Actually, he’s pretty good company.
Paul Cullen once played bass for the band Bad Company, but when you meet him, he’s polite, friendly, and, yes, he has some stories.
As a member of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s super groups, he performed for audiences of 20,000 people, playing the guitar-heavy, overwhelming sound that defined an era.
He now lives in the Long Neck area, sells mortgages and plays in a jazzy duet in venues like the deck at Baywood Greens and Abizak’s.
“It took me a long time to be able to do that – emotionally,” Cullen said.
Cullen first turned to playing music when his family moved from upstate New York to Fort Myers, Fla., when he was 18.
“I was taking lessons, but guitar was coming slowly,” he said. “Then someone told me to learn how to play the bass - everybody needs a bass player.”
Before he knew it, Cullen became popular with local bands, and not just for bass playing. He also had a van.
“I was playing six nights a week and making $300 a week,” he said. “I was playing country music in dives in Fort Myers. I even wore a cowboy hat, but I tried to buck the system by having longer hair,” he said.
As sort of journeyman musician, Cullen moved from band to band. “From that point on, I tried to play in as many bands in as many bars as I could,” he said. “If one gig ended, I went to another one. From ‘79 to ‘89, I probably played in 16 or 17 different bands.”
He said he established a reputation for being versatile. “I could leave a band on Sunday and be playing with a new one Monday. So many times, I had no rehearsal time and I just had to wing it. I learned how to get through a gig by listening to everyone else. People said if you need a bass player, call Paul because he can get through the gig.”
The gig that changed his life started like all the others. Cullen knew someone who knew a band that needed a bass player.In 1992, Cullen was flown to London to audition for Bad Company and was offered the job.From May 1990 to July 1992, Cullen played with Bad Company, performing in 230 shows in the United States.
At first, as a fill-in musician, Cullen felt his position was tenuous. “For the first couple of months, I was walking on egg shells,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was going to have a gig. It was only supposed to be a two-month tour. In ended up being 2 1/2 years.”Even though he enjoyed the perks like the private planes, free instruments and a six-figure salary, his face lights up when he describes the music. “I can only compare it to the birth of my daughter, how it felt. It was like that almost every night. When the house lights went down, there was tingle though your whole body. It was 90 minutes of pure ecstasy, music-wise.”He especially liked Bad Company’s willingness to try new things. “We would come up with whole new versions of songs,” he said. That included the song “Bad Company,” a 12-minute epic, he said. “We would do stuff in the middle, then come back to it. We didn’t just go up there and play the songs. In most bands they don’t go outside the song. It was musical magic. We were doing this in front of 20,000 people, not afraid to make a mistake.”
But he had to get off the carousel in 1992, when he was caught in the middle of a power struggle when original singer Paul Rodgers returned to the band. With a lot of stories and some free bass strings, he returned home.
“As good as it was playing in Bad Company it was equally as bad when it was over,” he said. “It was so hard going back to playing bars,” he said. “It was pretty difficult. Suicide was definitely thought about, but I liked myself too much to do it. I was pretty down and out. Luckily, I wasn’t an alcoholic or addicted to drugs.”
He moved to the Cape Region five years ago, after visiting the area during a vacation.
When he arrived, he played with various bands in venues all over Delmarva. “I played every bar in town,” he said.
Now he plays with guitarist Keith Mack. Together, they are getting ready to release an album titled, “Dreamdance.” The songs are softer, jazzy, and with Latin rhythms. It’s a far cry from “Feel Like Makin’ Love.”
“It’s not a Bad Company sound,” Cullen said. “But the people who grew up with that music, their tastes have changed to something too.”
Cullen recently signed with Artists Share, a company based in New York City, a unique music company that allows fans to contribute to funding an artist’s projects by granting them exclusive access and services.
For example, if a person pays enough, they can serve as an album’s executive producer, choosing the songs and making suggestions on the sound. Or if a fan has shallower pockets, he or she can get the original lyric sheets from the musician, or just an autographed CD.
Cullen said Artist Share has already signed three Grammy-award winners, and he is excited to try something totally new.
When he is not playing gigs in the area, he sells mortgages for Zero Point Mortgage. He said the money is good, but he really wants to make a living from his music once again.
Clearly, Cullen can’t get enough.
Some of Cullen’s latest songs can be heard at www.paulcullen.net.
