“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

Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt were one of the greatest double acts in electric guitar. No one could thrash a Fender Telecaster like them. But as tight as they were as the four-legged riff machine behind British rock legends Status Quo, Rossi admits that the pair grew apart over the years.

In a new interview with Guitarist, Rossi reveals how they band just wasn’t big enough for the both of them. 10 years following Parfitt’s death, he spoke of the tension that ended up emerging between the two.

“Rick did not want to be a twosome any longer, a long time ago,” says Rossi. “I dreamt of him last night. I dream of him a lot. And I only dream of the positive stuff. But it’s the negative stuff that hits me in reality.”

It’s worth remembering where Rossi and Parfitt were coming from, how their friendship and collaboration began. They first met at the Butlins holiday camp in Minehead, Wales, which is as inauspicious a beginning as you can imagine. Parfitt was playing in a cabaret band. The Quo were then known as the Spectres.

More glamorous venues were in their near futures. But the “negative stuff” came early.

“The first night he joined, he came up to me and said, ‘I haven’t learnt the songs…’” says Rossi. But there was no denying that Rossi and Parfitt had a chemistry together. As the band grew, however, Rossi says there was a competition between them. Partiff wanted to be number one.

“Rick and I as a twosome were great, but he had this whole ‘number one/number two thing’. And once he was settled in the band, he was like, ‘No, I want the other position’ That’s where it became so acrimonious between us,” says Rossi.

“Rick was never going to be happy because he always wanted what was over there. I kept saying to him, ‘The trouble with over there is, everywhere you go, there you are.’”

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Rossi does not hold back. He says it was easier to collaborate with Richie Malone, who joined the Quo in 2016 after Parfitt suffered another heart attack after the band’s show in Antalya, Turkey. Parfitt suffered lasting damage. He was no longer able to tour with the band.

“Rick always needed to be the loudest thing in the room,” says Rossi. “One of the joys of playing with Richie is that you can say, ‘Turn it down, Richie?’”

Despite their differences, Rossi and Parfitt could groove. When they were locked in, they were locked in. As it turns out, the click-track played marriage counsellor to this blessed union in rhythm.

“It’s very hard not to have your heart running at the bpm the last song was played. Hence, we started using clicks with Quo because Rick would be all over the place,” says Rossi. “Some nights, if he’d had a downer, we'd start with Junior’s Wailing and it’d be [treacle-slow groove]. ‘Rick, for fuck’s sake! What have you had?’ So that was it. I said, ‘We’re having a click in our ears.’”

There is a lesson there for any modern beat combo that prides themselves on the unyielding power of the groove. The click can keep you honest.

“You need to have a reference point because it’s very difficult to control where your heart is,” adds Rossi. “Have you not found that when you've tried to get to sleep at night? You’re like, ‘Shit, my heart is going fast…’

“I miss the days when Rick and I were very, very close,” he concludes. “But they weren’t there at all at the end.”

Head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which features interviews with Warren Haynes, Eric Gales, Billy Gibbons and more.