Brian Howe Dead: Bad Company Singer’s Cause of Death

Bad Company singer Brian Howe died at the age of 66 this week, and we now know the apparent cause of death. According to a report from TMZ, one of Howe’s family members is alleged to have said that he died from cardiac arrest. He is reported to have had a history of heart problems, even having a heart attack back in 2017.

Howe got his big break in the early ’80s, when Ted Nugent recruited him to sing on 1984s Penatrator. He later took over vocal duties for Bad Company around 1986, later leaving the band in 1994. During his time with the band, Howe sang on five Bad Company albums, including 1990s Holy Water. This is widely considered to be the band’s most successful record of all-time. Howe previously spoke out about his decision to leave the band, saying that it was “not difficult” to do.

“It had got to the point where nobody was contributing anything to songwriting and quite frankly, the band was getting very very sloppy live,” he said in an interview, per MelodicRock.com. “I quite simply, along with Terry Thomas, got tired of doing all the work and then getting nothing but resentment for it from Mick and Simon.” Howe did have a “highlight” from his time in the band, saying, “The highlight for me in Bad Co. was turning the group around from being almost a bar band (that’s how far they had fallen) to selling millions of records again and playing to sold out shows 15,000 / 25,000 people every night.”

Prior to Howe’s stint in the band, Paul Rodgers was the vocalist for Bad Company. Regarding doing the Rodgers-era songs live, Howe said, “Playing BAD CO songs live was no problem as Paul has a lower range than I do it actually gave my voice a rest during what was a very exhausting live show,not many singers would attempt to go where I went range wise and put all those songs in a live set…perhaps only the great John Farnham (my favourite all time voice).”

When asked if there was a Bad Company album that was his favorite to record, Howe replied, “I loved recording all of the Bad Co. studio albums during which time I never saw the other band members!” He later added that he did have a specific favorite Bad Company song from his era, revealing, “I think my favourite song from those days would have to be ‘If You Needed Somebody.’ It still sounds current.” At this time, the band does not appear to have issued a statement on Howe’s death.