Status Quo's Francis Rossi admits fears over mortality 'Will I last much longer?'

Hard-living rocker Francis Rossi has admitted he is obsessed with his health and asks himself: "Will I last too much longer?" The Status Quo frontman has been open about his hellraising past, including a one-time cocaine addiction. But he said the fact that he is now 76 "gets to me most mornings".

He explained: "My wife asks me when we have coffee at about 7ish, 7.30 am, she says, 'How are you today?'. I go, 'Well...' It's in the morning I get, 'What the f*** am I doing?' And how one's going to last too much longer.

"And I can't get that out of my mind, whatever I do. I'll be alright as the day goes on. I'm going into the studio in a while. And then I look forward to the next meal, and that's it really." Francis confessed he suffers insecurity despite years as a rock star, waiting for things to go wrong and expecting the worst.

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He also told Hilary Jones on the Dr Hilary Show podcast that it still hurts if Status Quo are dissed or seen as a bit of a joke. Francis said: "I started practising quite diligently when I was about 38, and I have to do that every day, some form of it.

"I've done vocal exercises already this morning, because although we've been off two weeks, we go back in September-ish, and I'm always paranoid about not being ready.

"In fact, I'm dreaming at the moment of walking on and I don't have a guitar and I don't know what to say to the audience. I think that's the alternative to being a smug bastard really, I don't think, you know, 'I'm fine, they'll love me.'

"And I've heard many people in my position or relative positions have that sort of approach, 'I'll be fine, they'll love me.' It's a showbizzy thing and whether that's their own facade, mine is sort of insecurity, I think so I will be doubly, doubly, doubly sure and expect things to go wrong. I always expect the worst.

"My eldest son sent me a clip the other day, he said, 'You're being very guarded in some documentary.' I saw a clip of it, and I find it very difficult to watch.

"But this person opened with the fact that, you know, 'You're seen as a joke, aren't you?' I said, 'Well, yeah.' So it's what I said to you, glass half full or half empty... people say, 'They're a bunch of d***heads, it's only three chords, they're not very good. Him and the blonde fella, they're funny, but they can't be real musicians or they wouldn't be that funny' and so on.

"And so that goes in as much as you can try to be impervious to it, it goes in there. And so I figure it's better for me to view life from that point of view, anything from that is a plus."

Francis formed Status Quo in 1976 and will celebrate a half century in music next year. And he revealed he still dreams of late band pal Rick Parfitt - who died aged 68 in 2016 - only to wake up and remember that they drifted apart before his death "for terrible reasons".

He added: "A serious drinker like that, there are no one or two glasses of wine, and he just kept going and him and I just drifted more and more apart because of that.

"We were so different by the time we were older. We were really, really, really close, fabulously close. And I dream sometimes about that time and then wake up and realise that we'd drifted somewhat for whatever reasons, terrible reasons.”

Status Quo were among the rock elite in the UK, securing over 50 Top 40 singles and over 20 Top 10 albums. Guitarist Rick Parfitt died in hospital in Spain aged 68, in 2016. Parfitt's musical partnership with Rossi, which spanned five decades, made Status Quo one of British rock's most enduring acts.

Quo found global success with hits including Rockin' All Over The World and Whatever You Want.

* Rossi is back on a UK tour in September, will dates and more info at www.francisrossi.com

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