Charlie Starr & Ben Wells

Bad Company’s influence has crossed generations since its self-titled debut in 1974. The first tribute album to the newly inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, Can’t Get Enough: A Tribute to Bad Company, includes nine BadCo classics and one iconic Free song from artists including Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, The Struts, Dirty Honey, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and Phil Collen, Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless, and others. Plus, there are guest appearances from Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke. Vintage Guitar spoke with two guitarists about their contributions; vocalist/lead guitarist Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke, which covers “Run with the Pack” (with Rodgers and Mastodon’s Brann Dailor) and guitarist Ben Wells of Black Stone Cherry, which plays “Burnin’ Sky.” How were you invited to participate? Charlie Starr: (Radio and television host) Eddie Trunk, who’s a friend and such a great guy, called and said, “Can I give your phone number to Bad Company’s management? They’re putting together a tribute record.” I said, “Absolutely.” They called later that day. I said, “We’re all in with both feet. Where do we start?” Ben Wells: We were recording our new EP back in April, and the funny thing is we had just finished tracking drums and our drummer, John Fred Young, was taking his drums to our storage facility. As soon as he drove away, we get a phone call from our manager. He said, “You’ve just been asked to be a part of this Bad Company thing. Do you guys think you can record this song while you’re in the studio and knock it out? They need it pretty soon.” We were like, “A hundred percent. We’re honored.” We had chills when we got asked, so we called John Fred and said, “Hey, you’re going to have to turn around.” He said, “You’re kidding me…” He thought we were joking about being asked. When he found out it was real, he said, “I’ll be there in a heartbeat.” How did you decide which song to do? CS: I asked right off the bat. I said (to co-executive producer Gary Spivack), “Can I choose the song?” I went down the list and some had already been chosen. I said, “It might be easier if you tell me what’s available.” He said, “The songs available are ‘Run with the Pack,’” and I said, “Continue, but you got me right there.” He said “Seagull,” but Def Leppard wound up doing that. As soon as he said “Run with the Pack,” my mind’s eye could see it and my mind’s ear could hear us doing it. BW: We were asked specifically to do that song, so we were like, “Absolutely, we’ll go in, turn it up, and make it our own but keep it true.” Had you ever played the song in your present or previous bands? CS: I don’t think any of us had ever played it. We’d played countless other Bad Company songs. That was another interesting aspect – putting it together. Everybody learned it in their spare time – you don’t want to get the stink eye if you come in and don’t know the song. But we arranged it in the studio and had a couple of tweaks for the ending; the original has orchestration at the end. We turned that all into guitar because we have three guitar players. BW: I don’t think we’ve ever done “Burnin’ Sky.” We did Free’s “Fire and Water” and Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough.” All we had to do is, number one, do our thing. And, number two, don’t mess it up. Which guitars and gear did you use? CS: I played a ’56 Les Paul TV Junior and a ’65 Vox AC15 Twin. I figured I wasn’t going to be wrong playing a British amplifier because that’s probably what Mick Ralphs would’ve used. I also used an old MXR Phase 45 with the script logo. BW: I played a Les Paul Classic and we’re all using the Line 6 Helix to record and play live. My preset is like a Peavey 5150 setup, which was my first tube head. – Bret Adams This article originally appeared in VG’s December 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.