[hand] [face]
The Original Deep Purple Web Pages
The Highway Star

To help you cross in transition

Guitar World posts Steve Morse’s tutorial on wide intervals. Steve has kindly agreed to this unique tutorial on big intervals, a core component of his trademark style. He defines big intervals as anything larger than using adjacent notes, such as playing a linear scale (eg root, second, third). Typically, big intervals involve skipping strings, and […]

News | read more »


Live Archive 1975

Another batch of historic Deep Purple bootlegs have been digitally released through official channels. This one includes two Mark 3 performances from Copenhagen (March 20) and Gothenburg (March 21), and three from Mark 4: Auckland (November 13), Melbourne (November 25), and Nagoya (December 8). That’s 77 tracks in total. They are available on streaming platforms […]

Blog | read more »


There in middle of the circle it lies

Rainbow The Temple of The King 1975 – 1976 box set is about to be released on March 6, 2026, and Youtube channel Classic Album Review offers an unboxing video. You won’t learn much new from it that we have not covered before, but if you’d like a peek inside the box, here it is.

News | read more »


Rather they bought it than stole

Jon Lord promoting his then new album Beyond the Notes on a German TV morning show. This happened on September 23, 2004.

News | read more »


His first drum crush

Card carrying Paicey aficionado Chad Smith offers his take on Burn

Blog | read more »


Rather thrown by the magnitude

Ritchie Blackmore has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by the organization called National GUITAR Museum. Executive director of the museum (and former Guitar magazine editor-in-chief) HP Newquist says: Most people know Ritchie from being the driving creative force behind two of the defining hard rock bands of all time—Deep Purple and Rainbow. But before […]

News | read more »


Beam us up, Scotty

The latest album from William Shatner has been announced, and it is promised to be “a heavy metal extravaganza powered a veritable army of metal stars – each one personally selected and hand-picked by Shatner”. Said stars include Ritchie Blackmore, Zakk Wylde, Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream), Wayne Kramer (MC5), and Henry Rollins (Black Flag, The […]

News | read more »


A yodel for 17 strings and 2 sticks

Check out Steve Morse, John Petrucci, Dave LaRue, and Mike Portnoy jamming on a cover of Focus classic Hocus Pocus. This was recorded during the last John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe event, that took place in Las Vegas on August 7-10, 2025.

Blog | read more »


A very personal piece

Steve Morse, his band, and his son Kevin have recorded a composition Taken By An Angel, dedicated to his late wife Janine. After losing my wife and Kevin losing his stepmother, this is the piece we put together as a tribute. The part at the end was actually something I had written as a chapter […]

News | read more »


Chop it down with the edge of his hand

Steve Morse made a guest appearance on the single by a band called Dead Groove. They recorded a cover of a Jimi Hendrix classic Voodoo Child (Slight Return). LA’s heavy blues powerhouse return with a stunning cover of Hendrix’s classic for this highly collectible 7″ vinyl! Features guest appearances from Deep Purple/Dixie Dregs guitar legend […]

News | read more »


Insecurities and more insecurities

Guitar Player has an article on Ritchie Blackmore based on an interview he gave to the paper version of the magazine circa 1996. That relentless, almost surgical pursuit of perfection was felt far beyond his own ranks; it reverberated through the generation of electric guitar players raised on his records. As Billy Corgan of the […]

News | read more »


Show must go on

Despite the cancellation of the pretty much all Glenn Hughes tour dates for this year, his appearance at the Sound & Vision Awards in Palm Springs, California, on March 2, 2026, is apparently proceeding ahead. Glenn has posted on his Twitter: Music changes lives – especially for kids 🎵 Join me March 2, 2026 at […]

News | read more »


The Köln Concert

For Record Store Day in the UK, there will be an exclusive 3 color vinyl release of the Rainbow concert in Köln/Cologne 25 september 1976. Here is the promo blurb from the Record Store Day UK site: First time ever vinyl release for this incredible live concert from Rainbow’s debut world tour and documenting one […]

News | read more »


Failed the jazz audition

PROG magazine has an interview with Steve Morse, highlighting the earliest years of his illustrious career. But the music programme at Miami wasn’t ideal. I was very interested in classical guitar. I wasn’t that interested in the jazz department, because I was playing Jimmy Page songs and weird, teenage angsty music. So I didn’t know […]

News | read more »


For one night only

The much rumoured Deep Purple show at the Royal Albert Hall has finally materialized. It is scheduled for November 25, 2026. The tickets go on sale this Friday, February 6 at 10 a.m., with registration for presale already open via the same link. Promo blurb reads: On November 25th 2026, Deep Purple will return to […]

News | read more »


The end of humanity, but in an optimistic way

Ian Gillan was a guest on the Songwriting For Songwriters podcast, talking about, naturally, his songwriting process, both within the band and as a solo artist. He also mentioned that the new Deep Purple album is due out some time in June. Well, it’s very interesting on this one. I can’t give you too much […]

News | read more »


The rubble moved

In this collection of bite-sized memoirs, Ritchie Blackmore talks about the earliest days of Deep Purple: meeting Derek Lawrence, signing an unfavourable contract, covering Hush, and 16 telegrams from Chris Curtis.

News | read more »


Live from eagle’s nest

A couple of Steve Morse interviews from the recently concluded NAMM 2026. Steve talks about his relationship with Ernie Ball and his latest album Triangulation

News | read more »


Purpendicular at 30

Purpendicular holds a special place in our hearts, as its release and events leading to it coincided with the formation of the online community that had founded this website and still runs it to this day. It is also one of the seminal albums in the history of the band — alongside with In Rock, […]

Blog | read more »


The Paul and Steve Show at NAMM 2026

The yearly Namm Show in Anaheim, CA ends today. As usual, the show is a place where both professional musicians and regular folks roam around the show floor looking for the latest in musical tools. This always generates interesting YouTube videos from demos and impromptu small concerts in exbitor booths. Paul Gilbert and Steve Morse […]

Blog | read more »


||||Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
© 1993-2026 The Highway Star and contributors
Posts, Calendar and Comments RSS feeds for The Highway Star