Rick Parfitt of veteran UK rock band Status Quo died Saturday. He was 68 years old.
According to BBC, Parfitt had contracted a severe infection due to complications from a recent shoulder injury. He passed away after checking into a hospital in Spain earlier this week.
Alongside his longtime musical partner, Francis Rossi, Parfitt led Status Quo for over five decades. He sang, played rhythm guitar, and wrote many of the band’s songs with Rossi. On the back of hit singles such as “Rockin’ All Over the World”, “Whatever You Want”, and “Pictures of Matchstick Men”, the band has sold nearly 130 million albums to date and spent 500 weeks on the UK album charts. In 1985, Status Quo played London’s Live Aid alongside Queen, U2, and David Bowie, and in 1991, they received a BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
In recent years, Parfitt had dealt with a number of health issues. In June of this year, he suffered a heart attack which left him clinically dead for several minutes. He survived and was fitted with a defibrillator, but the lasting effects prevented him from joining Status Quo on the band’s latest tour.
