Muse’s Chris Wolstenholme in his own words: a personal essay about Rick Parfitt

The death of Status Quo’s rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt on Christmas Eve 2016 was greeted with an outpouring of rock and roll memories, sorrow and tributes.

He died aged 68 after half a century of Rockin’ All Over The World as Status Quo became a staple act on the British rock scene.

Their influence on music was broad and the sounds of Blue For You and Quo inspired a four-year-old Chris Wolstenholme into music.

Here, in his own words, Wolstenholme reflects on the power of Parfitt after helping to finish the late rocker’s debut solo album, which had been left uncompleted when he died.

Pretending to be Rick

Soundchecking with Quo

In 1997, my chance to meet Rick came along. As a friend of Andy Bown’s son, I’d been invited along to see Quo soundcheck at a show in Plymouth, where I was at university. However, on the day Rick was unwell and couldn’t do the soundcheck. Whilst I was disappointed, something incredible then happened, I was asked to fill in for him and took to the stage to play his parts, on his guitar!

Finally meeting Rick

Working on Over And Out – Rick’s debut solo album

I had heard that Rick planned a solo album, and of course said that I would consider it a massive honour for me to contribute. There was talk of us writing and recording together, but the last conversation I had with anybody about it was on December 17 2016 before the tragic news broke on 24th.

Remembering Rick

Rick’s strength as a player was his immediately recognisable style; very staccato, like his left hand was constantly bouncing off the strings. It’s very hard to do, and I’ve never seen anyone else do it quite like him. But then, there never was anyone quite like Rick.

– Rick Parfitt’s Over and Out is released on March 23. Long Distance Love is out now.