![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse3.jpg)
Mr. Airey, what went wrong with your gear?
While being in Japan, Don Airey sat down to chat with Roppongi Rocks. Caveat: the host seemed to be more interested in Don’s stints with Ozzy and everybody else rather than Deep Purple.
Don is soft-spoken, and it’s quite a noisy environment, so turn on the subtitles if you have trouble deciphering what he is saying. It’s not perfect, but it helps.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Cannot see any coffee in sight there, maybe they enjoyed a nice cup of Earl Grey or something before hand. Thanks for the interview. I could hear Don talking no problem, he is such a modest quiet guy, have to love that. Not too bad a musician too, when he puts his mind to it. Cheers.
April 15th, 2026 at 21:47I like Don’s interviews too and I think he’s getting unjustly a lot of flak here for allegedly never improvising. I don’t hear that – he is just more cerebral and technique-minded in his improvisation approach so people might be drawn more to Jon’s more organic soloing in the past. Jon had the knack/gift of playing even something banal and making it sound majestic or clever – and that is NOT a knock! Jon was also more of a showman than Don (whose shtick it is to exude nerd charm), so he made his improvisations LOOK more wild (that is NOT a knock either, I loved how Jon moved on stage).
Don’s Eurovision excursion is one of my highlights in the Purple Family lore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azw4Kh8Rqpw
That was a great number and I knew immediately that it would be the winner.
I actually saw one of the Heep gigs he did – in Würzburg, this here is Frankfurt complete:
https://youtu.be/fqRv7Eb4PVM
Don did well but compared to Phil Lanzon’s bludgeoning avalanche of organ might when playing with Heep, even Don was a bit a shrinking violet! 😂 But it was cute to see the Heepster’s turn around and smile at him whenever he sneaked in an overt “Airey’ism” into his playing, surprising them with a keyboard line or snippet they had not heard from Phil Lanzon before.
April 17th, 2026 at 09:59What do you people think about Guinnessis, or however the new track is called?
April 17th, 2026 at 11:40I personally believe Don Airey is the only member at present who could still muster the ‘wildness’ of a risk taking improvisational performance. It is that he is simply playing the part in an aging band that is like all the other aging bands, playing it safe. That is what being elderly does to humans, it is all about being careful, forgetful, not taking risks etc etc. Don still has that flair about his playing, he is fine to my ears. Simon McBride is from the modern era and I am not sure about him being an ‘improvisational’ type of guitarist. Even with Steve Morse and for how long now have DP been taking it careful? He had his health issues and other things also going on in the band too that stifled the ‘wildness’ that the band still had in the 1990’s. Rock ‘n roll IS a young persons game. There isn’t any other reality for it really, is there. Younger people take more risks and have more energy etc. It isn’t rocket science. Plus the older school of music had much more improvisation in it compared to the technically ‘perfect’ modern era. Technical perfection, for want of a better description, kills improvisation, does it not. Cheers.
April 17th, 2026 at 12:28Oh what a kind man Don is 😊
Thanks for the interview 🙏🏼
April 18th, 2026 at 09:50Attila, I missed listening to Guinnessis while I still could, it has been taken off YouTube likely due to publishing concerns as it hasn’t been released yet.
April 18th, 2026 at 13:19Uwe, my take: promising though not much different.
April 18th, 2026 at 23:12