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Purple family double dip
Another long form interview courtesy of the dreaded lurgy. Eddie Trunk did a “double dip” on his latest (September 2) podcast by talking to Graham Bonnet and Roger Glover. Roger’s segment starts at around 7’00” into the podcast, and Graham’s at 48’25”.
Selected quotes from Roger talking about Ritchie Blackmore when asked if he thinks Ritchie’s sullenness and even outright hostility is “somewhat of a put-on to create all this mystery around him or if that’s really how Blackmore is wired”:
I think both. I think he is wired that way, but then enjoys it — he enjoys putting people on edge and people not quite knowing what he’s up to. That’s his personality, I guess. But he’s, first and foremost, a musician, and you’ve gotta take the music away from the man. ‘Cause the music alone is brilliant — he was an incredible player, an auteur, an instigator. He was on his road, and we were with him on that road for a while.
When he asked me to join Rainbow, I said, ‘Well, I don’t want any more changes. Let’s have a consistency going.’ That didn’t happen. But that’s what I wanted.
He’s mercurial and he follows his instincts. When I got sort of eased out of [Deep Purple] in ’73, on the very last gig, he didn’t say anything to me except pass me on the stairs, and he said, ‘It’s not personal. It’s business.’ And that actually meant a lot, because I was going through hell being thrown out of the biggest band in the world at the time. From him, he was sincere about that — it wasn’t personal. And we always seemed to get along pretty well. I never expected him to turn around and ask me to produce Rainbow. And that’s where I was when we did the album — we started it without a bass player, without a singer, so I ended up playing bass and writing all the songs with him. And it was only when the album was finished that Don Airey and Cozy Powell said, ‘How come you’re not in the band?’ So, I guess words were had and eventually I got asked into the band. So that’s how I joined Rainbow.
It was a different setup to Purple. Purple was a democratic unit, more or less, but Rainbow was his — he was the governor,” Glover added. “So I understood that. When we had Purple again, on ‘Perfect Strangers’, it came back to being almost as democratic as it was in the early days, but it wasn’t quite, ’cause Ritchie got so used to being the man in charge.
Ritchie, whatever he wants to do, he’s gonna do it anyway. I think he’s on his road, the road of his own making. And I can completely understand that. He believes in himself as an artist much more than a celebrity.
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the heads up and the quotes.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I loved the interview with Mr Glover. I urge you to listen to it from beginning to end if you have skipped some parts.
September 4th, 2020 at 07:16F*** this corona virus I would give anything to watch my long time loved band one last time.
This is not the way I wanted the band I love so much to say goodbye.
I don’t know how to contain my sadness but we live in hope.
My band won’t be whoosh away without a fight so fingers up yours Corona!!
As always it’s impossible NOT to love Roger. What a man.
September 5th, 2020 at 13:16is DOWN TO EARTH still Don Aireys favourite album he played on or did he change his mind?
September 9th, 2020 at 12:01After all, he did put a lot of himself in this incarnation of Deep Purple.