all the finishing touches you need on something on a project like this. 

You’ve been on quite a musical journey. Can you talk about how you got into music and some of the important steps along the way?

I was probably only 12 years old. I was hearing hard rock [on the radio]. Deep Purple caught my ear and I think I went out and bought the Machine Head album and just listened to it over and over and over and just the bass playing on it. The sound of the bass was pretty powerful and thick to me, and I just wanted to start playing that instrument.

I just continued doing it and had networked into high school bands and eventually from there did the nightclub thing all over Western Canada and to the point where I started writing songs with people and then just kind of kept networking and meeting people.

I spent a few years in Nashville. And met a lot of people there. I’d say there’s more of an industry there as is here in Vancouver, although Vancouver was hopping in the eighties.

And then you end up lucky enough meeting someone like Paul and doors open.

You also have played with Rick and Ray in the Heart tribute band Barracuda. What do you like about that band and what did it mean to be able to carry some of that chemistry to Paul’s album? 

I did that just to keep playing while things are down. And I love Heart’s music. I’m a good friend of Howard Leese’s who played with us in Bad Company and Paul’s solo band. And it was a lot of fun playing the Heart catalog. They have some great songs. That was just to keep myself going, keeping [performing] on stage, that sort of thing. 

You’ve also been playing with Rick in King Karma. What do you like about that band and how is it similar and different from the other stuff that you’ve been doing? 

King Karma was a band that I put together after actually meeting and playing with Paul. I was writing songs with a guy named Markus Wolfe in the early nineties and other people were playing the songs and all that and we were thinking, “Hey, we should put a band together sometime.” And then we got involved with Paul for a bit and then Paul got involved with Bad Company and then we thought, “Hey, what are we going to do?” And we thought, “let’s put this band together.”

So, we started searching for a singer. And at the time my brother, who is a professional hockey player, was playing with the Nashville Predators. He said, “Hey, why don’t you come down here and stay at my place and see if you can drum something up here in Nashville.” And I was kind of fast tracked in Nashville, met a lot of people, and eventually got a singer and put the band together there and made a record with a fellow by the name of Jimmy Johnson who…was one of the Muscle Shoals Scampers. And we put together a really good record about 20 years ago. 

What do you like best about performing live and in the studio?

I love performing live cos you get that immediate feedback from the audience, you feel their energy its kind of an adrenaline rush that you feed off of and give right back… The studio is a different kind of thing, for me it’s about performance but also creativity and when you hear that initial idea you had collectively turn into something beyond it’s a great feeling.

Do you have any rituals, etc. to get yourself ready?

Not really, I just like to have a bass in my hands 10 mins before showtime to get my fingers ready.

Do you and Paul have any tour plans? 

No. I think right now Paul, he is still focusing on health issues. The touring would probably be a little much at this point, might do some more recording, but it’s pretty loosey goosey plans right now. But I don’t see any touring in the near future.

What are your musical plans for next year?

I’ll be doing some more studio work with various artists and hopefully Paul too. I’m also planning on heading to the UK in the beginning of the year with a band from Oklahoma called “Hillbilly Vegas”. I was a guest bass player on a few tracks from their latest album and they’ve asked me to fill in on their upcoming UK tour.

What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned through your career that younger musicians should know?

If someone requires a lot of money from you to get your band started, don’t trust them. 

Joshua M. Miller

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Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.