Frees label initially suggested the name Heavy Metal Kids, is that right?
I’ve always had troubles with names and record companies. With Free, it was Island Records. They wanted to call the band Heavy Metal Kids. This was after lots of touring, and they came to see us at the show. And all the audience was freaking out and jumping up and down and going crazy. And they still weren’t convinced. So they came to see us at a rehearsal, and finally they said, “OK, we think we want to sign you … but we want to call you the Heavy Metal Kids.” The rest of the band said, “Well, it’s a record contract. Let’s put the two names on that far wall, and then we’ll sit here and we’ll look at them and see which one we like.” I said, “Don’t even waste your time — we’re not changing our name.” So we went back to the record company and said, “You know what? It’s Free or we walk.” We really had our fingers crossed behind our backs, but we stuck to our guns. And I’ve learned to do that through the years. It was similar with Bad Company. I just felt it was the kind of name that wo
