Row brews as family fight over Status Quo star Rick Parfitt’s £10million fortune as pals remember rock legend
Tensions already rising over late Status Quo star's business interests and properties across the world between family members - including his estranged wife Lyndsay and his kids
ROCK legend Rick Parfitt’s death looks set to spark a bitter war for his estimated £10million fortune.
The late Status Quo star has a web of business interests and properties across the world which must be divided up between his family members.
They include his estranged wife Lyndsay and his four kids, with tensions already rising over who is entitled to what.
Rick Parfitt and Lyndsay were still married at the time of the singer’s death on Christmas Eve, despite him dumping her over the phone in October and putting their five-bed Marbella home on the market.
The pair have eight-year-old twins, Tommy and Lily, while Rick also has two adult sons — Rick Jr from his first marriage to Marietta Broker and Harry from his second marriage to Patty Beedon.
Rick died in hospital in Spain on Friday from a severe infection following complications to a shoulder injury.
Last night a source revealed: “Who his cash and assets will go to is all up for dispute.
“There are going to be some tense times between the various family members in the months to come.
“He had no idea exactly how much he was worth and just spent it at his own free will. But there are millions left over and obviously he has all of his properties, too.
“He actually left the organisation of his finances to his wife Lyndsay before deciding to split up. They never divorced before he died so there are going to be a lot of legal issues in terms of what she is entitled to.
“It’s likely his kids will get the bulk of his assets.”
Rick, who ended up homeless in the Eighties after his second marriage ended in a bitter divorce, spoke at length about his finances in an interview two years ago.
Asked who looks after the household money, he replied: “My wife Lyndsay does some but I have a personal assistant who takes care of most of it because I’m not very good at admin.
“I know there’s enough money there so I’m not really bothered.”
RELATED STORIES
The Sun can also reveal that Rick had made plans to write his auto- biography and a new solo record just months before his death aged 68.
Rick was desperate to put pen to paper and reveal untold stories about his days in Status Quo, which are now unlikely to see the light of day.
He had also asked Status Quo producer Pip Williams to produce his debut solo album.
While bandmate Francis Rossi has yet to comment, Rick’s son Rick Jr tweeted: “I cannot describe the sadness I feel. To many he was a rock tar, to me he was simply ‘Dad’, and I loved him hugely. RIP Pappa Parf.”
And Queen guitarist Brian May added: “Shocked and so sad to hear of the passing of Rick Parfitt. Hard to find words, You truly joyfully rocked our world. RIP dear buddy.”
Despite his poor health Rick, who was awarded an OBE in 2010, was optimistic about his musical future and had hoped to release the collection next year.
A source said: “Rick was intent on continuing to work no matter what the doctors said. It’s devastating — for fans, friends and family — that his autobiography will never be finished.
“Likewise the material he had planned will remain unfinished forever. It really is tragic.”
With his shaggy blond hair and denim clothes, Rick was the archetypal image of a rock and roll guitarist and, with his hell-raising drinking, drug-taking and womanising, he had the behaviour to match.
At one stage he was spending £1,000 a week on cocaine and another £500 on vodka, while he lost count of the number of fans he bedded.
In the end, his life of excess took its toll on his health.
And when a third heart attack in the summer finally spelled the end of his Quo touring, his ever-present band-mate Francis revealed to The Sun how Rick told him: “This is payback for being the wild man.”
Richard John Parfitt was born in Woking, Surrey, on October 12, 1948, the son of an insurance salesman, who was a drinker and a gambler.
Rick began playing guitar when he was ten and in 1963, aged 15, he was playing and singing in a London pub when his dad was approached by an agent for the Sunshine Holiday Camp on Hayling Island, Hants, who offered him a job for £5 a week.
Much of the money he earned went to bail out his dad. Rick remembered: “He was forever getting in trouble and coming to me crying.”
I drank two or three bottles of vodka a day...I enjoyed every moment
Rick Pariftt
In 1965 he performed at the Butlins camp in Minehead, Somerset, where he met Francis Rossi. They hit it off immediately with their shared love of 12-bar blues — and the rock lifestyle.
Two years later Rick joined Francis in the band Traffic Jam, which soon changed its name to Status Quo.
Their first hit, Pictures Of Matchstick Men went to No7 in the UK charts in 1968 and their 1972 album Piledriver reached No5 and stayed in the charts for 37 weeks.
Loved-up Rick co-wrote All The Reasons on the album about German first wife Marietta Broker, who he married in 1973 after splitting from childhood sweetheart Patty Beedon.
But he was already heavily into booze and drugs, and the rock and roll life style eventually took its toll on his relationship with Marietta.
The final straw was the tragic death of their two-year-old daughter Heidi, who drowned in their swimming pool in 1980. The divorce cost Rick more than £1million.
He said later: “It is a regret but I got married too early, when I was 23. The band was just starting to get big and the drugs were creeping in.
“My wife just couldn’t put up with me and I don’t blame her.
He explained of the early days: “You would consume a humungous amount of vodka also because the two went together very well — vodka and tonic and a line of cocaine.
“I drank two or three bottles of vodka a day, which probably cost another £500 a week. I enjoyed every moment but I’m pleased I’ve come out of the other side.
"I wasn’t easy to live with and ended up giving my mansion to my first wife when we got divorced. So those few grams of cocaine ended up costing — in 1982 or 1983 — £380,000, which the house was roughly worth then.”
It didn’t stop him co-writing some of the band’s greatest hits, including Whatever You Want, Again And Again, and Rain.
The band set out on a farewell tour in 1984 but were persuaded by Bob Geldof to appear with Band Aid to record the charity Christmas hit Do They Know It’s Christmas?
They admitted later that despite the track’s famous lyrics, the only white stuff around were the mountains of cocaine they snorted in the studio.
They followed that by opening the Live Aid concert the following year with their 1977 No3 hit Rockin’ All Over The World.
Rick said it was a huge buzz, though he said he didn’t remember anything about the rest of the day because he was “out of it”.
Having got back together with first love Patty Beedon, the couple were married in 1988, but their drink-fuelled, crockery-throwing rows at their Thames-side apartment in Teddington, West London, were legendary.
He once revealed: “Patty and I would start drinking at 5pm and some nights I’d end up completely out of it. The monster would come out of me and we’d end up rowing.”
The couple divorced then reunited — but Rick did not change his ways even after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1997.
He revealed in 2005 how, after one booze bender, he woke up in a hotel room in bed with a 46-year-old lookalike electrician called Nigel — and Nigel’s wife Angie.
He had a 14-month affair with blonde Angie — joined occasionally by her husband — until Patty found out.
He later explained: “I’m a bloke in a rock and roll band and I’m only human. The temptations are there.”
The star lost count of how many fans he had slept with over the years, many of whom he regularly saw in the crowds at Quo gigs.
He said: “Sometimes I look out and think: ‘I know her.’
So many faces ring a bell and I think, ‘Did we . . . ?’ I still get the odd wink and once upon a time I’d have gone to the bar and left in a drunken stupor. Then I’d wake up and think, ‘Christ, who are you?’ Which is terrible when I think about it now.
“But it was alcohol-fuelled and not something I would have done in the cold light of day. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life because of drink.”
In 2006 he and Patty had split for good and Rick married fitness instructor Lyndsay Whitburn in the same year.
They had their twins in 2008 and Rick had a second heart-attack five years ago.
By 2014 he had seemingly left behind the lifestyle his doctors told him would kill him, although he still enjoyed “the odd pint”.
He explained: “I haven’t smoked a joint for 27 years or done cocaine for ten years. I just do normal stuff. The kids keep me busy and I go shopping with the missus.”
And he had previously insisted he had no regrets.
He said: “I wouldn’t want to change the way things have happened because I’ve enjoyed it. You’ve got to have the ups and downs.”
Additional reporting from Ally Farrell, Martin Phillips and Howell Davies