"Who knows where we would have gone had we not had that monster hit? It was the beginning of the end for us": The real story of Free, told by those who were there

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It’s 1967. Paul Rodgers is singing with a blues cover band called Brown Sugar, but he’s bored and looking for an escape. In moment of a perfect timing a young guitarist called Paul Kossoff shows up for a jam at one of Brown Sugar’s gigs, and Rodgers’ future (and that of rock music) is changed irrevocably.

Kossoff is the new hot-shot teenage lead guitarist, playing with Black Cat Bones – a blues band making something of a name for itself in the London scene. Despite this success, Kossoff is bored with playing 12-bar blues. And it just so happens that BCB’s drummer, Simon Kirke, is feeling the same way.