Upsetting the Status Quo.

The term “rock legend” is an over-used epithet, but how else to describe Rick Parfitt? For almost 50 years, he’s been rocking all over the world, ingesting industrial quantities of drink and drugs. But my friend Brian Jones tells me that he’s finally calling it a day. Parfitt and Francis Rossi are now bona fide – second over-used epithet – “national treasures”. I once wanted them to appear in a TV ad campaign, so a producer and I had a meeting with them. Rossi was surprisingly serious, businesslike, trim and healthy looking. But Parfitt was exactly how you’d want him to be – still wrecked from the night before, downing one drink after the other, a non-stop jukebox of tales of debauchery – the most terrific company. Mystery Song is one of the rarer Quo tracks with Rick Parfitt on lead vocals. Though the real mystery is how on earth he is still alive.