With his flowing blond locks, denim gear and Fender Telecaster, Rick Parfitt was one of rock's most recognisable guitarists.
His partnership with Francis Rossi became the core of Status Quo, one of Britain's most enduring bands.
Their brand of boogie-woogie rock survived changes in musical fashion and made them one of the best-loved live acts of their generation.
As well as driving the Quo sound on stage, Parfitt penned many of the band's biggest hits.
Richard John Parfitt was born in Woking, Surrey, on 12 October 1948.
He began playing a guitar when he was 11 and, on leaving school at 15, got a job performing at Sunshine Holiday Camp in Hayling Island, Hampshire, earning £5 a week.
However, much of his new income went to his father, who was a committed drinker and gambler.
"He was forever getting in trouble and coming to me crying," Parfitt later recalled. "I probably ended up giving him a couple of thousand quid in total. Back then, that was a lot of money."
Parfitt met Francis Rossi in 1965 when they were both playing with their respective bands at a Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead.
Disillusioned
Two years later Parfitt, along with Rossi, Alan Lancaster, John Coghlan and Roy Lynes came together to form Status Quo.
The band's first hit, Pictures of Matchstick Men, released in 1968, embraced the psychedelic movement of the time and went to number seven in the UK charts.
Their follow-up, Black Veils of Melancholy, failed to chart but they did get to number eight with Ice in the Sun, written by Marty Wilde.
