The news was confirmed in a statement by his manager Paul Easton, who said, "It is with deep and profound sadness that we announce the untimely passing of a loving father, friend and musical icon, Brian Howe." 

 

Howe spent almost a decade fronting the Paul Rodgers-less BAD COMPANY when Mick Ralphs and Simon Kirke reactivated the band name in 1985, after being recommended to the pair by Mick Jones of FOREIGNER. 

 

Born in Portsmouth, Howe’s first band was called Shy (not to be confused by the Midlands-based group of the same name). He then replaced Bruce Ruff in the NWOBHM band WHITE SPIRIT, once the home of IRON MAIDEN guitarist Janick Gers, for a short spell. 

 

Howe joined Ted Nugent’s band in 1984, singing on the Penetrator album. Upon completion of a world tour with Nugent he received a received a call from Jones, who was assisting Ralphs and Kirke in assembling a new BAD COMPANY.

 

“Almost without exception, everybody in the business told me: ‘Brian… Taking over from Paul Rodgers, you’ve just fucked yourself. Why would you even consider doing something like that?’” Howe told Classic Rock in 2004. “I just wouldn’t let them be right, which provided a focus and caused me to work a lot, lot harder.”

 

Howe co-wrote all but three tracks on the 1986 comeback set Dangerous Age, which despite side-stepping the traditional BAD COMPANY blues-rock style for a more polished, radio-friendly direction re-established the band’s name. 

 

Two years later, Dangerous Age sold half a million copies in the United States, but it was Holy Water, a platinum-awarded album released in 1990, that returned them to arena-headlining status. 

 

In spite of the success, the singer had a troubled relationship with Ralphs and Kirke and a fourth Howe-voiced studio record, Here Comes Trouble, would be the last. After a spell fronted by Robert Hart, Rodgers returned to the band in 1998.

 

A second solo album, 2010’s Circus Bar, was well received critically yet sold modestly. Three years ago the track Hot Tin Roof suggested, incorrectly, that a follow-up might be on the way.

 

Howe was a proud Englishman and on at least one occasion considered buying into his beloved Portsmouth FC. In recent years he continued to reside in Florida, performing live on a sporadic basis with a line-up that included former Rod Stewart guitarist Paul Warren. 

 

After sustaining broken ribs in a motorbike accident on April 30, on May 6 he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest. This followed a previous heart attack in 2017.