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Steve the mechanic

Steve Morse sat down to chat with American Music Supply at the 2026 NAMM convention.

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A song about castles and crossbows

Meanwhile, Classic Rock reviews another family box set — Rainbow’s The Temple Of The King 1975-76: The tour rehearsal material, for all its historical value, is ruined by too much bass and distortion. But across six live discs – with just a little overlap with the band’s 1977 album On Stage – there is much […]

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Everything in one place

Get Ready to Rock reviews the upcoming Ian Gillan Band box set Down The Road: The Complete Ian Gillan Band Story, now due out apparently at the end of March. Another wonderful package, two fold out card cases with a 7” booklet that is well annotated. Bonus artwork includes both UK and Japanese editions of […]

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An owl meeting a bumblebee in mid-flight

Guitar Player has an undated interview with Ritchie Blackmore, where he discusses searching for the perfect guitar tone back in the day. “It’s interesting to note that Jim Marshall didn’t know much about amplifiers,” Ritchie Blackmore says. “And yet he knew how to design something that caught on like crazy. This is a similar situation […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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.

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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.

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His first drum crush

Card carrying Paicey aficionado Chad Smith offers his take on Burn

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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.

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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