[1] Although renowned for their live performances and non-stop touring, their music did not sell well until their third studio album, Fire and Water (1970), which featured the hit "All Right Now".

[2] In the early 1970s they became one of the best-selling British blues rock[3][4][5] groups; by the time they disbanded, they had sold more than 20 million records worldwide and had played in more than 700 arenas and festival concerts.

Free recorded one more album, Heartbreaker, before disbanding in 1973; Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke went on to co-form the more successful rock supergroup Bad Company.

Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke became friends while in the R&B band Black Cat Bones, but they wanted to move on.

To promote the forthcoming album they opened some shows at the end of 1968 for the Who, who played a short theatre tour with Arthur Brown.

In 2000 an award was given to Paul Rodgers by the British Music Industry when "All Right Now" passed 2 million radio plays in the UK.

"[17] Kirke's replacement in Black Cat's Bones, Phil Lenoir, played the festival as drummer for Shagrat.

In early 1972 the band set aside their differences and reformed in an effort to save Kossoff from his growing drug addiction,[26] and released Free at Last in June of the same year.

The remaining members recruited Japanese bass player Tetsu Yamauchi and keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick, who had worked with Kossoff and Kirke during Free's initial split, recording Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit[27] and recorded what would be Free's final album, Heartbreaker.

Kossoff was replaced by ex-Osibisa guitarist Wendell Richardson for a US tour in 1973, but shortly thereafter Free disbanded for good.

[30] With Kossoff in better health again in late 1975, he was delighted that ex-colleagues Rodgers and Kirke asked him to join them on stage for two nights.

[26] On a flight from Los Angeles to New York City on 19 March 1976, Kossoff died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25.

[31] After parting with Bad Company in 1982, Rodgers went on to explore the heavy blues stylings of Free again in his solo career during the 1980s and 1990s, and in the bands The Firm and The Law.