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

These are not the same guys

Yesterday, September 25, 2026, Ian Gillan has his ‘Mr. Grover, Mr. Gillian’ moment on the national TV in UK. He appeared for a brief interview on the prime time news program. We’ll try to forgive them, for they obviously don’t know what they are doing (and, as per bloody usual, sound like strapped for time). […]

News | read more »


Benz on the highway

Europe teamed up with fellow Swede Erik Grönwall to play a song we all know on Swedish TV: The performance is from a long running Swedish quiz show where Europe acts as the house band for the first three episodes of the season. The question for this musical segment was of course which artists made […]

Blog | read more »


Blame it on the cat

Ritchie Blackmore was interviewed by Phil Aston for the Now Spinning Magazine podcast. In this the first episode of what is promised to be a 13-part series, no less, Ritchie talks about his recent guest appearance on stage with Deep Purple.

News | read more »


We all came out to college

Sometimes Deep Purple related news come when you least expect it. I was browsing the conference schedule for a pro audio-video tradeshow taking place in Stockholm in early October. Kicking off the proceedings is a talk called, “Smoke on the Water – the story behind a rock classic“. A kind of odd topic where the […]

Blog | read more »


Self-described as underrated

Greek blog Rock Overdose publishes an interview with Joe Lynn Turner done on the occasion of him apparently playing some dates in the country (his own website is conspicuously mum about it). Rock Overdose: Speaking of Ritchie Blackmore, you know him better than most people. What do you think would have to happen for Ritchie […]

News | read more »


What happened at the bar?

Deep Purple are resuming the Splat! tour on September 29 in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Ian Gillan spoke to an outfit from that country called Z-Rock. We talk about Deep Purple’s new music, inspiration, and the secret behind creating songs that continue to find new fans generations later. Ian Gillan also looks back at some of […]

News | read more »


Skills, talent, and plenty of bollocks

A new documentary focussing on Deep Purple Marks 2, 3, & 4. There are no groundbreaking revelations, no original footage, it looks like it was compiled from previously known sources. But it’s nicely put together. For whatever reason, the playback on other sites is disabled for this video, so if you have an hour to […]

Blog | read more »


Oh ye, of little faith

Ian Paice returns with a rare issue of his DrumTribe video channel. It is a drum cam studio video for Arrogant Boy.

News | read more »


Marco and his loud mouth

Dino Jelusick spoke to the Rolling Stone Brazil, and about half the conversation revolved around Whitesnake. He told how exactly their final tour has unravelled, spoke about the ill-fated one-off Whitesnake Experience show, and the prospects of resurrecting the band with him on the vocals. TL;DR: the serpens albus bits start at around 14’50” into […]

News | read more »


Who is Gene Simmons?

Steve Morse in conversation with Larry DiMarzio: What does it take to revolutionize guitar tone? In this unscripted conversation, legendary guitarist Steve Morse sits down with Larry DiMarzio to discuss the birth of aftermarket pickups and the evolution of the modern electric guitar. Larry shares the story behind inventing DiMarzio pickups, how his creative process […]

News | read more »


Across the puszta plains to see

Ritchie Blackmore’s YouTube channel has posted a video clip for Anya. The video material appears to have been sourced from Come Hell or High Water and synced up with the album version. The video creation is credited to one Russell Wagus.

News | read more »


Public demonstration of friendship

Classic Rock publishes an account of Ritchie Blackmore appearing on stage with Deep Purple on this past tour, with some input from Ian Gillan and a few Blackmore quotes taken from the recent Guitar Player interview. Nothing was said that we haven’t really heard before, yet here it is. “It was an absolute pleasure to […]

News | read more »


Queen – Mary Long – Beach 9/11/26

Having worked in the World Trade Center, this day has been miserable for 24 years. Finally, the day provided some joy. In the shadow of the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Deep Purple completed their return to California. It’s been seven years since they’ve been here. Another installment in the summer of the Deep Purple […]

Tour Reviews | read more »


Seven minutes short

You might recall that the Rolling Stones Mobile truck has found a permanent home at the Canadian National Music Centre in Calgary. Deep Purple were in town on August 31, 2026, and Ian Gillan paid a visit to the old chap. His story of recording Smoke is by now so thoroughly rehearsed that it has […]

News | read more »


Sweet little lies

Ian Gillan was a guest on the Joann Butler In Studio With… podcast, and here is the result. Some of the stories we’ve already heard before, others are new.

News | read more »


Anything but heavy

The Mercury News carries a pretty scathing review of the band’s performance from September 5, 2026, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. Deep Purple really had no business following Kansas and, not surprisingly, its headlining set felt quite anticlimactic. Even though it appeared (at least on paper) to have the most impressive lineup […]

Tour Reviews | read more »


Good rocking throughout

AntiMusic reviews the band’s latest studio offering Splat!: Don’t spend too much time being concerned with where the title of Deep Purple’s latest album comes from. Just know that the long-running classic rockers have another winner on their hands with Splat!, a set of melodic hard rock that on occasion harkens back to their early […]

News | read more »


A path of sonic excess

Louder Sound reprints a Metal Hammer feature for newbies A metal fan’s guide to hard rock pioneers Deep Purple. Our regulars won’t find anything new in there, but if you happen to be reading this and wondering what this site is about, there’s your chance to educate yourselves. There are some minor inaccuracies here and […]

News | read more »


It’s all very, very Teutonic

Accept is celebrating its own 50th anniversary with the release of an album (of what we understand are remakes of the tracks from their heyday) called Teutonic Titans 1976-2026. In addition to the current lineup of the band led by Wolf Hoffmann, more than 50 guest artists made their contributions, including Joe Lynn Turner.

News | read more »


Snapshot of an artist at a crossroads

Ultimate Guitar celebrates 50th anniversary of Tommy Bolin’s Private Eyes with a feature penned by Greg Prato: Fifty years ago, Tommy Bolin offered his second solo effort, “Private Eyes”, an album that found the gifted guitarist and songwriter moving in a noticeably different direction from both his work with Deep Purple and his eclectic 1975 […]

News | 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