Status Quo legend lifts the lid on the band's adventures

SussexWorld

How do you explain a career as astonishing as Francis Rossi’s, for so long the frontman of Status Quo?   #StatusQuo #FrancisRossi #RockInterviews #MusicLegends

Transcript

00:00Hello, good morning. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and

00:07this is just stupidly insanely exciting to be speaking to Francis Rossi of Status Quo.

00:12Lovely to speak to you.

00:13Thank you, you want testing, yes.

00:17Pardon?

00:18You never heard that, you want testing.

00:23You're not supposed to say that to a fan, but it's lovely that you are heading our way

00:28to do an evening with. You're going to do Portsmouth, you're going to do Hastings. I caught you doing

00:33similar in Portsmouth a few years ago, and you just loved sitting there reminiscing. Why

00:39is it an enjoyable evening for you? Why do you love doing it so much? It just came across

00:43so well.

00:44I really don't know, and if I do find out, I'm frightened that it would ruin it for me. I

00:50just love, and I said to you before, it's building into something it feels, which is a bit ridiculous

00:56for a man in these mid-50s, didn't it? Sorry, in 76, that I think it's going somewhere.

01:03I'm booked to go in 2026.

01:06This is the second coming, isn't it?

01:08I suppose something's going on that I really, really enjoy. I get to play a guitar, I get

01:15to sing the songs I like, I get to put them in keys that are far more comfortable with

01:19the same. The guy I work with, Andy Brook, it's been my guitar tech, he's my studio engineer,

01:25and he enjoys doing this with me, he's not out of my position. There are too many pluses.

01:31I keep thinking that, just hope it doesn't go wrong.

01:34And it must be lovely just to plunge back into those memories, to have all that behind you,

01:39all that status quo means to people, and they really do mean a lot to people, don't they?

01:44I upset someone. I think some people get a little disappointed, perhaps, that he's not.

01:52And I do try and impress this on them, that you think we're wonderful, and you may have

01:59a picture of whom I am, or Rick was, or Madonna is, was, or Beyonce, or Taylor Swift, whoever

02:06it is, but that's your idea of whom we are.

02:09And it's so evident, as much as so many people have been discovered doing things they really

02:15shouldn't, since the 70s onwards. So it's just, it's lovely that, like I said, I'm the

02:22insecure little show. It's lovely that they love it and want to see it, but I don't, I'm

02:27desperately trying not to upset them. Unless perhaps one of them may upset me, I might snap

02:34back occasionally. But then I apologise. Sorry for that, sir.

02:38But it's that longevity that's so extraordinary, isn't it? I think the original incarnation of

02:43status quo was formed before I was born, and yet still, you're still going.

02:48Me, young people, they make me sick. The, yes, it is. And it's something, we talked a moment

02:56ago about something, spiritualist, if you like. And one of the things that I've often talked

03:01about over the years is how one manifests what can happen, and that one can do this.

03:07And I believe you can. I have a friend that works with me. She's done it so many times,

03:12but she talks about it, and within X weeks, it fucking happens. I don't understand. I know

03:18that I envisaged something when I was 11 or 12, and a little before that, when I was probably

03:25at seven or eight or nine. But it just, it goes in my mind, and I think, hmm. And I subsequently,

03:31later in life, realised that if you want to manifest something, and then I might, when the ego gets

03:39involved and starts bragging about it, it does not happen. So it has to be, for me, something

03:45I envisage, and lo and behold, it happens over, but you can't give it, no, it needs to happen

03:53by now. It doesn't work with me. It works with a friend. She can say, I need this to happen,

03:59and it does. But I do believe that I did that when I was younger, and I subsequently do it

04:05every now and again. I try not, I'm trying to scan now, so when I might have done it, but

04:12I mustn't, because again, that's terrible. So I believe there's a spiritual thing going

04:17on there. As we both said, you don't want to go into religion. I don't believe the religions,

04:23but there is something, I believe.

04:25Yeah. And well, it's also continuity, isn't it? I think, I think there's something actually

04:30really rather reassuring, that status quo is still around, and still lap up the music.

04:35I was just thinking you wouldn't say about that there is something, and I do find that reassuring

04:41that there is something, and someone many years ago said to me, said to my mother about

04:48me, and I can't say what it is, because it will ruin it, and somebody else just said to

04:56me, just have faith. So again, but that alludes too much to religion to me. You know, and then

05:04somebody says, oh yes, and off they go on this, their own religious trail, whatever they think

05:09they follow. But I think when we have faith, you said something, before we started recording,

05:16I won't tell them what you said, you're safe with me. But you said something that alluded

05:22to the same thing, which I will take, and I will savour that and keep it with me, because

05:28yeah, that's right. It's something that verifies something. I don't want to be too specific,

05:35because it will ruin it. Right. So you said that, yeah, it's another way of saying, no,

05:41you have faith. Okay. That's it, really. Not in Buddhism, and this-ism, and that-ism,

05:47that-ism, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, any ideology. No, you just have faith

05:52in it, perhaps. So you're not going to be short of something to talk about, then, are you?

05:57No, and I can always tell when I've gone on a little too long, the room's empty.

06:03You noticed it.

06:05And the people around me are gone.

06:11My gardener's a funny bloke who went to school with one of my boys. I've got so many people

06:17around me that went to school with my kids. Sorry, yes. What did you say? He was looking

06:22at me. Brilliant. Well, I shall leave you in peace. Fantastic to get the chance to see

06:28you again in Portsmouth before too long. You're also doing Hastings. Francis, massive

06:33pleasure to speak to you. Thank you ever so much indeed. I'm looking forward to Hastings.

06:37I told you, it's such a wonderful place, and I can't- I expect that it'll be sold out by

06:41now, but I'm beginning to expect too much, you see. Good. Keep expecting. Lovely to speak

06:48to you. See you now. Thank you.

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