Status Quo's Frantic Four Derailed By Addiction Says Lancaster

(Classic Rock) Status Quo co-founder Alan Lancaster has blamed the collapse of the band's Frantic Four lineup on Francis Rossi's drug addiction. The bassist believes the frontman grew to hate everything to do with the most successful incarnation of the band as a result of his issues.

And he says he lost more money than he ever made from the band as he tried to protect it from what he saw as a hostile takeover.

Lancaster and Rossi formed Status Quo in 1962, and remained together until Lancaster's acrimonious split in 1985, following the departure of original drummer John Coghlan three years previously.

The Frantic Four - also featuring Rick Parfitt - reunited in 2013 and again the following year, while the 21st-century Quo lineup continued to operate.

Lancaster tells Australia's Studio 10: "It was a cocaine thing that broke Status Quo up. Cocaine was endemic in the business around the time. It makes you feel as if you're better than everybody else, superior. I think that's when we started to lose our brotherhood.

"Francis became� I call him the anti-Quoist. Everything to do with the original band he seemed to abhor. He got to dislike management, he got to dislike John, everybody in the band. he wanted to do it all on his own for ages. One by one he got to oust us all." Read more here.

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