![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice2.jpg)
Gonna find a way
Music Radar has an interview with Steve Morse, where he speaks about his ongoing struggle with arthritis and how it affects his playing style and career choices.
[…] If the call came in with an offer to join a band, Morse is not sure that he would accept it. He’s not sure his body would hold out.
“I don’t think I could. I’m not rock solid. When I say I’ll do something, I’m used to doing it, and doing it excellent. Right now, I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. When I wake up, am I going to be able move my hand or not? I don’t know. So far I have been able to. So far I have been able to make every gig. But I dunno.
“I think my time of doing the performance grind is closing. That window is closing but my time for writing, and possibly performing with some help, with some other musicians, is very possible. I see a future but I don’t see me being a hired gun because I couldn’t stand up to the level of players you can get now. And guitarists are literally dime a dozen.”
Read more in Music Radar.
And here’s a music video for TexUS from SMB latest album Triangulation, with the behind-the-scene second guitar courtesy of Eric Johnson:
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
The music that Steve plays with his band leaves me cold, I’m afraid. It’s not unpleasant, and I admire the musicianship, but I don’t need ever to hear it again. I don’t even want to hear it again to understand it better. But perhaps it would grow on me if I had it on as background music a few times.
October 23rd, 2025 at 00:21The song – with a distinct Wishbone Ash vibe in places – is pleasant, but interchangeable. He‘s overdoing it with the double- and triple-tracked lead harmonies and in the absence of a second and third guitarist live how is he ever going to replicate that live without some gadget adding the additional harmonies electronically?
It‘s really not for me to say, but Steve is acting like an athlete who refuses to live up to the fact that his time in pro sports is physically over – trying to compete with/stay on top of physically fresher 20-year-0lds. And I question the health wisdom of wringing even the smallest bit of playing ability out of an already damaged arm/wrist/finger system.
What would be so terrible if he played only 25% of the notes he used to play, scaled down the over-embellished guitar clinic arrangements (which have frankly grown a bit long in the tooth) and play half his usual speed? Is he scared that people would no longer recognize him and rate his playing? I certainly would. And maybe his arm/wrist/fingers would then rebel less too.
October 23rd, 2025 at 00:50It is a difficult one Uwe. Steve Morse possibly could back off and change at this late stage of his life. However, old habits do die hard as they say. I remember reading decades ago and quite often too about how much playing he did, all the time. Everywhere and anywhere and obsessive practising too. It happens in life and not only with musicians and athletes etc. How many old school auto mechanics have I known who have problems later in life with their hands and elbows from using the ratchet socket set up, spanners, screwdrivers and other tools. Same with carpenters and builders with their older day tools. Decades of work and repetitive strain. These days technology and new gadgets help to alleviate many of the repetitive strain issues for the modern day craftsmen. I hope Steve Morse can find some easier technique or perhaps a different approach so he can still play, compose and enjoy creating music. Cheers.
October 23rd, 2025 at 08:32This is sad to hear. I’ve been listening to the new single TexUs, and I think it’s great. Although nothing extremely original and unique, I enjoy it. Playing is great and the composition is great. Those who tend to snipe Steve’s new music and playing: this is the man who saved Deep Purple in the 1990s. He did absolutely fantastic job with Purple. He brought Purple to the new millennium. Go back to Purpendicular, Rapture, and Whoosh, and have a listen. (With full volume.) — Well, I know you all love him, too.
October 23rd, 2025 at 08:41@2 Dear Uwe, I’m fully with you. Steve needs to play less, in all respects. And yet… The musicians are often hostages to the reputation and image they have created themselves. Steve is used to playing fast and he expects it from himself. Fans are used to Steve playing fast and expect it from him. If he slows down, literally, and simplifies the arrangements, a lot of people start voice their frustration: ‘oh, he’s not what he used to be. Where are his fast runs?’ It is difficult to handle this frustration and it is even more difficult to to break from the vicious circle and reinvent oneself as a composer and musician.
It will be similar to what people are saying about Blackmore. ‘Ricthie? He betrayed hard rock. He plays those childish acoustic tunes. Where’s his Fender pyrotechnics? Where’s his dexterity?’ And Blackmore, for all his flaws, was one of the few who actually dared to reinvent himself and start playing something more properly fitting his age and in line with his creative evolution.
The saddest story to me is the one of poor late Keith Emerson who literally killed himself not being able to play with the dexterity he used to have.
So, I would be happy if Steve would be playing 75 per cent of what he actually does, for starters.
October 23rd, 2025 at 08:59I understand that there are expectations both Steve and his fans have re his playing, but there is also something like artistic growth, development and – I will say it – aging gracefully with physical deterioration. Fuck, we all deteriorate.
No one is sniping at him. Steve was a lovely and supportive person during his tenure with Purple. Yes, he saved the band and held it aloft for decades. But when I hear in an only very recent interview of his that he admires the 13 years younger John Petrucci (who inexplicably prides himself in six-hour scale rehearsal marathons) for his training regimen and machine-like dexterity, I begin to wonder. I guess it’s alright to dig that as a 14-year-old, but at 71 (Steve’s age)?! Shouldn’t Steve at this point in his life rather say something like “I really admire George Benson for his choice of notes.”
https://youtu.be/iUd7zn9JCk8
rather than try to run as fast as John Petrucci?
I’m a bit taken aback because over the years I have always defended Steve against the accusation lobbed at him by Blackmore tribesmen that he is only technique (he isn’t), yet here he is now making it appear that sheer athletics are a core requirement for him to make viable music.
This “not accepting age and what comes along with it”, be it as a Hollywood actress or as a talented guitar-playing hay-farmer and hobby pilot from Florida, is that a North American continental psychological affliction?
October 23rd, 2025 at 11:28Switzerland..Bananas..great Steve and guys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gUAYlMBDxg
October 23rd, 2025 at 13:57I’ve seen Morse live several times (with DP). I always had the impression that his right arm was too much for him; I saw it as too stiff, with the tendons and muscles clearly visible from all those scales he played on the guitar, and at the time, no one knew (at least not me…) that he suffered from such pain.
October 23rd, 2025 at 16:31Ruthless Uwe, or should that be Dr Uwe? Just because someone laments their predicament, they should do this and they should do that……. Spare me a dime. I will throw it in the wishing well. Seriously speaking though and I am not a guitarist at all, however we do read about the issues with modern guitarists, especially electric rock guitar. Why does Robert Fripp sit down? Well, he has done for many decades as do jazz guitarists and of course classical guitarists. The positioning of the arm, back and hand etc etc. It is apparently about the ‘Zen’ approach, for want of a better description. Didn’t Steve Vai have some issues as well. Not putting undue stress on certain parts of the body, holding the pick is one of them. Even classical guitarists have to eventually wind it down and then stop playing all together. God knows how all these musicians who have played music for a zillion hours do it. How many of them are suffering in silence? We may be surprised as to what issues many of them face on any day. Drummers have heaps of issues, look at what happened to Neil Peart. Another ‘obsessed’ musician who spent countless hours at the drum kit for decades on end and ultimately paid the price. It isn’t a natural thing to do, when you look at posture and everything else that goes with it. As Dr Uwe says, we all deteriorate eventually, if we live long enough that is. Cheers
October 23rd, 2025 at 20:40His picking arm never looked right to me, even in the 80s. Everybody holds and plays the guitar a little different, but I’ve never seen someone stiffen his arm like Steve did (already early on), it looks like something chosen for utmost precision, control and attack on the guitar, but not at all like a natural arm or hand position. I wouldn’t be surprised if the degeneration of his arm, wrist and fingers isn’t also based on that hardly ergonomic habit of his.
He was never a light player either, you can tell by how loud his electric guitar sounds when it is not plugged in and he is playing something, he shreds with real force. In comparison, Ritchie had a feather-touch.
October 23rd, 2025 at 21:56@7
Thanks for the link… been looking for this one for a long time.
October 23rd, 2025 at 22:04I should stress that I admire Morse both as a musician and as a human being, and love Morse-era Purple, especially the earlier albums, which I find musically richer than the classic Mk. 2 and Mk. 3 albums. But when you look at what he chooses to play when he has his druthers, it doesn’t sound much like Purple, and, perhaps to my discredit, I don’t really get it (though I’d welcome advice on what I’m missing!).
October 24th, 2025 at 01:26Andrew, you‘re not missing anything, what SMB do is a very specific kettle of Florida grouper soup
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRaY2QEAQTYBGefqgLQpTRGH8St3K45__9ikFP1q1C4achefmfH-1sdaKei&s=10
and an (mostly by musicians) acquired taste.
It‘s not really
– Prog in a sense like YES or even Rush or Dream Theater, though it is similarly (over-)embellished,
– Fusion or Jazz Rock because it lacks any strong Blues or Funk influence (SMB music is relatively “unblack“, ie “white bread”, there is a lot more more Country and Bluegrass in SMB than the Blues),
– classic guitar rock power trio music because it is so elaborately structured and eschews almost all improvisation when rendered live (Steve is on record for saying that he found the amount of improvisation required by DP live tasking for him initially because he wasn’t used to it from either the Dregs, Kansas or SMB).
So what is it then? Like Steve has said in an interview: electric guitar chamber music. Extremely ornate, well-rehearsed and with sophisticated technical playing by all three members. That sometimes makes it sound quite stiff to my ears. And though SMB also features hard rock elements, they are never raunchy, it’s all way too controlled for that. Compared to SMB, even Blackmore’s Night live is almost a Grateful Dead’ish free form experience. 🤣
It doesn‘t sound all that much like Purple – even though Steve‘s sense of melody and riffing is clearly apparent in both bands -because it lacks key Purple ingredients like raunch, swing, improvisation, a foundation in the Blues and of course – Karin will offer her virginity to me for writing this – a human voice, especially one as idiosyncratically brilliant as Mr Gillan‘s. 😇
October 24th, 2025 at 12:05Steve, you have to comee back to Deep Purple, I really miss you there.
October 24th, 2025 at 20:25Steve Morse existed a long time before he joined the DP behemoth. He would have had to adapt a lot more than the existing band members to ‘fit’ in. I hear similar situations with other musicians who link up with an established ensemble, they don’t change that much. Especially once they are finished or even when keeping busy outside the existing group they are involved with. Cheers.
October 24th, 2025 at 21:04“Dr Uwe” is quite alright, my Tasmanian specimen …
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IkWN!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9cafdcd8-d2a8-4911-9a92-dd678328f347_480x480.gif
October 24th, 2025 at 21:35Well, as far as I know, Steve suffers for about 15 years now…and he says himself that part of it is due to the way he plays.
One can prefer a smoother/softer approach but Steve became famous and one of the most respected guitar player in the world partly because of that original playing and wizardy on very fast alternate picking. So I guess we can understand he’d like to stick to it.
Of course Uwe is going to teach him how he should age and even what he should say (for example about Benson, whom he admires), but that’s why some of use love him…I guess 😀
But I get his point, Steve could say something else or play differently and I’m sure he’ll do it one day. To me his interview shows that he wants to keep up with his athlectics as long as he can, that’s all.
And yes, he’s a fantastic human being and as much as I love Simon, the current DP sound and the incredible =1 (and his =1 tour), I do miss meeting him.
October 25th, 2025 at 08:36For me, Steve Morse is the best musician of all guitarists who are considered technically brilliant or fast. Steve Vai once said that Morse’s notes are like the ringing of bells; it’s as if you could capture every note. No muddy sound like you hear with Malmsteen & Co. And his fast runs always trigger an ‘aha effect’. His technical brilliance is always at the service of the music. Just remember his solo in ‘Ted the Mechanic’. Or that fast run in ‘Doing it Tonight’ on Bananas. Or what he conjures up together with Mike Portnoy in ‘Mask Machine’, Flying Colours. Or Peaceful Harbour. Or Night Meets Light by the Dregs. Steve knows better than anyone how to tastefully incorporate his guitar artistry into the musical context. All this makes him one of the most extraordinary guitarists of all time. This is precisely why John Petrucci, for example, admires him, as he rarely manages to achieve even a fraction of this musical finesse, e.g. in his work on ‘Breaking all Illusions’. Nevertheless, Steve is underrated in the mainstream, considering the fan base that shredders like Paul Gilbert and others have. However, I believe he should have left Deep Purple after the first three albums.
October 25th, 2025 at 10:52Speaking as a guitarist with a disability (cerebral palsy), I know first hand (pun intended) how difficult it is to adjust to physical limitations and and limitations in your playing style. I was born disabled – I have had years of practice of adjusting to my limits and becoming okay with what I can and cannot do – both working within my limits and pushing myself just a little bit more.
Consider that Steve has not had all that long to adjust to living with a disability – this is emotionally difficult for anyone to go through. I think rather than chastise him for struggling to accept his new reality, it is more helpful to put oneself in his shoes and realize it is incredibly painful and difficult to accept that your body is what you want it to be or what it used to be.
I would kindly suggest we all give Steve the grace and space to figure out his challenges – it is not easy. I have many days where I want to play like Steve in his prime and know I cannot – that doesn’t mean I stop trying to push my limits a little bit, and get creative and push for more speed and accuracy in my playing while accepting my limitations and where my body is at physically.
I think for Steve to go on record about all this is incredibly vulnerable and brave, and I am proud of him for it. I simply give him the space to figure it out for himself. That’s far more rewarding in the end anyways. Believe me, I know what it’s like to play guitar with a disability, and it is not easy!
I am proud of Steve and trust he will find his way!
October 25th, 2025 at 12:33@13: thanks, Uwe! The lack of bluesiness is probably what I’m missing. But I love (classical) chamber music, especially string quartets, so let me give SMB’s music more of a try.
October 25th, 2025 at 17:02The difference between Steve and Richie is most visible and apparent in the Highway Star solo. Richie plays it elegantly with a quizzical or neutral look on his face. Steve grinds it out with a painful grimace. Always noticed this difference. It is stark.
October 25th, 2025 at 18:40@ 20 – listen to the quieter pieces Andrew, leave out the high energy rock trio material. Steve Morse’s solo album High Tension Wires also has some really nice music on it, the more laid back instrumentals. Cheers.
October 25th, 2025 at 22:29HI guys
Deep Purple started with In Rock and endend with Burn.
The rest is a joke. People links Deep Purple to Mark II .Without Ritchie it is nothing.Nobody can replace him.
Deep Purple is highway star, smoke on the water,woman from tokyo etc…
NOT STEVE MORSE
NO WAY
THANX FOR TIME GUYS
October 26th, 2025 at 00:41Well Karim … it’s a real pity this site could not be closed down in 1974 then, isn’t it?
But thank you for letting it be known when DP came to an end finally – as the guys themselves seem to be uncertain about it.
October 26th, 2025 at 12:39@23
Karim, so happy there is room for different opinions!
I simply adore Ritchie Blackmore and of course Mark ll, but I will also say that as long as Ian Gillan is the vocalist, and all the years where he has been singing his heart out, Purple have captured the my heart completely!
And I honestly think they have made some really bitchin’ music 😃
October 26th, 2025 at 13:40Mike, utmost respect + more power to you for picking up the guitar in the face of physical challenges!!! I love that, may I call you Django R? 😘 Don‘t let up.
You know how the saying goes: Style is more determined by what you can‘t do than by what you can. I‘m known as a very melodic and harmonic bassist, I‘m not good at things that require great right hand coordination so most of the athletic stuff like tapping, ultra-fast playing or slapping blitzkrieg attacks are beyond me. But I‘m sure that my melodic and harmonic side would have never developed as it did if I had been better at the flashy stuff. I sometimes see teenagers or kids who have obviously only been playing bass for a few months in music stores or on YouTube doing something athletic or extremely nimble on bass and I think to myself: Darn, Uwe, you klutz, you‘ve been playing for nearly half a century now and you still can‘t do that! 🤗
October 26th, 2025 at 14:11Karim(ba), now he’s really told us! Yeah, let‘s listen to some joke music!
https://youtu.be/CIgbKQ2_fwY
https://youtu.be/EhDylUKMnWM
October 26th, 2025 at 20:36(Also a testament to how much feeling Steve can show in a solo if he leaves his bag of usual tricks closed for once.)