I happened to bump into Status Quo singer Francis Rossi in the backstage of the Sweden Rock Festival just before they played their gig there. Even though it was quite close to their turn he had a few minutes to spare. So here’s what we had time for.

I noticed that you have had some weights etc. in your locker room. Is that a regular part of your touring?

- Yeah, we like to keep ourselves in shape. You know, lifting weights and abs, stuff like that. It’s good to be in shape when you’re performing.

I had a friend from Finland who came to Sweden just to see you guys play. He lives in Finland but he’s seen you over 20 times. Do you have a lot of fans like that?

- We have great fans, many of them come to see us in every town we play in their country, for example in England and in Germany. Some of them also travel abroad to see us and we really appreciate that.

Status Quo has been around for ages. Let’s look into future, what do you see?

- Well I’m thinking that I’ll live until I’m 90, but I can’t promise you that Status Quo will be around for that long (laughs). I think that in five years we’ll be doing this, maybe in ten years too, who knows. I mean this is what I have always been doing. Some start as a carpenter when they are twenty and they stay as a carpenter because they like what they are doing. It’s the same way with me.

I guess the most important thing is that you find something you love to do?

- Yes, but I also think that there are so many bad things happening in the world because people haven’t found anything they like or they hate their jobs. Then they have to go and do crazy stuff because they are not comfortable with themselves.

Is it still fun to play live after all these years?

- Yes, as I said this is something I’ve always wanted to do. And the most important thing is that you really play live. I mean many of the kids today have not seen a live show. Some of the bands mime through their whole set. You’re charging the people for a live show but you don’t give them a live show. To me that’s wrong, there is just so much out there that isn’t live. In England we have bands like Steps and S Club 7. Do you know them?

Yeah, I’ve heard of them.

- So all these kids go to see live show and it’s fantastic! There’s nothing any different than they’ve heard at home. There’s no mistakes, it doesn’t slow down it doesn’t speed up, it doesn’t get quieter it is just a record. So all these kids have not seen a live show. You’ve seen a live show. A lot of kids in Europe and America have not seen a live show. They don’t know. I think one of the joys in a live show is that you hear all the little things like, “oops, he played wrong there” and so on. When it’s like a record at home you can’t take part in it.

If you look at the line-up in Sweden Rock Festival, what kind of reception are you waiting for?

- I don’t know, I mean I’m not sure if we fit in this. It often depends on other bands. In some places we sound rocky but compared with these we sound like ti-di-di-di… but we do what we do and hopefully someone will like us. [his worries were useless, they rocked big time and the crowd was really with them]. I don’t know, we could die in our ass tonight it could be the worst show we’ve ever done, I have no idea. But that’s another thing that keeps you going. You’re not sure whether you’re gonna be as good as last night. Last night was good but you can’t be sure if tonight will be. And usually when there’s a lot of pressure that it’s gonna be a good show tonight, it doesn’t work. Sometimes then there are show that you don’t wanna play but when you play the show it turns out great. It would be great if you could play your best shows in front of the biggest audiences. It doesn’t work like that.

Does it make any difference if there’s a hundred people or if there’s 50 000 people?

- It does make a difference, but then sometimes when there’s only a few people you go WOW, that was good! And then it’s frustrating that there weren’t any more people to see you be that good. And then sometimes when there’s a 100 000 people you go “we’re gonna be good” but no. I don’t know what it is. I think if we knew what it is, and I think that’s why there are so many mimed bands around these days, that people don’t know what it actually is that makes it work. Some nights good and some bad. Same show, same band, same crew, what happened!? You don’t know and that’s what makes you try it again and again. But then there are these mimes. How was it? The same as last night. How is it going to be tomorrow? The same as the day before…

Yeah, maybe some dance steps were different…

- But it doesn’t sound any different. I know, the dance steps… they rehearse them for months! That would really piss me off! To be told that I’d had to dance in a particular way…

Can’t imagine you doing that… and you are doing your own thing, but they are doing something they were told to do.

- Which is sad really. But that’s the way music industry is at the moment and we all keep thinking that there’s gonna be a change, there’ll be a backlash. But I don’t know. And if those kids have never seen a live show how can they tell the difference. If you’ve seen a live show you can tell it. Even if the lip sync is really good you can see something is wrong there.

Francis then headed to continue his exercise. He is nice, friendly man and as I said they did a great show. And they played LIVE!