Veteran rockers Status Quo stripped down, down, deeper and down to pose naked on the cover of a new acoustic album.

The pair, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, appear on the front of Aquostic (Stripped Bare) with only a pair of guitars to protect their modesty after drafting in singer-turned-photographer Bryan Adams to take the picture.

Francis said: “I sometimes get nervous before going on stage, but walking out in front of Bryan Adams with just a guitar to protect my modesty took some doing; expect he was scared too.

“It makes for a great album cover but I’m definitely keeping my clothes on for the rest of my Quo career.”

The band have turned off their amplifiers and dumped their trademark three chord sound to rework 22 of their songs for the album including Rockin’ All Over the World, Down Down and Pictures of Matchstick Men.

The new album is business as usual for Quo after it was announced last month that Parfitt would miss his first gig since joining the band in 1967 when he was told to rest by medics following surgery to correct a problem with his previous heart bypass.

Parfitt fell ill during the band’s European tour and was flown home from Croatia to be treated at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. He had a stent inserted after it was found a graft from his 1997 quadruple heart bypass had become furred.