“Bowie heard we were thinking of packing it in. He wrote a letter saying, ‘I really love your band… would you consider doing this song?’” The life and times of Mick Ralphs, the innovative founding guitarist of Mott the Hoople and Bad Company

Mick Ralphs performs with Bad Company in 1975. He wears a tiger-print shirt and plays a Gibson Flying V.

On 23 June, it was announced that English guitarist Mick Ralphs, famous for his work with Mott The Hoople and Bad Company, had passed away at a care facility in Henley-On-Thames, aged 81.

He will be remembered as one of the most influential rock guitarists to emerge in the late ’60s and ’70s, though he continued writing and recording with Bad Company through the ’80s and ’90s, and even released a pair of albums with his own blues band in times more recent.