Bad Company and Free frontman Paul Rodgers has dismissed speculation about his health after news surfaced that he had been approached to provide vocals for a project being developed by Alex Van Halen alongside Steve Lukather.
Last year, Alex disclosed that he was assembling an album built from unfinished material originally intended for the next Van Halen release before guitarist — and Alex’s brother — Eddie Van Halen passed away in 2020. He has since joined forces with Lukather to finalize the recordings, which already feature drums, guitar, and bass, leaving only the vocal parts to be completed.
Earlier this week, while speaking with Gastão Moreira of Brazil’s “Kazagastão“, Alex told that he and Lukather had attempted to recruit Rodgers to sing on the new album. “We originally had plans to — I think I can probably say without talking outta school, one of the singers who we really, really, really wanted to use for the new stuff was Paul Rodgers, and he has a relationship with Luke and we grew up on Free and all that, but [Paul] can’t do it anymore. And it was very difficult for him to bring himself to say, ‘No, I can’t. Count me out.’ I respect that. I’m saddened and disappointed, but you know, that’s life… He knows he can’t do it — which I think is better than saying, ‘Yeah, I can do it,’ and then not be able to do it.”
Earlier today on Saturday, February 21, Rodgers addressed the renewed concerns about his health by issuing the following statement on social media.
“To squash the rumours… My health is good. I feel fit and strong and I am rehearsing to perform March 2nd at the Adopt The Arts Sound And Vision Awards in Palm Springs.”
“Thanks to Van Halen for inviting me to work on a track with them, but I am in my acoustic, zen phase of life.”
Paul Rodgers was absent from Bad Company’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, held last November at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Speaking afterward to Igor Miranda of Rolling Stone Brasil, the singer disclosed that he had experienced high blood pressure, chest pains, and heart palpitations just days before the ceremony. After consulting his doctor, Rodgers said he was advised not to travel by air. “I feel that I dodged a bullet by doing that,” he said.
Rodgers previously endured 11 minor strokes along with two major strokes — one in 2016 and another in October 2019 — events that ultimately required significant surgery as part of his recovery. He later underwent a carotid endarterectomy, a procedure designed to remove plaque from the arteries in the neck that supply blood to the brain, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“They cut the neck, and [the doctor] said that he was very careful because he knew I was a singer and that when you cut the neck, it’s very close to the vocal cords,” Rodgers explained to CBS Mornings in 2023. “They told me, they were very clear, ‘You may not come out of this alive.'”
