Francis Rossi is "scared s***less" of running out of money

He told The Guardian newspaper: "The thing that worries me constantly is: will I have enough money if I stop now and there's no more income? I'm scared s***less of that."

And Francis doesn't know what he would do without music.

He admitted: "I don't know what else to do. I'm obsessed by it all, and I just keep going."

The 'Whatever You Want' hitmaker initially formed his group, who were first known as The Paladins and then The Spectres, with Alan Lancaster in 1962 while still at school and later added drummer John Coghlan and late guitarist Rick Parfitt to the line-up and the quartet set out to emulate the Beatles.

Francis explained: "Everybody liked them and I must have been a wimpy kid, and I terribly wanted to be liked. Still do in some ways. That's quite sad. But we tried to emulate them - that's where we wanted to go."

The 'Down Down' rocker has previously spoken of his tendency to say inappropriate things and a lack of visible grief for those he loved and he's now reflected that a diagnosis of neurodiversity "would explain" some of his behaviour.

Asked if he has ever been tested for neurodiversity, he said: "You're the first person that's ever broached that at all. And now there are loads of things going on in my mind, because that would explain ..."

Speaking about poking at his mother's body to check she was really dead and making arrangements for his working day when told his father had died, he added: "I said, 'Is the car coming to pick me up?' And it makes me feel like I'm cold.

"But if I'm in a situation and I'm told what I'm supposed to do, I can't do it. I'm supposed to grieve, I'm supposed to say certain things. And I will be thinking, 'I shouldn't say that, that's not appropriate.'

"It's interesting, what you said. I never thought about that before."