Brian Howe death: Bad Company frontman dies from cardiac arrest aged 66

Howe replaced Paul Rodgers as the supergroup’s lead singer in 1983

Brian Howe, the lead singer of Bad Company, has died, aged 66.

The musician, who was the British supergroup’s main vocalist, is said by a family member to have died from cardiac arrest on his way to hospital.

Howe replaced Paul Rodgers as Bad Company’s singer in 1983 for the Penetrator album after being recruited by his mentor, the American singer-songwriter Ted Nugent.

He was also behind the majority of songs on the group’s most successful record, Holy Water, which was released in 1990.

Howe was born in Portsmouth, England in 1953. His career began after becoming a member of heavy metal band White Spirit before eventually finding his way to Bad Company thanks to Mick Jones, a founding member of Foreigner.

Howe was in the group with former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke, the former drummer of Free, and songwriter Terry Thomas.

He eventually left in 1994, stating that the decision was “not difficult”.

“It had got to the point where nobody was contributing anything to songwriting and quite frankly, the band was getting very very sloppy live,” he said in an interview, adding: “I quite simply, along with Terry Thomas, got tired of doing all the work and then getting nothing but resentment for it from Mick and Simon.”

Howe’s final tweet to his followers saw him singing the praises of Ricky Gervais. He wrote on 26 April: “I’ve done a few things in my life. I have sold millions of records and toured the world for the last 35 years but I want to appear on TV with Ricky Gervais who, in my opinion, is a genius.”