Francis Rossi is constantly worried about death.
Francis Rossi is worried about his mortality
The Status Quo rocker, 76, admits that he contemplates his mortality every morning despite a hell-raising music career that has seen overcome drug and alcohol addictions.
Francis told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “My wife asks me when we have coffee at about seven-ish, ‘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 for a while. And then I look forward to the next meal, and that’s it, really.”
Francis has been performing with Status Quo since the 1960s and revealed the extent of the vocal exercises he does to ensure that his musical standards are maintained as he “always expects the worst” when he steps on stage.
The musician told TV doctor Hillary Jones on his Dr. Hillary Show podcast: “I started practicing diligently when I was about 38 and do that every day. I’ve done vocal exercises already this morning, because although we’ve been off two weeks, we go back (for solo gigs) 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.”
The Rockin’ All Over the World singer added: “That’s the alternative to being smug, really. I don’t think, you know, ‘I’m fine, they’ll love me.’ I’ve heard that many people in my position have that sort of approach. It’s a showbizzy thing and that’s their own facade.
“Mine is a sort of insecurity. I always expect the worst.”
Rossi also revealed that he still dreams about his Status Quo bandmate Rick Parfitt – who died aged 68 in 2016 – even though the pair had drifted apart at times as a result of the guitarist’s heavy drinking.
He said: “A serious drinker like that, there are no one or two glasses of wine, he just kept going. I 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. I dream about that time.”
