Song that saved me after my sister died; TRAUMA OF ROCKER RICK

WITH his mop of blond hair and rock star swagger there is an obvious family resemblance. And with a name like Rick Parfitt there's really only one career path he can follow.

The son and namesake of the Status Quo wildman is busy putting the finishing touches to a debut album that top record companies have been clamouring over.

Rick Jnr's bid for music stardom is a triumph over serious illness and a troubled childhood during which his baby sister died in a horrific accident.

Memories of the terrible day he lost two-year-old Heidi when she drowned in the family swimming pool left Rick, then just six, devastated.

The stress of the tragedy exacerbated his life-long battle with the stomach disorder Crohn's Disease. As a result, Rick spent much of his teenage years in hospital, and it's only now at the age of 27 he has recovered sufficiently to attempt to follow in his famous father's footsteps.

However he says his own music is quite different from Status Quo. He says he owes his sound more to the likes of Robbie Williams than heavy rock bands.

His album, which comes out later this year, features a song called Head Above Water which captures the pain of losing Heidi.

"That song came about in a very weird way," says Rick. "I wrote it as a love song and finished recording the demo of it on the anniversary of my sister's death.

"It was only then that I looked at the title and the lyrics and realised what I had really written about. I had no idea at the time."

Rick says the song has helped him exorcise the memories of that terrible day in 1980 when his mother Marietta found Heidi floating in the pool.

Ironically, Rick himself had been found by his father lying at the bottom of the same pool a year earlier. The musician gave him the kiss-of-life and he spent five weeks recovering in hospital.

To this day Rick Jnr still can't understand what happened the day Heidi died.

"It was a beautiful sunny day - I was inside with Dad watching TV," he says. "The next thing we heard was Mum screaming.

"What happened next was like a bad dream in slow motion. My sister was just lying there still. I remember Dad diving into the pool, pulling her out and giving her mouth-to-mouth. My mum was completely hysterical. She was cradling Heidi in her arms and talking to her as if it might revive her."

Heidi was buried in the valley below the house in the family mansion in Surrey. Rick regularly visits her grave and finds it a constant source of inspiration.

"We planted two trees there and they are really tall now," he says. "Heidi would be 22 now and I think about her all the time."

The tragedy tore the family apart. Rick Snr has confessed how he came close to taking his own life over the loss of his daughter: "Her dying tipped me over the top. I drank and took drugs to push myself into oblivion. It was the only way I could cope.

"There were times when I didn't want to go on. I made a vain attempt at suicide. I stood on the banks of the Thames looking at the water. But when it actually came to it, I just couldn't throw myself in."

His marriage to German-born Marietta failed soon after and father and son didn't see each other for almost 10 years. "I just didn't want to see him," says Rick Jnr. "It was too painful."

The divorce also coincided with the worsening of Rick's Crohn's Disease, a painful inflammation of the bowel that causes weight loss and is worsened by stress.

The strain was to make his condition so severe that he spent long periods in hospital.

While his father's career went from strength to strength Marietta and Rick were forced to down-size. "My lifestyle could not have been more removed from my father's," he says. "He had seemingly endless amounts of money while my mum and I struggled."

Meanwhile Rick was being prescribed ever more powerful doses of cortisone. But his illness was eventually to be the spur to resolving his relationship with his dad.

"My mum had told him, 'It's time you got to know your son again'. I hadn't seen him for a very long time. I remember thinking, 'Should I call him Dad, or Rick?'

The rebuilding of their relationship coincided with Marietta's interior design business failing. When she decided to move back to Germany, Rick moved in with his father.

It was watching his father on stage in front of an adoring crowd that made Rick determined that he too would have a career in music. "I just knew I wanted to do it," he says.

"I have been writing songs since I was a young kid. I started playing the piano at the age of seven and I always found writing a way of letting my real feelings come out. I had some counselling because I was depressed and had not come to terms with my sister's death or mum and dad's divorce, but I always found it easier to write than sit there talking about things."

Rick finally got his big break when he was spotted singing on demo tapes and was soon being wooed by a string of record companies.

He was eventually snapped up by Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies's Good Groove record label.

He is now working with top writers and producers Tom Nicholls and Alex Soos, the writing team behind All Saint's No 1 hit Black Coffee.

Rick is determined his famous father won't be pulling any strings for him in the music business.

"This whole thing is about me," he insists. "It has nothing to do with my Dad. He has taken no part in my music career.

"My father was not supportive of my music. I realised early on that I had to follow my own way of doing things. I didn't always agree with his opinions musically, but I'd like to think he is my biggest fan now.

"He has a CD of my demos in his car and takes it with him on the road. He says he listens to it, but I doubt he does.

"I want to be judged on my own music. I know it will be hard with my name, but I think that once people listen to the music they'll see that I'm not jumping on anyone's coat-tails. I'd like to think it stands on its own merits."

Father and son now live a couple of doors away from each other by the Thames in Middlesex and share a love of cars.

Rick Jnr is a karting champion and drives an open-top Caterham sports car.

He speaks to his father most days on the phone and often pops into the rocker's apartment in a plush riverside development.

Happily for Rick his father has also re-established a friendship with Marietta, and had lunch with her last week as the band toured Germany.

"Mum and Dad are friends now," says Rick. "They get on now probably better than they ever did. It's taken a long time, but we are all friends."

Rick says of Status Quo: "I've never been a big fan of Dad's music. It's not really my thing and I've told him. But when you see the band live they are amazing.

"If any of the new bands around today are still in the charts in 30 years time it will be a miracle. I'd love to have half the success my father has had in the music business."

Rick has also found himself in demand for modelling assignments after being spotted in the street by scouts for top international fashion house Hermes.

And if any proof were needed of his determination to hit the big time, it is to be found in the words emblazoned on the T-shirt given to him by a friend..."Trainee Rock Star".

Copyright 2001 MGN LTD
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