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DARK SECRETS: Francis rossi | Vintage Vibes

“I dream of him a lot – only the positive stuff. But the negative stuff hits me in reality. The night he joined, he said, ‘I haven’t learnt the songs’”: Francis Rossi on the Status Quo groove, Kempers, and his relationship with the late Rick Parfitt

The Quo’s motormouthed frontman had no intention of releasing a new solo album. But with The Accidental, Francis Rossi tells us he’s stumbled across his best work yet

Guitar World

"It was like pulling teeth. Which is among the reasons why we stopped writing together." The story of the Status Quo song that ended a partnership and became a roller-coaster live classic

Forty-Five Hundred Times was the song that threw a spanner in the songwriting partnership of Status Quo's Parfitt and Rossi, but it took on a life of its own, and they even extended it for royalty

Louder

"I know people don't want to hear me saying such things, but they're true." Francis Rossi comes clean on Status Quo, Rick Parfitt and new solo album The Accidental

With Status Quo now history and Francis Rossi enjoying his An Audience With tours, a new album was far from his mind

Louder

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Status Quo frontman ‘embarrassed’ by BBC Radio 1 lawsuit

Rock group infamously sued Radio 1 in 1996, claiming the station was refusing to play their music

The Independent UK

“He was like, ‘No, I want the other position.’ That’s where it became so acrimonious between us”: Francis Rossi opens up on the internal tensions between Status Quo’s two guitar greats

A decade on since Rick Parfitt's death, Rossi reveals how the Quo wasn't big enough for the both of them

Guitar World

"Some horribly lame moments slip into that horribly twee dad-rock territory that blighted so much of his recent work with Status Quo": Francis Rossi doesn't quite return to the pile-driving sound of his old band on The Accidental

Status Quo frontman surprises himself with unexpected fifth solo album

Louder

Francis Rossi suggests Rick Parfitt's partners stoked divisions

Francis Rossi has suggested Rick Parfitt's partners caused problems in Status Quo by trying to create a rivalry between them.

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Phil Lynott, 40 years gone: A celebration by his bandmates and friends - only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in our first issue of 2026: Sammy Hagar, Alter Bridge, Steve Cropper, Black Stone Cherry, Jim Steinman, Francis Rossi, Karnivool, Marcus King, Elles Bailey, Airbourne, Heavy Pettin and more

Louder

“Everybody used to say how great Clapton was, but I remember saying to Eric, ‘You try playing that one riff for eight minutes!’”: How rock legends Status Quo stole a riff from The Doors and built an entire career out of it

"That song is where the Quo twelve-bar boogie shuffle came from"

MusicRadar

"That song is where the Quo twelve-bar boogie shuffle came from"

MusicRadar

"When I left the band, I should have stayed left": Francis Rossi has some regrets about Status Quo's 1985 reunion

Francis Rossi's new album The Accidental finds him in complete creative control, and he likes it

Louder

"It's loud, the guitars are right to the fore": Francis Rossi unexpectedly returns to boogie-driven Status Quo sound on new single

Francis Rossi has remembered how to rock

Louder

“Even my dental hygienist sent me something the other day to say they were all singing it at some wedding reception”: How a British boogie-rock band turned a minor John Fogerty hit into an all-time classic that kicked off the biggest gig in history

Status Quo beefed up John Fogerty’s ‘piddly’ original and struck rock’n’roll gold

Louder

13 absolute bangers from Status Quo's Frantic Four lineup

Warning: headbanging to these songs could result in serious injury

Louder

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BANG Premier

Status Quo rocker Francis Rossi lives in constant fear of death

Status Quo legend Francis Rossi, 76, has revealed that he is worried about his mortality and plagued with insecurities despite a remarkable music career.

Louder

"Ask any Quo fan and they’ll agree. The rawness was the reason they liked it": Status Quo's classic Live! gets a deluxe, multi-disc makeover

Status Quo's classic live 1976 double repackaged in an eight-CDset with three full show recordings

BANG Premier

Francis Rossi fears running out of money

Francis Rossi has no plans to retire because he's worried about running out of money.

MusicRadar

“We used to work with Fleetwood Mac a lot on the uni circuit. You could sit down beside the stage and they’d start playing - der-der, der-der - for an hour and a half. We wanted to do that”: Francis Rossi on how Status Quo developed their 12 bar boogie

Plus he opens up about what sundered his relationship with Rick Parfitt

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The Guardian - UK

‘I terribly wanted to be liked. Still do’: Status Quo’s Francis Rossi on money worries, his deepest neuroses – and sounding like Nellie the Elephant

Lampooned by critics but loved by fans, Quo turned boogie into blockbuster rock. As a live album captures their 70s peak, their frontman remembers late friend Rick Parfitt – and reconsiders his whole sense of self

MusicRadar

“Freddie Mercury got me in a half-nelson. I couldn’t move!”: A rock legend’s backstage antics at Live Aid - and his beef with a fellow star

Bowie was “a nice guy”. Elvis Costello, not so much…

Louder

“Punk didn’t ride over the top of Quo, because we rock harder than any of ’em. This band seems invincible somehow”: The epic story of Status Quo, the greatest British boogie band never to break America

Drugs, denim and 12 bar boogie – the story of one of the UK’s most successful rock bands

Evening Standard

Status Quo stage gear and studio equipment to be auctioned after final tour hint

The sale would give fans the chance to buy part of the band’s history, including its ‘backline’, auctioneers said.

Louder

Watch Status Quo play the last live song they will ever play, probably

Status Quo have come to the end of the road: Now where have we read that before?

Louder

"I just can't see us doing it one more time": 40 years after their End Of The Road tour, Status Quo may finally be nearing the end of the road

In other news, Francis Rossi has announced an extensive solo tour

Louder

The new issue of Classic Rock is an AC/DC 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition

Also in this issue: Heart, Black Country Communion, Allman Brothers, Ian Hunter, Manic Street Preachers, ELP, Black Crowes, Anvil, Marcus King, Lindisfarne, Lemon Twigs, Mitch Ryder and more

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