How many guitarists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Steve Morse was a guest on the No Cover Charge podcast, spreading nuggets of wisdom and jamming with the host.
Thanks to Guitar World for the heads-up.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/paice1.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride2.jpg)
Steve Morse was a guest on the No Cover Charge podcast, spreading nuggets of wisdom and jamming with the host.
Thanks to Guitar World for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
100! 1 to do the change and 99 to say they can do it better!
Really?
Then it has to be guys 😄
Steve Morse is a sweet guy, so humble and still very informative 😊
October 15th, 2025 at 07:32Gotta love that ☺️
How many guitarists does it take to screw in a light bulb? One Hundred. It takes one guitar player to actually screw in the light bulb, and 99 to stand there and say “I could have done that better. 😁
October 15th, 2025 at 12:18Somebody help me with the estuaries of the Morse family delta!
So Steve has a special needs stepdaughter Shauni in her 30s, apparently a great Joan Jett fan,
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dg9z8F-W0AAzFfl?format=jpg&name=large
she must then be from an earlier relationship of Janine, right?
And his biological son Kevin is “half Greek”,
https://youtu.be/Y_Q897zI8sY
so Janine had Greek origins? (And Steve and Janine therefore a “big fat Greek weeding”? 🤗)
Referring to the Dixie Dregs and SMB as “chamber music”, as Steve does, really sums it up: I never thought of it that way, but it’s totally descriptive. Fits in with his early love for Jacques Loussier.
https://youtu.be/hzZFBoZTZHs
Applause for Steve’s self-deprecating “I’m doing it wrong!” when playing the SOTW riff with a – shock, gasp, horror, heresy 😱 – bending as the C# power chord. 😂 But I think he’s mistaken with his assumption that he was “very good at alienating 30% of the Purple audience”, I saw Steve at least 20 times with Purple, there was a lot of love for him at the gigs )at least in Germany where we know how to behave, jawohl!). Granted, he didn’t have Ritchie’s outlaw mystique, but no one was expecting that. Appreciation of what he was doing for DP – a few idiots excepted – was always high. I’m fine with Simon now carrying the torch, but the Morse era need not be belittled. Thank you for your service.
PS: These guys doing that ‘No Cover Charge’ podcast are great, love their wacky humor and they’re empathetic interviewers.
October 15th, 2025 at 13:03@3
Hello Uwe,
Steve was married 3 times. Kevin is his (only) son with his 1. wife Celeste.
Janine had two daughters = stepdaughters to Steve.
October 15th, 2025 at 14:04Danke schön, very helpful, I had no idea!
So Celeste
https://www.picclickimg.com/1p0AAeSwqKxox46d/Kansas-1986-Power-tour-Steve-Celeste-Morse.webp
had the Greek heritage, I was wondering – WARNING: stereotypes approaching! – because Janine didn’t look all that Hellenic to me. Not really the Melina Mercouri type.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDHWOymjJhE
October 15th, 2025 at 16:30“How many guitarists does it take to screw in a light bulb?”
An utmost naive question if ever one has been pos(t)ed. Guitarists are of exactly zero use for such an impromptu and potentially complex task, no matter how many you have. Before they even approach the socket they will whine “But I don’t have all my equipment!” and “I can’t get my sound!“. 🙄🙄🙄
Drummers aren’t any help either: “Darn, I don’t have my drum tuning key with me! Can anybody loan me one?” (They need those for pretty much everything, reproduction-affiliated activities – even drummers get lucky sometimes – included.)
Keyboarders, however, are a different matter, you just need to pe patient with them: “I need to take the new light bulb home first and wipe the factory programmed sounds to replace them with my own.” After a
October 16th, 2025 at 08:20weekmonth or so, they will change the light bulb no sweat, albeit with the caveat “The light still isn’t quite right.” So the light bulb will be removed a few more times and taken home for sound optimization. Subsequent comments by rehearsal space co-users along the lines of “I really don’t see a difference in lighting though …” will be answered with a snappy “That’s darn right, YOU certainly don’t!“@3 Hello Uwe, I forgot one question: What about Kevin is greek?
I knew the collection of his guitarplaying with New World Martyr that you mentioned and was impressed: like father – like son!
October 16th, 2025 at 17:21And his part in “Time junction” (on Out Standing in their field) was just incredible. I’m glad that he plays a duet with Steve on the new album, too. Even if the reason is a very sad one…
Steve says so in the interview that Kevin is’s half-Greek & half-American, that is how I came up with it, I hadn’t known before. His mother had Greek origins apparently.
October 16th, 2025 at 22:45@8:
October 17th, 2025 at 14:22Sorry, I hould have listened to the interview first!
And now: just another time that I was blown away by Steve’s musical genius, humour and the way he interacts with people!
Always a pleasure to listen to an interview with Steve. And this one is very interesting. And he is very serene even when he reflects on his time in Deep Purple. Simon is certainly a good replacement for Steve, but I must say that de I love really the Morse-era, especially with Jon Lord. I saw them several times live and it was always a blast.
@6 : it takes 5 guitarists to screw the light bulb : one staying on the chair and holding the bulb in front of the socket, and 4 turning the chair clockwise until the bulb is screwed…. 😉
October 18th, 2025 at 08:48That was a seriously good, improvised jam between those two near the end of the video. Morse still has tremendous skill. If Simon is ever ill or needs a break, Purple ought to bring him back into the camp or even consider doing a two-guitarist lineup with Morse and McBride trading off on rhythm and lead like Morse did with the host in the video.
October 18th, 2025 at 18:15I will say that the talk of Ritchie ever returning to DP is officially over, now that he can no longer take a plane trip or even travel in a vehicle more than a couple states away from home due to his heart condition.
#11
As much as I would love a dual guitar line up of DP with Steve and Simon (oh my god how that would be so amazing!), it just ain’t gonna happen! Steve clearly has no desire to get back into DP’s relentless touring schedule.
I’m also not sure how he’d feel about filling in and covering songs from the McBride era – probably similar to how Gillan feels about covering Mk 3 and 4, I’d imagine.
Still, I live in hope that one day we might see Steve guest with them occasionally for a couple songs like Jon did after he left – THAT would be a (more realistic) dream come true, and I hope one day that time will heal all wounds and that it will happen.
October 20th, 2025 at 05:18I could never see or hear DP as a two guitar band, even in a live only setting, that is not what DP is about. Probably end up a little like the 90’s Yes lineup with Billy Sherwood on additional guitar. That did not work at all and how could it. When we have a quality guitarist and keyboard player laying down so much music previously, it sounds a little unnecessary and awkward at times with an add on, so to speak. Cheers.
October 21st, 2025 at 23:47