More of Steve’s interviews at the NAMM.

He shows off Music Man serial number 000002, which was presented to him by Ernie Ball on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the first guitar built to his exact specifications. Serial number 1 is, of course, his well known and by now properly battered blue guitar:

Steve (once again) talks about different versions of his Music Man and his plans for 2017 — and between Purple, Flying Colors, and Dixie Dregs it sounds like it’s gonna be a busy year for him:

Thanks to American Musical Supply and Gear Gods for the videos, and to Marije Essink for the heads up.

Steve Morse was at the NAMM convention (as he often does), which was held January 19-22 in Los Angeles.

Steve and John Petrucci interview each other:

Steve talking about his Music Man guitars:

Paul Gilbert, Steve Lukather, John Petrucci, and Steve Morse chew the fat (Steve joins at around 11 minute mark):

Thanks to Guitar World, Reverb.com, and Andertons Music Co for the videos, and to BraveWords for the heads up.

In his interview to Heavy Worlds Ian Paice said that the band has not yet made any plans as to whether The Long Goodbye Tour will indeed be their last:

It’ll be a long tour. It may be the last big tour; we don’t know. […] We haven’t made any hard, fast plans. But it becomes obvious that you cannot tour the same way you did when you were 21. It becomes more and more difficult. People have other things in their lives, which take time. But never say never.

We enjoy playing onstage, but we have to be real about life, you know? So this will be a major world tour, and when it’s finished, we’ll see how it feels.

This post has been brought to you by our told-you-so department.

Thanks to Heavy Worlds for the info (via Blabbermouth).

In anticipation of his European tour (which starts in Newcastle on January 20), Glenn Hughes spoke to the Metal Express Radio. He introduced his band — Soren Andersen on guitar, Pontus Engborg on drums, and Lachy Doley Jay Boe on keyboards, offered his $0.02 on the 2016 Rainbow incarnation, talked about the setlist for upcoming tour, discussed the Wolves’ prospects for the season, and shed some new light on why his co-headliner with Living Colour fell through:

You were going to do-headline with Living Color in November but that fell through. What happened there?

I got a call to say they`d pulled out of the tour and was given no reason why but have since heard that they were offered a tour with Alter Bridge which their management must have thought was a bigger tour so they went for that despite all of the paperwork being sorted and agreements in place to come to the UK with me. There`s no problem between us as I know those guys well. I think it was their management who made the decision.

Read more in Metal Express Radio.

Errata: after this interview was taken a few weeks ago, a new keyboard player Jay Boe has been announced for Glenn’s band.

Thanks to Blabbermouth for the info and to Yvonne for correction.

Don Airey will be inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History. If you never heard of such hall, it is quite new — in fact, this is their first induction year — but quite ambitious. The induction ceremony will be held on January 18 at the Anaheim Expo Center, the day before NAMM opening. And Don is in a good company too: fellow inductees include Ronnie James Dio, Lemmy Kilminster, Randy Rhoads, Vinny Appice, and Rainbow Bar and Grill, among others.

Thanks to Nathan Sage for the heads up.

Wymer is preparing to ship another limited edition photobook, this time on Whitesnake.

Whitesnake In Full Flight is a fully independent publication: A collection of concert photos and behind the scenes shots of David Coverdale’s Whitesnake during the bands classic early years from 1978 – 1981.

With over 130 concert photos from UK gigs they include fantastic shots from their third ever gig in Wolverhampton on the first “back to the roots” tour. By the time of the band’s first full scale UK tour promoting the debut album Trouble, Coverdale’s former Deep Purple band mate Jon Lord had joined. The book contains photos from Birmingham during that tour. The Deep Purple connection continued when drummer Ian Paice joined in 1979. There is also a photo of Paice from the band’s third gig although he was just another audience member at the time. Paice joined in time for the band’s first appearance at the Reading Festival in 1979 from which there are many photos included along with shots from later in the year during the Lovehunter Tour. The concert photos conclude with shots from their appearance at the 1981 Monsters Of Rock Festival.

Whitesnake In Full Flight also contains a superb range of photos from the personal collection of bassist Neil Murray who is collaborating with us on this publication. Armed with his trusty Pentax, Neil was always on hand to catch the band in many different situations and locations. His collection includes photos from the first Japanese tour in 1980 and the recording sessions for the Saints & Sinners album in the Autumn of 1981.

This combination of behind the scenes images mixed with the dynamic gig photos are beautifully presented in a 128 page, full colour hardback book. Limited to only 300, each book is individually numbered and sits neatly encased in foam within its own metal flight case and is a beautiful addition to any Whitesnake collection.

If that wasn’t enough, this unique publication also includes a set of 6 A4 photos printed on high quality 400gsm premium board and perfect for framing. The six photos contain one full band shot and one each of Coverdale, Lord, Paice and guitarists Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden.

The book will be published on April 7 and can be ordered directly from the publisher.

The record company has published the contents of the upcoming Time for bedlam Deep Purple EP.

It will include:

1. the album version of Time for bedlam;
2. Paradise bar — a new song recorded during inFinite sessions; this track is promised to be exclusive to the EP;
3. instrumental version of Uncommon Man
4. rehearsal version of Hip Boots recorded live at band’s rehearsals shortly before entering the studio record the new album.

The EP is scheduled to be released on February 3 and is said to be available for a limited time.

Preorder it from Amazon:

TL;DR: financial affairs of the pre-reunion Purple are a huge mess. Lots of money “disappeared”. Lawsuits are abundant. Gory details below.
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Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night were interviewed for the European edition of Newsweek. This being a very mainstream publication, the interview may sound a bit superficial to a trained ear (we all could probably do without yet another retelling of the gambling house burning down story). There are still interesting bits and pieces, nevertheless.

When you reformed Rainbow for the shows last June, were you disappointed that you weren’t able to invite original singer Ronnie James Dio, who died in 2010?
I hate to say it, but no, I wasn’t. I’d finished with Ronnie a long time ago, and we kept in touch now and again but I went on to other things and he was in other things. We kept it very convivial and that, but I think neither one of us really wanted to get back together. He’s a strong alpha male, and so am I; he wanted to go one way, I wanted to go the other.

Speaking of burning something, you set an amp on fire while performing with Deep Purple at the California Jam in 1974.
That’s right. That was part of our more-musical moments.

What was it like performing to nearly 300,000 people?
The obvious thing was it was nice for the ego. We had to get flown in by helicopter because there was traffic jams all over California to get there. But I’m always weary of doing outside venues with other big bands because there’s a lot of sabotage, believe it or not. It was an old trick to sabotage the other band by taking out half the P.A., but invariably it was the road crew, not the band. We had it done to us so many times, I would always go up the side of the stage and actually listen to each speaker to make sure we had a sound coming out.

Deep Purple co-headlined Cal Jam with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. What do you remember about the late Keith Emerson?
I always loved watching Keith perform. I was a big fan of the Nice [the group Emerson was in before joining ELP]. We used to play the rounds together back in ’68, ’69. To me, he was one of the best showmen and players. A very nice guy. I always liked watching him. Some of the favorite frontmen would be Freddie Mercury [of Queen], Ian Anderson [of Jethro Tull], obviously Jimi Hendrix and Keith Emerson. People like that were so good at doing the show as well as playing the music.

You can read more in Newsweek.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Glenn Hughes recently spoke to Hawaii Public Radio. The interview is half an hour long, and understandably covered a lot of topics.

I’m the only child of Bill and Sheila Hughes, named after Glenn Miller. I grew up listening to — you’re going to love this story — Frank Sinatra was played in my home seven days a week until I left when I was 21. It just so happened that I became friends with Frank in 1981, and it just so happens I got to introduce my parents to Frank. Frank gave my father some of his clothing, and it was, like, you just never know where it’s going to take you. Remember, this is the guy who was all jacked up on blow and Jack Daniel’s in the ’70s who never would have met Frank Sinatra under those circumstances. When I started to get my life in order and realized how things have to change… I’m kind of a guy who always likes to change. It’s simple for me: I got to keep changing, I got to keep thinking differently and keep growing. I’m never going to stop until the end. I’m not an artist that’s going to say, ‘Hey, I’ve done it. I’ve created it. I’ve done it. I’ve arrived.’ No, I’m still working at it, I’m still working, chopping away. I’m going to be chopping away until the very end. I never want to be that comfortable. I just want to be able to mix myself around people, and watch people, and learn. I love to check out what everyone else is doing. So I like to be silent. I like to walk around, let nobody know I’m there. That’s the kind of person I am. I want to be a student.

From the purely Purple perspective, there are mildly interesting bits towards the end of the interview with Glenn reminiscing about California Jam and the first Mk4 gig in Hawaii.

Bonus feature: Graham Bonnett appeared on the same show a day earlier

Thanks to Blabbermouth an Hawaii Public Radio for the info.