15 Facts About Francis Rossi

Francis Rossi is the co-founder, lead singer, lead guitarist and the sole continuous member of the rock band Status Quo.

Francis Rossi's father's side of the family were Italian ice cream merchants and had an ice cream business in South London, and his mother was a Northern Irish Roman Catholic from Liverpool.

Francis Rossi grew up in a household with his parents, grandmother, and "lots of aunts and uncles" and was given a Roman Catholic upbringing, having been named after Saint Francis of Assisi.

Francis Rossi spent his summer holidays as a child with an aunt in Waterloo, Merseyside.

Francis Rossi attended Our Lady and St Philip Neri Roman Catholic Primary School in Sydenham, and then Sedgehill Comprehensive School, from which he was expelled on his last day.

In 1962, while attending Sedgehill Comprehensive School, Francis Rossi became close friends with future Status Quo bassist Alan Lancaster while playing trumpet in the school orchestra.

Francis Rossi had written a song called "Pictures of Matchstick Men", which hit the charts in both the UK and the US in 1968, launching their hit-making career.

In 2019, Francis Rossi released a joint album with UK singer and violinist Hannah Rickard, entitled We Talk Too Much on the earMusic label.

Francis Rossi owns two other green Fender Telecasters that are both brighter in colour and feature rosewood fretboards.

On stage, Francis Rossi normally sported a black waistcoat, blue jeans and a pair of white trainers.

Francis Rossi is teetotal and stays away from drugs, but in the past had an archetypical "rock and roll lifestyle" of alcohol and drug habits, which made him and Parfitt notorious at the height of the band's fame.

In October 2014, Francis Rossi told BBC's HARDtalk that alcohol was the gateway that led to his cocaine habit.

Francis Rossi was estranged from his daughter Bernadette for seventeen years after his relationship with rock publicist Elizabeth Gernon broke up.

Francis Rossi was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to music and charity, along with Parfitt.

Francis Rossi married his second wife Eileen in 1989 and has eight children from his two marriages.