Kossoff — son of the noted British actor David Kossoff — started playing in the mid 1960s and his first professional gig was with Black Cat Bones alongside drummer Simon Kirke. The band did many supporting shows for Fleetwood Mac and both Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist) and Kossoff would jam and spend hours discussing blues playing and players. Black Cat Bones also played with touring blues piano player Champion Jack Dupree. Both Kossoff and Kirke would go on to play on the Dupree album When You Feel the Feeling....
In April 1968 the pair then teamed up with Paul Rodgers (vocals) and Andy Fraser (bass) to form Free. They did the "Transit" circuit for two years and recorded two albums: Tons Of Sobs and Free. Both albums showcased the band’s blues and soul influenced sound. A style which was in contrast to the some of their progressive and heavier counterparts at the time.
Success came in 1970 when their third album, Fire And Water, spawned the massive hit All Right Now. The band played the Isle of Wight festival to both audience and critical acclaim. Sellout tours in the UK, Europe and Japan followed but after the release of the next two albums, Highway and Free, band pressures led to a split.
While Rodgers and Fraser pursued unsuccessful solo projects, Kossoff and Kirke teamed up with Texan keyboard player John "Rabbit" Bundrick and Japanese bass player Tetsu Yamauchi to release the 1971 album Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit.
Free reformed and released the album Free At Last. Following its release Fraser decided he had had enough and quit to form Sharks. Free drafted Tetsu and Rabbit for Free’s 1973 album Heartbreaker after which the band disbanded.Rodgers and Kirke went on to form the successful Bad Company while Kossoff released a solo album, Back Street Crawler. He then accompanied John Martyn on a 1975 tour before assembling a group called Back Street Crawler.
Back Street Crawler released two albums: The Band Plays On in 1975 and Second Street in 1976. Recordings from one of their UK concerts in 1975 were also released under the title Live at Croydon Fairfield Halls 15/6/75. When Free supported Blind Faith in the United States, Eric Clapton was impressed enough to ask Kossoff to demonstrate his vibrato technique to him.
Kossoff’s unhappiness with the end of Free and his drug addictions contributed to a drastic decline in the guitarist’s health. On a flight from Los Angeles to New York on 19 March, 1976, Paul Kossoff died from drug-related heart problems. He was 25.
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