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Francis Dominic Nicholas Michael Rossi, (born 29 May 1949) is an English musician. He is the co-founder, lead singer, lead guitarist and the sole continuous member of the rock band Status Quo.
He attended Our Lady and St Philip Neri Roman Catholic Primary School in Sydenham, and then Sedgehill School, from which he was expelled on his last day for having allowed his classmates to deface his school uniform. His desire to become a musician began after seeing The Everly Brothers live on television at a young age, after which he asked his parents to buy him a guitar for Christmas.
In 1965, the Spectres played at a Butlins holiday camp in Minehead. There Rossi met his future long-time Status Quo partner Rick Parfitt, who was playing as part of another band, the Highlights. The two became close friends and agreed to continue working together. In 1966, the Spectres signed a five-year deal with Piccadilly Records, releasing three singles that failed to chart. The group again changed their name, this time to Traffic Jam, after embracing psychedelia.Bob Young (2025). 184403562X, Cassell Illustrated. 184403562X
Status Quo continued to enjoy major success in the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand through the 1970s and 1980s. They were the opening act of 1985's Live Aid, and Rossi wrote and co-wrote some of their biggest hits, including "Caroline" and the band's only number one single, "Down Down".
Early Status Quo albums, up to 1971's Dog of Two Head, credited him as Mike Rossi. Interviewed in 1996, he explained that his own name was deemed "too poncey" by the band's original manager, "so I had to change it to Mike, a real man's name, apparently". Within the band, he is known as "Frame" or "The Gomor" (The Grand Old Man of Rock).
Rossi and Parfitt were the only remaining original members in the band until Parfitt's death in 2016. In 2013 and 2014, Rossi and Parfitt reunited with original Quo bandmates Lancaster and Coghlan for a series of reunion concerts. Over their career, Status Quo have sold over 128 million albums worldwide.
Some years earlier, in 1976, he had appeared on the soundtrack album and film All This and World War II comprising of songs by the Beatles. Although the album sleeve credits the performance of "Getting Better" to Status Quo, the track featured Rossi's vocals and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1977, he produced and played guitar on John Du Cann's solo album The World's Not Big Enough. 3 May 2010 saw the release of his second solo album, One Step at a Time, including a re-recording of Quo's 1973 single "Caroline".
In 2013, Rossi starred as himself alongside Quo bandmate Parfitt in the adventure comedy film Bula Quo!, which followed the duo on an adventure in Fiji, getting involved in local Mafia operations on the island.
In 2019, Rossi released a joint album with UK singer and violinist Hannah Rickard, entitled We Talk Too Much on the earMusic label. The same year, he released his autobiography I Talk Too Much (published by Little, Brown), as well as announcing a spoken word tour of the UK of the same name.
He also owns two other green Fender Telecasters that are both brighter in colour and feature rosewood fretboards. One is used for the song "Down Down" and the other for "Whatever You Want". Like his main guitar they are both in a three-pickup configuration.
In December 2014, Rossi was said to be "heartbroken" when his green 1957 Telecaster, after 46 years of use, became worn beyond use—the wood having become too soft to be able to properly tune the instrument. The guitar was sold at auction in 2019 for £118,813.
For amplification Rossi uses Marshall JCM800 or JCM900 Lead series amplifiers with 4x12 cabinets and a Roland GP8 to boost his signal. The sound from his Marshall rig is blended with Vox AC30 amplifiers that are kept behind his Marshall setup. He also uses software like Amplitube in the studio.
Interviewed by Simon Hattenstone for The Guardian in 2007, Rossi said that he had idolised Little Richard, saying: "I think that's where we got the energy. To me it's synonymous with doing rock'n'roll. If you don't commit physically, rock'n'roll doesn't really work."
Rossi was estranged from his daughter Bernadette for seventeen years after his relationship with rock publicist Elizabeth Gernon broke up. They reunited in 2007, and her band Bernadette and The North supported Status Quo on that year's tour.
In 2019 his autobiography, I Talk Too Much, was published by the Little, Brown Book Group. Rossi refers to himself as a lapsed Catholic.
Rossi was known for his long ponytail, which he started growing in around 1974. After 35 years, Rossi cut the ponytail off in 2009, when he noticed his hair was progressively thinning as he was approaching his 60th birthday. "It looked fabulous - I felt like a fashion icon! But in the past few years my hair has got so thin that there's not enough to work into a decent ponytail. A few weeks ago it dawned on me that I looked ridiculous. So I decided to forget about clinging to my youth and it was time to grow old gracefully. When it came off I was horrified to look at these six inches of wizened grey strands. I realised I must have looked really stupid." (Rossi, 2009 interview)
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