Brian Howe stepped into some of the biggest shoes in rock when he assumed the front man role from Paul Rodgers in the 70s supergroup Bad Company. Having cut his teeth in the studio and onstage as the singer for notorious bad boy Ted Nugent, Howe was a fearless and feisty stage presence. As a songwriter, he led Bad Company to a remarkable second act, releasing two more gold and one platinum record over the next nine years. Brian Howe left us in May 2020.
He was by far the most celebrated soundtrack composer of all time, but for Ennio Morricone, that was just the tip of the musical iceberg. A serious orchestral composer by training, he moonlighted as a jazz trumpeter, classical arranger, experimental bandleader and songwriter, penning hits for the leading Euro Pop artists of the 60s and 70s and collaborating with the likes of Joan Baez, Paul Anka, Pet Shop Boys, KD Lang and Sting. But his greatest legacy will always be the movies whose haunting scores he etched into our collective memory. From his groundbreaking tracks for Sergio Leone to collaborations with the likes of John Huston, William Friedkin, Roman Polanski, Brian DePalma, Barry Levinson, Terrence Malick and, famously, Quentin Tarantino, Ennio Morricone might just have been the greatest film star you’ve never seen.