Status Quo's Francis Rossi sure has some stories to tell. While you might expect his most entertaining yarns to be plucked from a life spent on the road, turns out his best – well, his most grim, at least – is actually from his days as an ice cream man.
Speaking on a recent episode of Psycho Schizo Espresso, Rossi tells hosts Bruce Dickinson and psychologist Dr. Kevin Dutton about the time he gave a serving of ice cream containing his own blood to a customer when working in his family's business.
The Italian musician's family used to run the Rossi's chain of ice cream parlours in London. Rossi used to work there in his youth alongside his father, before becoming a musician.
He explains: “I was supposed to go into ice cream but at the time that was a horrendous thought, and now I’m thinking, it wouldn’t have been that bad".
Detailing how the incident happened – which saw plain ice cream turn pink after it came into contact with his blood – the Status Quo leader says "You see, the ice cream goes into these chambers; it’s liquified and you pour it in the top.
"It’s a frozen chamber and this thing swings round with blades and it makes ice cream. Well, I stood up to check it… I pushed the ice cream down the little funnel piece… and of course the blade kicks in to start the thing, and it chopped my finger.
He continued: “And it kinda went pink, the ice cream. Fuck knows whether they’d get away with that these days, but [Dad] made me serve it the rest of the day! He said, ‘Just tell them it’s strawberry or something.’”
At which point Dutton chips in, “There’s probably all these people of a certain generation running around south London with things wrong with them,” to which Dickinson responds, “Rossi D.N.A.!”
Within the discussion, Dickinson mentions “ice cream wars”, referring to the violent incidents between rival crime gangs in the '80s. Rossi comments: “That goes on. A couple of times my dad came home beaten up for some reason. Unless he was chasing someone’s wife. He was probably a bit that way – Italiano!”
Listen to the full conversation below:
