Backbone (Status Quo album)

Backbone is the 33rd studio album by British rock band Status Quo. It was released on 6 September 2019 and debuted at number six on the UK Albums Chart (and at top spot on the Album Sales Chart, which subtracts streaming activity from specific album purchases in all digital and physical formats). It was the band's 25th UK top ten album and their highest-charting album of original material since 1+9+8+2 (1982). Backbone also entered the Swiss album charts at number two, and the German album charts at number six, giving the band their highest album chart position in the latter, despite a long history of enduring popularity.

Frontman Francis Rossi stated in a 2022 interview with Classic Rock magazine that Backbone was likely to be Status Quo's final studio album. Rossi blamed the shift to streaming as the predominant means of consuming music and called out Spotify in particular: "It’s something we’ve sweated over and they’re giving you a quarter of a penny per stream? Fuck you." He described the situation in the industry as "even worse than when we were all getting ripped off in the sixties". However, he did not write off the possibility entirely and made it clear that the band still has "one in us".

Background
Backbone is the first album released by the band since the death of rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt, who had featured on every prior Status Quo album. Speaking about the album in a press release, frontman Francis Rossi expressed both pride in the content and sadness regarding Parfitt's lack of involvement, saying "This new material had to be seriously good. Quo have achieved so much and meant so much to too many people for the quality to slip now [...] Losing Rick was hard to bear but, through Richie Malone, who was inspired to pick up a guitar by him, we can not only keep going but actually pick up the pace." He concluded: "I wasn't sure I had another album in me but I couldn't be more proud of Backbone." The album was dedicated to Rick Parfitt: "This album is dedicated to the memory of Rick Parfitt OBE (1948–2016)".

The title track was released on 12 July 2019 as the first single, with a promo video. The second single, "Liberty Lane", was released on 9 August 2019 and a video for the single was later released in September. The band had started playing "Liberty Lane" and "Cut Me Some Slack" live a month before the album was announced, generating excitement for the new release, which is notable for being one of the few times the band have toured new music before release.

Personnel
Status Quo
 * Francis Rossi – lead guitar, vocals
 * Richie Malone – rhythm guitar, vocals
 * John "Rhino" Edwards – basses, guitars, vocals
 * Andy Bown – keyboards, guitar, vocals
 * Leon Cave – drums and percussion

Production
 * Francis Rossi – producer, mixing
 * Andy Brook – engineer, recording, mixing and mastering