Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt is being treated in hospital in Turkey following a suspected heart attack.
The 67-year-old guitarist was taken to hospital in the early hours of Wednesday morning following a gig at Expo 2016 in Antalya, Turkey.
Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt, left with Francis Rossi, has had a suspected heart attack (Matt Crossick/PA)
In a statement, his management said: “Whilst his condition is serious, he has already demanded his customary cup of tea with two sugars and a sweetener.”
The band’s manager Simon Porter added: “No further comment will be made at this stage until the completion of the next round of tests and assessments to be made over the next few days.
“We would ask you to respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.”
Rick underwent a quadruple bypass in 1997 and has had a series of health scares (Nigel French/EMPICS Sport)
A self-confessed former drug addict, Rick has suffered a catalogue of health problems, including a quadruple heart bypass in 1997, a throat cancer scare in 2005 and a heart attack in 2011.
Status Quo were forced to cancel a series of gigs in 2014 after singer and guitarist Rick was told to rest by medics following surgery to correct a problem with his previous heart bypass.
He fell ill during the band’s European tour and was flown home from Croatia to be treated at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. He had a stent inserted after it was found a graft from his heart bypass had become furred.
Freddie Edwards, second left, son of guitarist Rhino, will step in for Rick as he did in 2014 (John Stillwell/PA)
Rick has pulled out of a performance at Rock On Windermere charity show on June 18 to raise funds for the Cumbria Flood Appeal.
However, the rest of the band will appear, with Freddie Edwards, the son of Quo bassist John “Rhino” Edwards, stepping in for him.
It is likely that Freddie will stay with the band until Rick has recovered, including for their upcoming show in Sweden in July.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article