Kirke was born in
Lambeth,
South London, the son of Vivian Percy Kirke and Olive May ( Pollard) Kirke, who married in 1948. Simon's father was from a junior branch of a family of
Nottinghamshire landed gentry, and descended on his mother's side from the
Gibson-Craig baronets. Kirke spent his early years living in the countryside of
Shropshire. Leaving school at 17, he returned to London and set about finding a drumming job in the booming
blues scene. After a fruitless 22 months he was resigned to returning to the country when he met
Paul Kossoff, who was playing in a band called
Black Cat Bones. Kirke was offered the drumming position in the band, and played with Black Cat Bones for six months. Kirke and Paul Kossoff left the band and with
Paul Rodgers and
Andy Fraser formed
Free. Their biggest hit, "
All Right Now", was a number one in more than 20
territories and was acknowledged by
ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) in 1990 as having received more than one million radio plays in the US by late 1989. In 2000, an award was given to Paul Rodgers by the British music industry when "All Right Now" passed two million radio plays in the UK. By April 1972, Free had reformed with Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers making peace, and Kossoff appeared to pull it together if only briefly. Kossoff resumed taking drugs during the US tour to support the last album by the original quartet
Free at Last. On the eve of their Japanese tour Fraser fought with Rodgers and once again left the band, to be replaced by
Tetsu Yamauchi. Rodgers and Kirke elected to fill in the band bringing
John "Rabbit" Bundrick on board as a member of Free for the tour and the last Free album,
Heartbreaker. After the disbanding of Free in 1973, Kirke and Rodgers again teamed up to form
Bad Company. They were joined by guitarist
Mick Ralphs (
Mott the Hoople) and bassist
Boz Burrell (
King Crimson). After Bad Company disbanded in 1982, Kirke joined a band called Wildlife. They toured in support of the
Michael Schenker Group around this time in the UK. Wildlife's self-titled album was mostly written by Steve and Chris Overland, produced by former Bad Company bandmate Ralphs, and featured Kirke as their drummer (and saxophonist on his self-written song "Charity"). Despite being signed to Led Zeppelin's label,
Swan Song Records, and Kirke's high-profile involvement, the album failed to sell. Wildlife's core members, brothers Chris and Steve Overland went on to greater success with the band
FM. Kirke returned to Bad Company when the band reformed in 1986. As well as touring with
Ringo Starr's All Star Band on three occasions, he is an accomplished songwriter, releasing
Seven Rays of Hope in 2005. He toured with Bad Company in 2009. He has been playing with New York City rock band Zeta Vang as a side project. A governor on the board of
NARAS (the
Grammy Award Committee), Kirke is on the board of Road Recovery, which helps teenagers recover from addiction. He lives in
Manhattan with his wife Maria Angelica Kirke and has three children:
Domino,
Jemima, and
Lola Kirke. in 2025, Kirke was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Bad Company. == Discography ==