He was raised a Catholic, and has a confession to make. In his residence studio, Francis Rossi is recalling the second in 1967 that, on the age of eighteen, he wrote the tune that grew to become Standing Quo ’s first hit. He rises from his chair beside the blending console to choose an acoustic guitar from a rack on the wall.
“As Lennon mentioned, there’s nothing new underneath the solar,” Rossi says with a smirk. After a fast tune up, he strums the intro to Hey Joe , the mythic homicide ballad made well-known in 1966 when it was a success single by the Jimi Hendrix Expertise. Then, with minimal adjustment, he segues easily into Quo’s Footage Of Matchstick Males , singing in that acquainted nasal tone: ‘Once I look as much as the sky, I see your eyes, a humorous form of yellow .’ He pauses and arches an eyebrow. “Every part,” he says, “has been nicked from someplace.”
In a dialog with Francis Dominic Nicholas Michael Rossi – a Catholic title if ever there was one – there are numerous such confessions. Some are humorous, some unhappy. All are instructed in a fashion as unpretentious because the heavy rock’n’roll that made Standing Quo probably the most profitable British bands of all time.
The place the place Rossi lives, in Purley, South London, is simply 10 miles from the place he was born, in Forest Hill, on Might 29, 1949. The big, white-walled home is on a personal highway, hidden away behind tall gates. The recording studio, in a wood-clad outbuilding set in expansive grounds, is the place the previous couple of Quo albums have been made with rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt within the years earlier than his demise on Christmas Eve 2016, aged 68.
It was additionally right here that Rossi recorded his newest album, We Speak Too A lot , in collaboration with singer Hannah Rickard. And the album’s title is echoed in his forthcoming autobiography, I Speak Too A lot , written with Traditional Rock ’s Mick Wall.
“That’s how I’m,” Rossi says. “Some folks drink folks underneath the desk. I speak folks underneath the desk…”
(Picture credit score: Joby Periods)
On this darkish winter afternoon, dressed for consolation in blue fleece and denims, and sipping espresso from a Quo-branded mug, Rossi spends the very best a part of two hours telling the story of his life with a unprecedented diploma of candour. On the coronary heart of the story is the band he has fronted for 52 of his 69 years, and on this his lengthy and typically tough relationship with Parfitt.
Rossi has had his share of dangerous press over time. He refers to a latest interview for a tabloid newspaper by which he was misquoted about cash. “They actually took me aside,” he says. However he concedes: “That’s the sport, and I enable myself to be a part of it.”
Immediately, no topic is off limits: the rivalries between Quo and different bands, and between himself and Rick Parfitt ; the great and dangerous in doing medicine; the guilt that Rossi feels for placing the band earlier than his kids; the bitterness that also lingers between him and his former bandmates John Coghlan and Alan Lancaster ; the terrible expertise of witnessing Parfitt struggling a near-fatal coronary heart assault; the accusations from many Quo followers that Rossi was improper to maintain the band going after Parfitt’s demise.
However there’s additionally a lot that he can giggle about: the great occasions with Rick, the communal wanking (or ‘a polish’, as he calls it) on early Quo excursions; the enjoyable he had with David Bowie and Freddie Mercury ; the second backstage at Reside Help when Rossi concluded that Elvis Costello was, within the bluntest phrases, “a c**t”. As Rossi says with a broad smile: “I do have some nice tales…”
You flip seventy this yr. How does that really feel?
My acupuncturist instructed me: “Oh, you’ve received ages but.” However she’s thirty. To her, twenty years is a very long time. To not me. Certainly I’ll be carried out by then. I’m nearly hanging on now.
Have you ever modified your life-style of late?
No dope-smoking. I gave that up a yr in the past. It was making me really feel so unfavourable. However I finished and the negativity is gone. I nonetheless have one cigarette a day.
So that you’re feeling good about life proper now?
It’s all about having fun with the journey. I thought of this lately once I was attempting to jot down with Andrew [Bown, Status Quo’s keyboard player]. I don’t actually need to do one other Quo album. I wasn’t trying ahead to writing. However we ended up with a brand new tune. And I mentioned to him: “I fucking loved that.” He requested me what I considered the tune. I mentioned: “I don’t care actually.” It’s about having fun with the method.
So that you’ll keep on making music, with or with out Quo?
Sure. It doesn’t need to be Quo.
What drives you? You’ll be able to’t want the cash.
Properly I ain’t as fucking smelly wealthy as folks suppose. I like my life-style, however it’s not low-cost dwelling right here. I simply paid out two and a half grand for tree work.
Certainly there’s a good bit coming in?
The band grosses this, and I find yourself with that. Then I pay forty-five per cent to the tax man.
Did you waste some huge cash up to now?
Within the seventies I used to be paying eighty per cent tax, and the remaining you piss away. You are taking medicine, you purchase aeroplanes – effectively, Rick did – you get divorced, you get ripped off. However I’ve carried out all proper. I’m not poor.
So why maintain working?
It needs to be ego. I learn this factor about profitable males, how they’re closely pushed, egotistical, and so they solely know one factor. And I went: “That’s me.” My first spouse bailed. My present spouse – I like saying that – she’s allowed me to be obsessive about this.
Is there a way of guilt in all of this?
I can’t be a great father, as a result of I had eight children and my profession got here first. I used to be on the beginning of my first son, in August sixty-seven. I used to be eighteen then, simply earlier than I wrote Matchstick Males . However a few of the different births I missed as a result of I used to be working. That I remorse, however solely with hindsight. On the time, I wished my profession.
The traditional Standing Quo lineup in 1974: Francis Rossi, Alan Lancaster, Rick Parfitt and drummer John Coghlan (Picture credit score: Michael Putland through Getty Photographs)
Your father was Italian – his household ran the well-known Rossi ice cream parlours – and your mom was Irish. Rising up in South London because the son of immigrants, how did that form your persona?
A whole lot of it’s entrance. I used to be from this unusual Italian household, so I pronounced phrases in a different way. I used to be instructed: “You speak fucking poncey, don’t you, boy?” That robust South London factor was so intimidating. So I might simply go into ‘him’. Rick was like that too.
You first met Rick Parfitt on the Butlin’s vacation camp in Minehead in 1965, when Standing Quo have been enjoying there. Do you continue to keep in mind that day effectively?
It was the twenty-ninth of Might. I walked into the camp and inside two minutes I’d met Rick. He was in a bunch with these two birds, twins. They have been referred to as The Highlights. He used to camp it up, however in these days all people did. He watched us sound-check, and instructed me later that he knew then that he wished in. So he had some drive.
What was the younger Rick like?
He had an incredible high quality inasmuch as you wished him to love you. The primary gig he was with us was on the Welcome Inn in Eltham, and he borrowed the garments I received married in – green-and-yellow striped blazer, pink shirt and white trousers. However he hadn’t realized the songs, so he unplugged and mimed all night time. The others wished to do away with him, however I mentioned: “No, I like him an excessive amount of.”
When Footage Of Matchstick Males reached No.7 within the UK you have been pop stars. Was all of it champagne and screaming ladies?
Nope. I assumed when now we have a success, all the pieces can be positive. However you awakened the next morning and the one distinction was you’d bought just a few information. And for those who thought the wrestle of getting there was arduous, hanging on to it was even tougher.
Footage Of Matchstick Males is now revered as a traditional of the psychedelic period. Have been sure ‘influences’ at work while you have been writing it?
Drug-wise? No. I don’t even know what the tune meant. And I nonetheless don’t know.
Actually?
It simply sounded good on the time. And I by no means thought that sound would come again. However then all these years later, out come Oasis.
‘Quoasis’, as some put it.
Yeah. Ha ha. Ain’t it new?
By the flip of the seventies, the ‘actual’ Quo had emerged.
That transition that they mentioned we might by no means do – Quo are goin’ ’eavy!
Famously, you had that eureka second while you heard The Doorways’ Roadhouse Blues .
Rick and I have been in Bielefeld, in Germany, at this place referred to as the X Membership. We watched this lady and a man dancing, and the best way they moved to Roadhouse Blues was simply phenomenal. In order that tune is the place the Quo twelve-bar boogie shuffle got here from. That was us: rinky dinky dink…
Most followers view 1972’s Piledriver as the primary definitive Quo album. Would you agree?
Yeah. We began to double-track the guitars. That made the sound larger. The duvet was a humorous one, although – a cartoon of a gorilla with a bomb. What’s that received to do with a piledriver? Nothing in any respect. However on the time I assumed: “Yeah!” Medicine, eh?
How did you view the opposite heavy rock bands who have been round at the moment?
Ooh, Black Sabbath ! Fucking man’s stuff, innit? Not that poofy Queen lot!
Did they take this piss out of you too?
Properly, all people thinks they’re higher than Standing Quo. They do. “Anybody can do this.” Fucking tossers! They favored us being round so they might say they have been higher than us. However we have been like that too. You need to be higher than all people. And we had essentially the most fabulous following.
Who have been your well-known associates in these days?
We at all times received on effectively with the Queen guys, and with Reg.
You imply Elton John?
Once I first met him he was Reg. We’re not allowed to name him that any extra, apparently. However he was at all times Reggie to me. And Rick and Rod Stewart have been such good muckers, at all times out getting rat-arsed. That’s one factor I miss about these days. We have been all muckers, all glad for one another to achieve success.
Within the seventies your medicine of alternative have been pace and weed.
They misinform younger folks about medicine – how horrible they make you are feeling. The reality is, medicine make you are feeling nice – at first. I keep in mind after we did Thriller Music [in 1976]. We left Rick within the studio one night time, sitting on a stool, enjoying: da da da, da da da… We got here again within the morning and mentioned: ‘You all proper?’ He mentioned: ‘I ain’t been residence but!’ Nonetheless dashing. Da da da, da da da…
Was cocaine the logical subsequent step for you?
Right here’s one other lie: hashish results in tougher medicine. What led me to cocaine was the alcohol. When you’re filled with alcohol you’re Jack the Lad. “Go on, then, give us the coke!” I used to be frightened of medicine, however I grew to become a coke addict for a while. I get actually aggravated when folks speak concerning the ‘rock’n’roll life-style’. No, we’re indulged. It’s arsehole behaviour, however it’s allowed since you’re earning money for folks.
For a very long time the band was a tight-knit unit. So tight, in truth, that on early-seventies excursions you’ll get collectively in a resort room to observe porn.
That was in Deutschland. There have been ladies exterior the resort, going: “Shag, Englishmen?” However we have been busy inside, having a ‘polish’. I shouldn’t maintain telling that story. I’m extra ashamed of it the older I get.
What do you suppose it was that modified your relationship with Rick?
Every part adjustments after we develop up and we get married and have kids. After we’re younger and in a band it’s us in opposition to the world. Then the cash is available in and it’s: “That bloke’s received greater than me.” And off it goes. It was round seventy-seven, after Rockin’ All Over The World , that Rick began to push himself ahead. He mentioned to me: “I’m fed up with being quantity two.” I instructed him: “Don’t do this.” He was my buddy, an individual I liked, and he was soiling that.
Did he really feel the identical method about you?
Most likely. I used to be being a c**t and Rick was being a c**t. That’s when he and I started to float aside. I dare say that’s occurred with all of these traditional rock partnerships, because it have been. After which numerous folks fed into Rick’s ego. He was attempting to reside this picture that individuals had satisfied him was who he must be. With the Rick I liked and knew, there wasn’t a lot male ego. He had an ego, however it wasn’t macho in any respect.
On July 13, 1985, at one minute previous midday, Quo opened Reside Help with Rockin’ All Over The World . There have been 72,000 folks inside Wembley Stadium, and shut to 2 billion watching world wide. Did you realise beforehand how huge this was going to be?
Oh no. You’ve received to provide Bob Geldof his due. He received all people to do it. When he requested us, I mentioned: “Look, Bob, we’re not getting alongside, we’re not rehearsed, we’ll sound like a sack of shit.” He mentioned: “It doesn’t matter a fuck what you sound like, you’re those!” Subsequently I discovered he mentioned the identical factor to The Who , to all people. The humorous factor was, all people was jockeying to not open. However after we felt the vibe coming off that viewers, I assumed: “Oh, grasp on, I get it!” It was essentially the most euphoric gig.
Did you suppose, as most individuals did, that Queen stole the present?
They have been the donkey’s knob that day. Everybody mentioned: “Jesus, they’re on it.” However they’d be, they’d been out touring.
Who have been the opposite artists that you simply combined with backstage at Reside Help?
Close to the top of the present, I used to be sitting at a desk with Bowie, and as Geldof was attempting to get everybody up for the massive finale the lights went out and the desk collapsed. I did return up on stage, however I didn’t need to. It was embarrassing. So I stayed way back to I might. I at all times received on all proper with Bowie, although. That mysterious picture he had, that was not the person he was. He was only a good man.
Freddie Mercury?
One thing I picked up from these straight South London boys: “Them poofs are wimps.” Fucking hell, there’s a mistake. As everybody was decamping out of Reside Help, Freddie bent me over a desk, in a half-nelson, held me down and I couldn’t transfer. Fuck, he was robust.
Was there anybody you didn’t like?
I keep in mind getting the hump with Declan – Elvis Costello. I mentioned: “Alright?” And he checked out me like: “I can’t speak to you, I’m a correct musician.” C**t. Recover from it, son. I’m over it. You’re up your individual backside, aren’t you? Rick and I at all times mentioned let’s not be like that.
Alan Lancaster left Quo quickly after Reside Help. John Coghlan had already departed, in 1981. Then in 2013 you and Rick reunited with them when the traditional ‘Frantic 4’ Quo line-up toured once more. Quo followers have been ecstatic, you much less so.
An understatement. I might really feel a way of euphoria within the viewers, however it was that traditional factor: what are you able to hear that I can’t? Typically the one factor that was in time that I used to be enjoying off was Rick’s rhythm. In John and Alan’s defence, they weren’t working like Rick and I labored for therefore lengthy after they left.
What good got here out of the reunion?
Bugger all, aside from the followers have been happy.
Not a therapeutic of relationships?
No. As a result of it’s now gone again to the best way it was earlier than. Alan received very insulting with me at some point on the telephone, precisely as he was. So I minimize him off. It’s completed. It looks like I’m chilly in that respect, however I’m carried out.
And John Coghlan?
I’ve received different points with John, and it’s in all probability not his fault. On the tour, we tried to make use of click on tracks, and John saved saying the clicking was placing him out of time. Are you studying that one accurately? It’s the metronome that’s placing you out of time? Howdy!
Are you unhappy about how that turned out?
I used to be elated to get again with Alan Lancaster. He was the man I met once I was eleven, and it was nice when he stayed with me for a few months earlier than the tour. We had amusing going round South London collectively, trying on the previous locations. What we shouldn’t have carried out is all play collectively once more, as a result of Rick and I had come a lot additional ahead.
Do days go by while you don’t consider Rick?
I knew Rick longer than I knew my dad and mom. I’ve a wierd reminiscence. It’s not method again up to now, it’s there in entrance of me. So there are occasions once I can see an image in my thoughts: there’s Rick.
Did you ever speak to him about what had gone improper between you?
In a while he’d say to me: “Why don’t we get on like we used to?” “I don’t know, Rick. Not now. It’s fucking two within the morning.” “Properly I need to discuss it now.” “No, Rick. It’ll be drunken speak, we gained’t keep in mind within the morning.” I simply suppose they received to him with that “You’ll at all times be quantity two” routine. You may sow that seed of doubt with Rick. You’ll be able to with anyone.
Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi at a rehearsal house in London on November 19, 2015 (Picture credit score: Joby Periods)
In June 2016, following a Quo gig in Turkey, Rick suffered a coronary heart assault, and also you witnessed him being revived. Are you able to describe what occurred?
He was lifeless. We have been all standing there as they dragged him away from bed and he bounced off the ground. They tried each fucking trick within the ebook, and I assumed: “Why are they doing that to him?” It was fucking horrible.
Did something change between you and him after that?
Once I went to see him, as a lot as his boys mentioned he was positive, no he wasn’t. He was utterly completely different. He was speaking to me as if we have been again in 1984 or one thing. I feel he realised that he in all probability wasn’t going to reside so long as me as a result of he saved having critical issues together with his coronary heart. However that was one thing we used to joke about – who would die first. Andrew [Bown] used to say that Francis Rossi would die with a joint in his hand and Rick Parfitt would die in a Mandrax manufacturing facility. It sounds morbid, however that’s how we have been. After which, on Christmas Eve, I received the decision: “Rick’s lifeless.”
Had you ready for this?
We knew Rick was going to die, however the actuality of it was such a shock. I heard Rick’s voice in my ear: “See, Body,” – he at all times referred to as me Body – “a minimum of I didn’t die on a present day.” And I laughed. I assumed, that might be Rick. He knew if he’d died on a present day we’d have needed to cancel. And we’re too ‘present enterprise’ – we don’t cancel.
How has this affected you on a deeper degree?
After he died, I used to be requested: “Did you cry?” No, I didn’t. However I did one night time once I was on the tour bus. I performed the unique model of that tune of Rick’s All The Causes [from the Piledriver album]. Rick wrote pretty little songs. All The Causes is fucking fantastic. And only for a second I assumed: “There he’s” – there’s the bloke I liked.
Did you suppose, within the days after Rick’s demise that Quo was completed with out him?
I wasn’t essentially going to hold on. I didn’t know what I used to be going to do.
Would he have saved the band going for those who’d died first?
Sure. We each knew that. One of many issues that saved Quo going within the early years was: “Fucking chancers, the identical previous shit, they gained’t final lengthy.” Oh actually? We have been going to battle. The identical after we cut up with Coghlan and Lancaster: “No good with out these two.” Actually?
The identical is being mentioned now.
I’ve learn the feedback: “Oh, he ought to fucking cease it now. He’ll be no good with out Rick.” Okay, possibly these persons are proper. However what they’ve carried out is make me go: “I’ll present you.” I thank these people who mentioned I can’t do it with out Rick, simply as Rick and I thanked all of the people who mentioned we couldn’t do it with out Lancaster and Coghlan. As a result of firstly, we did, and secondly, in all probability I’m going to. And I’ve carried out already. With a few of the gigs we’ve performed within the final two years, I’ve gone: “Fuck, it’s higher than intercourse.” Within the remaining evaluation, it’s nonetheless Standing Quo.
Are Quo underrated?
I can’t say that. And I actually don’t know. A few of it’s pretty easy. I take heed to a few of our albums and suppose: “Jeez, that’s dreadful.” I take heed to different albums and suppose: “Fuck me, that’s a magical second.” Some folks see Standing Quo as sacred. I don’t fairly see it that method. Like some other band, it had some incredible moments and a few shit. The one band I by no means noticed do any shit was The Beatles , and possibly the Eagles .
There are such a lot of traditional Quo songs: Caroline, Down Down, Rain … That are you proudest of?
There are songs you’ve written over time that you really want folks to like, and there’s a handful the place I don’t give a shit whether or not you want them or not, as a result of I like them a lot. Marguerita Time is one. All We Actually Wanna Do [from Rock ’Til You Drop , 1991] is one other, and Tongue Tied [from In Search Of The Fourth Chord , 2007].
Do you suppose you’ll know when it’s time to knock it on the pinnacle?
There’s one thing in me – and I don’t imply this morbidly – that thinks why can’t I simply sit round and watch for demise? Why not simply potter about and develop previous gracefully? However then I get enthused. I’m trying ahead to getting again and enjoying with the blokes once more in the summertime.
And earlier than that, your autobiography.
I gained’t learn it. Not for a yr, a minimum of. I’m positive there are issues within the ebook that I shouldn’t say.
Trying again, do you’ve gotten any regrets?
I don’t know. I’ve simply carried out the very best I can. I’ve been egocentric, as all of us are. We’re human.
And do you concentrate on the way you want to be perceived?
No. That’s an excessive amount of ego. I’m only a fundamental dickhead, and a bit insecure. I hope that individuals would suppose I used to be an affordable bloke, not a nasty fucker. That’s about all I might ask for.
Standing Quo’s 2024 tour is now underway. For dates and tickets, go to the Standing Quo web site . The brand new reside album Official Archive Collection Vol. 3 – Reside At Westonbirt Arboretum is launched on July 12. This interview initially appeared in Traditional Rock 260, printed in February 2019.
