Status Quo Guitarist Rick Parfitt Has Died

The shocking celebrity cull of 2016 continues with the sad news of the death of Rick Parfitt, who was a key member of Status Quo throughout their glory days. Parfitt passed away in a hospital in Spain. He was 68.

Parfitt (pictured on the right alongside Francis Rossi, on an early cover of Hot Press) reportedly died from a severe infection after being admitted to hospital on Thursday, following complications to a shoulder injury. However, he had a long history of heart problems.

In all, Quo – one of the great crossover rock acts of the 1970s – sold 118 million records.

Rick Parfitt was originally from Woking in Surrey. Born in 1948, in 1963 he joined a band called The Scorpions which had been formed a year previously by Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster. They changed their name to Traffic, but switched to Traffic Jam to avoid confusion with the Steve Winwood group. But by 1967, they settled on Status Quo and had their first hit with ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’ in 1968. The track reached No.7 in the UK and No.8 in Canada. It was also their biggest ever hit in the US, peaking at No.12 in the Billboard Hot 100.

It wasn’t until the 1970s, however, that they achieved sustained success. Their breakthrough album Piledriver was released in 1972, and it established the heavier, boogie sound that became their trademark in that era. They had a UK No.1 single with ‘Down Down’, which became one of their trademark songs, alongside ‘Rockin All Over The World’, ‘Whatever You Want’ and ‘In The Army Now’, which reached No.2 in the UK in 1986.

In 2010, both Parfitt and Rossi were awarded OBEs.

Parfitt suffered his first heart attack and had a quadruple by-pass as far back as 1997. He had a second heart attack in 2011. And he was hit again in 2014, while on tour in Austria – at which stage he decided to give up smoking and drinking! However, he suffered a heart attack in June 2016 and had a defibrillator fitted. He decided that it was time for him to retire from live work.

His latest illness occurred in Spain, where he had business interests. Sadly, this time, there was no way back for one of rock’s great survivors. Hugely witty and with a fantastic sense of fun, he will be greatly missed by fans of the band – and by everyone in music who knew him.

He is survived by his wife Lyndsay, their twins Tommy and Lily and Rick's adult children Rick Jnr and Harry.