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Blow you out of your socks
More Tony Carey! This time he talks to the Classic Album Review poscast. These interviews are apparently being done on the occasion of his Planet P Project albums being reissued on vinyl by (who else!) Edel, but a good half of the conversation revolved around his stint with Rainbow.
Thanks to Uwe for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Doesn’t surprise me about Cozy. He always came across in interviews as someone who didn’t take any prisoners. The post war upbringing is something all or most of the musicians, actors etc from that side of the pond talk about. The hippie in Tony Carey, yes indeed, polar opposites and that makes it all stand out even further. Thanks for the interview. Good humour again at times. Cheers.
May 17th, 2026 at 07:38Cozy, an adopted child as he was and never finding out who his biological parents were, probably did have a chip on his shoulder and his journeyman career through countless bands likely indicated that he was on the search for belonging somewhere, yet at the same time prone to making adhoc solitary decisions. The circumstances of his death were tragic/an inordinate amount of adverse circumstances combined: rainy night, not state of the art/good condition tires on his SAAB, driving under the influence, too high a speed, not wearing a seat belt and distracted by a cell phone call from his married girlfriend facing domestic violence at home – it was a bit much altogether.
When I met Tony in 1984 and we got into talking, he was dismissive of his Rainbow days, but did say that he had enjoyed meeting Ronnie and Jimmy backstage on their first Dio tour in Germany just a few weeks back. He was obviously very fond of them.
May 17th, 2026 at 16:17Very much enjoying these interviews with Tony. He seems like a stand up guy and tells a lot of believable things …. Mind you , he does think Don is better then Jon …not sure about that one !
May 17th, 2026 at 20:09I do think too that Don is technically superior to Jon, especially on piano and synths, but probably even on the Hammond. But Jon‘s eternal charm was not so much WHAT he played, but rather HOW he played it. Jon was just the right amount of sloppy, devil-may-care that makes Rock’n’Roll work. The way he played with aplomb as well as spit & vinegar cannot really be replicated.
I think Don is as much a superior technician to Jon as Steve was/is to Ritchie. Jon and Ritchie were innovators, but not necessarily the best organist and guitarist who ever walked the earth. But when they walked together, they sure made one hell of a dinosaur racket! 🤗
May 18th, 2026 at 13:52#4 Uwe:
I would say that even as a composer Jon has shown from the Concerto with the orchestra to his entire solo career that he is on another planet even in the arrangements and facets from classical to jazz
May 18th, 2026 at 21:15Very interesting comments Uwe and I would agree about Steve …but , I’d rather take Ritchie for Deep Purple ( although I really love Steve and I still miss him and I’m miffed that he’s gone )
May 18th, 2026 at 21:41But it has to be Jon for me …boy could he make the Hammond growl !
I’ve said before , I think Don is a robot …but let’s see in the new album if there is anything exciting and dangerous between him and Simon….because , there certainly was between Jon and Ritchie ….and that’s what made Deep Purple!
I’m not in any way saying that Jon was a lesser musician than Don! He was just not as technically adept/nimble with his fingers. Never forget that he wrote Boom Of The Tingling Strings with the open intent “for someone on grand piano to play it who is younger and better than me“.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuQq5m4VDLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9W_NLnSGM
Don’s role model as a music student was Keith Emerson, I believe I am not hurting Jon’s feelings or insulting his memory when I say that Keith’s piano playing was in another league. Listen to Don here @07:27 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eltDwcUFEao
Personally btw, I preferred Jon’s often more pastoral piano playing to either Emerson’s or Airey’s, but that doesn’t make it technically as sophisticated.
May 18th, 2026 at 22:25Not surprised Tony Carey mentions Don Airey. He is another all round keyboard player, so to speak. Like Wakeman, although Don may have played the Hammond a little more than Grumpy Rick back in the day and Rick is NOT known as a Hammond aficionado. He could play one, but he didn’t cut his teeth on one, for want of a better description. Jon Lord isn’t really known for the Moog and synths, of which he sort of reluctantly embraced at a later stage. Keith Emerson was more of an all-round techno keyboard player from that era. Jon was initially a little anti synth wasn’t he? I do remember a comment Jon made all those years ago how he didn’t like being referred to as a ‘keyboard’ player. He was an organ player and a pianist. Classic comment, he eventually embraced technology though, the old luddite he was. So we now have two British keyboard/ Moog/synth/ pianists who Tony liked. We wonder who will be next. Stay tuned for another exciting episode of ‘spot the British keyboard player’. Cheers.
May 19th, 2026 at 01:39Don is deeply rooted in preferring Keith Emerson’s approach to play the keyboards. Hence his technical skill and precision with doses of virtuosity and aggression, BUT at the expense of feel and charisma. And that’s what made Jon Lord for me standing slightly above Emerson and Wakeman. I endorse all three of them, but Jon trumps over the other two just because of the being “on it”, by nature, not by skill. Technical prowess or flashness – isn’t everything, and Don is falling prey to that thinking. He’s wonderfully reliable, doing an admirable job, but STILL – only a job. The LEGENDARY keyboard player left Deep Purple 24 years ago.
May 19th, 2026 at 07:18“By nature, not by skill.”
No disagreement from me here, Thorsun, Jon was musicianly gifted and anyone who has ever played with him agrees on that.
May 19th, 2026 at 14:01#10 Uwe:
I would also say that Jon had something that made him superior, I could say a vision of ensemble music, a vision of an orchestra conductor even if it is not, but it is reductive, because this sort of vision already had it in the purples, then in the PALs and also in the WS (albeit limited) to continue in the Hoochie Coochie Man, which obviously were not classical music …. I do not know, perhaps deep knowledge of music + instinct + musical taste … I cannot well define this special gift of his that Don does not have, but that not even Wakeman and Emerson had
May 19th, 2026 at 22:57It was an honest interview. I loved it when Tony stated that Blackmore wasn’t a sellout. Instead of pursuing heavy rock Mr Blackmore followed his passion of time travelling into the Medieval sphere.
May 20th, 2026 at 01:00I am comfortable with Don being technically superior to Jon regarding piano and keyboards (in the general sense). But for Hammond I cannot see it. I thought for some minutes and I cannot recall one solo where Don really explored the qualities of this beautiful instrument. I mean a solo like “Keep on Moving” or something like what Jon does with the Hoochie Coochie Men or his solo’s with the Paice, Ashton, Lord ensemble.
Generally, I consider Jon superior as a musician. His knowledge of classical music was much deeper, including complex composing and orchestration skills. He was also much more comfortable in a blues or jazz setting.
On the other hand, Don seems more at home with virtuosic progressive rock stuff, like the ones he did in Colloseum II and often incorporates in Deep Purple albums (“Arrogant Boy” being the most recent). Also, Don is much better with synths, his solo spots on “Eyes of the World” or “Lost in Hollywood” are indicative. He has also done several memorable inputs in Ozzy and Judas Priest etc.
Another quality I think he is unmatchable in is “emulating” an orchestra. Like what he does in “The Well Dressed Guitar” or in things like the below with Uli:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_vTw3pzr8c
May 20th, 2026 at 09:24Emerson’s playing could be harsh (if intellectually stimulating). Don isn’t quite as harsh, but harsher than Jon who always supplied warmth whatever he did. The piano in the middle part of Woman From Tokyo is pastoral to the point of bordering on kitsch, but it feels soooooo good … 🥰
May 20th, 2026 at 14:20I think Don is more drawn to Jazz and heavily digestible Classical Music like Mahler while Jon was more entrenched in Blues and the light to moderate classical composers.
Don also had the more thorough musical education. I’m not really aware that Jon ever went to university studying (and finishing in!) music like Don did. Of course that does shape your outlook.
Don played on stuff like this already almost 50 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWMBajWoT4o&list=PL7D6KxgQmGC6BPr08aUT4u1zE8Zmzwk2P
May 20th, 2026 at 20:06@15 Uwe
the fact that Don played in the Webber brothers’ interesting work does not change something. He is a very good player and versatile enough to play outside the rock&roll context, noone doubts that.
Younger than what Don was in 1978, Jon wrote, orchestrated and performed the concerto. A bit later he did works like the Gemini Suite, Sarabande and Windows. Not to mention his more “mature” orchestral works like “To notice such things”.
It is just not easy to find such stuff from other rock keyboard players, or generally musicians. I have listened e.g. to a lot of orchestral stuff from Wakeman, they are fine and you can find little gems, like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUY7aAAo9GU
There are other very nice works by people like Karl Jenkins or even Vangelis and I suppose several more I do not know of.
But still that level of understanding that Jon’s works display is not easy to find – at least not for my ears
The only orchestral work I can remember that Don did himself is this:
May 22nd, 2026 at 06:53https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azw4Kh8Rqpw
Of course, winning the Eurovision with UK is a little of a miracle on itself, so kudos to him!
Don doesn’t appear to venture into the orchestral and choir scene as much as Lord, Wakeman and even Emerson at times. Not compositionally at least. I don’t recall seeing articles or hearing anything along those lines. He appears to enjoy rock music per se, in a big way. All good though. Cheers.
May 23rd, 2026 at 23:45“Of course, winning the Eurovision with UK is a little of a miracle on itself, so kudos to him.”
I was about to say! 🤣 Those were the days …
https://youtu.be/X9Wxq_vNvVE
Of course, Bucks Fizz remain my all time favorites! Less is sometimes more, if not on Rising, then at least regarding skirts!
https://youtu.be/DszqGGSY4oo
May 24th, 2026 at 14:08@ 18- A bit like Rik Mayall being blackmailed by the Nolan sisters eh? Rik’s all time favourite four tissue fantasy. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vyhoFUTVSc
May 26th, 2026 at 00:55@18 and @19 🤣
May 26th, 2026 at 08:24