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Status Quo's Francis Rossi speaks ahead of Birmingham show

Francis Rossi should be hanging up his guitar but Status Quo is a habit he can't kick. He talks tours, Rick and how young blood is shaking up the band...

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He pretends to be a granny when he picks up the phone. "Helloooo," he croaks, in his best 93-year-old, slightly-demented old lady voice.

"Is it possible to speak to Francis, please?"

He croaks again: "Helloooo."

One. Two. Three. Four.

The seconds pass.

"It's alright, it's me," he says. "Sometimes it throws people. They think they've called the wrong number."

I thank Francis for the 30 minutes that we're about to spend chatting. But he's no time for false humility. And, before we go any further, let's be straight on the language. The man who founded Status Quo is, by no stretch of the imagination, potty mouthed. Line him up against Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri, for instance, and he seems like a choirboy. But Francis likes to pepper his language with the occasional f***. Like a chef seasoning a steak with a dash of salt and pepper, it enhances the listener's experience. So we'll keep it real with his quotes and tell it like it is, using a trusty asterisk when he profanes. Besides, we wouldn't want to pretend Francis was something he's not. And he wouldn't thank us for painting him as an angel.

So I thank him for his time.

"Look, we're f***ed without you guys. If an artist didn't need a little help he wouldn't speak to journalists, would he?"

Quo are on the road for what's been billed as their last ever electric tour. They'll play Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena on Friday – and if you believe it'll be their last electric tour you also probably believe that a big fat guy with a long bushy beard and red velveteen pantaloons will be climbing down your chimney on December 24.

Francis laughs. "In theory we won't be doing any electric tours any more."

In theory. Did you hear that?

"Look, I've been through this so many times. Since Rick fell over – we call it falling over, and we had to bring Ritchie Malone in, I hate to admit it but young blood has done something. That's not going at Rick or saying anything bad about Rick. Any band, particularly one of our years, becomes complacent somewhat, perhaps."

So it won't be the last electric tour then. . . Happy days, if you're a Quo fan. They'll be rockin' all over the world for the foreseeable.

The band isn't stopping yet

'Rick's falling over' is Francis's diplomatic way of making light of the near death experience of guitarist Rick Parfitt, who had a heart attack in Turkey in June and is no longer fit enough to tour. In truth, 'near death' is a misnomer. Rick was actually dead for a little while until paramedics got to work.

"When he fell over, we were looking at him on the floor. What the f*** is going to happen, we thought? We knew it would happen because he's a wild man. We couldn't stop and have the summer off. We'd have been sued the s**t out of. We had buses and crew booked and we'd have had people suing for loss of earnings. That's the thing that people have to understand, we have to keep going."

He's talking casually about it now, of course, though at the time it was anything but. Quo were over for a little while as Rick lay prone and with no life in his body.

"We were coming back from a gig and talking to our PA about what to eat. We were in Turkey so we thought we'd have a kebab. We got back to the hotel and in came Andrew and John. Then the PA came in and said Rick was feeling a bit funny. She went to check him and then all hell broke loose. The phones were ringing. John ran right round to him.

"I got my clothes back on and by the time I got to his room John was making the cut-throat sign, to say we'd lost him. They told us he was dead. He was on the floor for 20 minutes, but Rick reckons it was five. His feet were crossed, I don't know why, and I had to uncross them. The paramedics came and did their stuff. Look, I guess it was payback time."

Francis pauses as he finishes the tale. He and Rick have been on the road for 50 years. "When Rick was down, we were looking at each other and saying: 'What the f*** do we do?' It would have been the same if it had been me or Andrew falling over.

"But we have to carry on. We live in a capitalist world. We'd all love to think it's different but it's not. It comes down to money. And in our industry – showbusiness – you have to keep going. You know, there's a reason why they call it showbusiness. Guys like us are putting on a show. You don't get to see what goes on behind. You don't get to see that there are bits of tape holding things together.

"It's not just about the music. We'd like to think it was but a lot of the people who've become heroes over the past 40 years wouldn't be in that position if it was just down to music. The true musicians stay at home. What drives us is the love of music but there's also something else: there's that 'Are you looking at me'? thing. . ."

Quo have become re-energised during the summer and autumn. They've been in imperious form, thrilling fans with a series of live shows and dazzling punters and critics alike with their new album, Aquostic II. The absence of Rick may gnaw at some die-hard fans, but the simple fact is they've become more exciting since. "When Richie started, I didn't want him in. I wanted Rick in. But Richie's been a fan since he was 10 or 12. And I got to tell you, he's brought something special to it."

They'll park the electric shows at the end of the year and focus on acoustic gigs in 2017. Francis is looking forward to them – though he's got a number of reservations.

"If people don't come out to see it, it will go bust. It's just like a business, we're the same as the corner store, the local cleaners. The tour has to make money otherwise it goes under. If we were doing a bunch of electric shows we know they'd sell a certain amount. But whether any promoters want to put their testicles on the line with the acoustic shows and book them remains to be seen."

It would be easier, of course, for Francis to take a raincheck. After all, he's 67 pushing 186 after a long rock'n'roll lifestyle built around alcohol and drugs. He reckons he spent £1.7 million on cocaine in the 1980s, which resulted in a piece of his nose falling out. These days, he's teetotal. But he never managed to give up his addiction. The roar of the crowd is a habit he can't kick. He feels validated by the love of his fans.

"There's that ridiculous thing with performers, I don't care whether we're talking about actors or musicians. All the time, their motor is running and they're thinking: 'Don't look at me, why aren't you looking at me? Don't look at me, why aren't you looking at me'?"

The band back in the mid 1970s

It's a dichotomy that he's come to terms with over many years and he wonders why kids coming through the ranks aren't as committed as him. "I see these kids on The X Factor saying 'I'm going to give it 100 per cent'." He's almost foaming at the mouth.

"I hate that. I just think 'What were you doing last night then, just giving it 60 per cent'?" How dare these kids phone it in. How dare they not walk it like they talk, the same way as Francis and Rick.

"It's different with the new kid in the band. I don't know how, why or which way. But it's bum twitch time. It's making it fresh. It's given the band a kick in the arse."

Aquostic, however, is the music that's really invigorated the band. Quo released their debut acoustic record in 2014 and it was an instant hit. It was their first new studio album to earn a gold disc since 1996's covers record, Don't Stop. And in terms of their own original material, it was the first since 1988's Ain't Complaining.

"It's been good for one's ego," says Francis. But he's been puzzled as to why people imagined Quo would be no good with acoustic guitars. After all, they've been playing the humble six-string since the 1960s. All they had to do was turn off the amps.

"When the first one came out, I was amazed by the amount of people that said to us: 'Ooh I didn't know you had good songs'. And I think that was because as many that love the grinding oooo ooo oooo Quo noise, the same number hate it.

"Even the people who work around us were surprised – like my driver, who's an Elvis fan and who's been with me for 50 years. I was in the car one day and we were doing acoustic and he said 'I didn't know what you could do'. It's odd, of course we can. But it's such a joy that it's worked and happened. I didn't expect anything from it at all. But now that it's done okay the drug has kicked in again. Now I want to do more. I ask myself why I'm being greedy and I don't know. There's something that just wants more."

The lust for success isn't confined to Aquostic. Francis still wants his band to become bigger, better, best.

"At my age and after you've had however many top 20 hits – surely it's enough. But no. It isn't. Enough suggests it's finished. It never reaches its conclusion."

Besides, if Francis didn't have that drug, if he wasn't addicted to success, what would become of him? Would he be using his bus pass and calling in at his local pub for Wednesday's half price fish'n'chip lunch?

"I'm terrible. I can't put it down, I just can't. I never have since I was first in a band when I was 13. Even if we've got some downtime, I'm calling the manager, I'm playing the guitar, I'm trying to write a new song.

"For all of this year I've worked. The record was made here too so it never goes away. If you retire and stop, people say I'd miss it but I don't buy that. I sometimes miss my ex-wife but I don't want to be there again.

"Music is much more powerful than just missing it. It's like having a stick on your forehead with a carrot on the end. You're always trying to reach that carrot. It's terminally frustrating that you can't reach the carrot – and besides, what would happen if you did?

"One of my daughters asked me a year ago what I would do if I retire. She said: 'You play guitar all night'. And I do. I sit in this music room and have the TV on then I play nice and loud."

Quo's present tour will take Francis through until Christmas. And then it will be time to sit down with his family and become a grumpy old man. He's chuffed that he can spend autumns on the road and – last electric tour or not – it's impossible to believe he won't be doing it for many years to come.

"We've had some good nights there and there's nothing quite like playing a good gig. I tell you, you wake up the next morning and you just want it back.

"The ying to that yang is that when you have a bad show you see people losing their rag. But I never understand it. What the f*** is that for? You can't carry it with you. If we've been bad, I get undressed and go and eat something on the bus. But when it's good, it's magic. It's like good sex, it's very hard to forget. At 1.50pm the other day the PA came up to me and said you should be asleep. I told her I didn't want to go bed yet because the gig would be gone the moment I fell asleep and I didn't want it to end."

He's looking forward to returning to Brum, a city he's visited more times than he can remember.

"Wolverhampton and Birmingham are great. I know some of the guys from there: Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood, Noddy, Don Powell, Robert Plant. They are some of the best people on earth. I said to Planty last year – and you know, this is Robert Plant, THE Robert Plant – 'why is everyone so nice'?

"He just laughed it off. Mind you, it was hard work learning that accent." And he goes off on a tangent, demonstrating his mastery of the Black Country accent. "The way to do a Black Country accent is easy. Just say 'bike' as though you're a Londoner. Now, say bike again but run it into baked potato." And it's perfect. Noddy Holder wouldn't be able to roll his vowels so much.

Francis will finish Quo's tour on December 23 then arrive home for Christmas Eve. "I'll get in at 9am and light the fire. Then I'll do my old person-in-a-chair thing. I'll fall asleep with a crossword and snore."

He'll unpack his things and get on with being a family guy. "It won't last long," he laughs. And you know damn well he's right.

Aquostic II is out now. Status Quo The Last Night of the Electrics Tour is at The Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham on Friday, December 16. Tickets cost from £54.70 visit www.theticketfactory.com or call the box office on 0844 33 88 222.

By Andy Richardson

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