Bob Ezrin gave a keynote interview on Saturday, March 23, at the Canadian Music Week in Toronto and told the story of how he got to be the producer of Now what?!:

I wasn’t really thrilled with the idea because I didn’t want to be pegged as ‘the guy who does old people,’ so I said, ‘No.’

I got convinced to go see them here at Massey Hall here in Toronto and 15 minutes into the show, they went into this big long fully prog jam.

Steve Morse stood up and played Rock God and played the most amazing guitar I’ve ever heard and then Don Airey filled it with these huge keyboards and then the drums and the bass and everything came in and the whole audience went nuts and then I realized we never see that anymore.

That used to be a staple at every concert you went to when I was a kid. The only people doing that are like Dave Matthews and jam bands but that’s all like hey-yo (toke sound) but this is all like YEAHHH, this was rock power.

I said, ‘If you want to be a contemporary rock band and be relevant give up, forget it, it ain’t gonna happen and I’m not the right guy to produce it. No one will pay this record on radio; no one will care about it in the contemporary business, but I you want to make THAT record – if you want to make that unashamed musically brilliant record, I’m in,’ and they did.

It was Roger Glover one of the great bass players of all time, he said, ‘We want to put the ‘deep’ back into Deep Purple.’ And I said, ‘You’re on. Let’s go.’

Thanks to Noisecreep for the info.

If you’re in Berlin and want to have your own ‘Abbey Road moment’, location of the very atmospheric ‘antique lamppost’ shot from the Now what?! promo shoot has been identified as the corner of Schlesische Straße and Skalitzer Straße. The shot in question appears to have been taken from the upper level of the Schlesisches Tor U-bahn station.

View Deep Purple – Berlin in a larger map

Thanks to pavel for the info.

Roger Glover is talking about his bass amps made by Danish company TC Electronic:
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Behind the scenes video from the promo photoshoot for the new album:

New Deep Purple single is out on March 29 in two physical formats:

7” coloured vinyl — 1000 numbered units worldwide

side a) Hell to Pay (radio edit)
side b) All the Time in the World (alternative mix – radio edit)

CD single digipak — 2000 units worldwide

1) All the Time in the World (alternative mix – radio edit)
2) Hell to Pay (radio edit)
3) Perfect Strangers (live)
4) Rapture of the Deep (live)

Timing:

All the Time in the World (Radio Mix Edit) 03:49
Hell to Pay (Radio Edit) 03:42

A shorter 3:35 edit was also produced for All the Time in the World. At this moment, it is not clear which one will be on the single.

Credits:

Don Airey, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Steve Morse, Bob Ezrin
(KT – Composer & original Songwriter)
Produced by Bob Ezrin
Mixed by Bob Ezrin and Justin Cortelyou, Anarchy Studios, Nashville, TN
Edit by Justin Cortelyou
Mastered by Eike Freese
Engineer: Justin Cortelyou
Assistant Engineer: Li Xiao Le
Tracking Room Assistant Engineers: Zach Allan & Jarad Clement
Rainbow Recorders Engineers: Rob Harris, Mike Airey & Nathan Sage
Recorded at: The Tracking Room, Nashville, TN, Anarchy Studios, Nashville, TN, Additional Keyboards recorded at Rainbow Recorders

Thanks to Andrey Gusenkov for the info.

Metal Shrine has a very interesting interview with David Coverdale. He talks about his plans for the current year, Whitesnake’s upcoming live albums Made in Japan and Made in Britain, embracing the Internet age, possibility of collaborations with Glenn Hughes and Bernie Marsden, his touring schedule, personal losses, patching things up with Blackmore, and being an international operator.

When conversation steered towards expanded releases of the old material, David said:

“Northwinds” was rereleased in 2000 with two bonus tracks.

David Coverdale: Yeah, I had nothing to do with that. When you find out years later that your contract deny you any artistic involvement after you´ve written and recorded those songs, and the songs are precious to you like children… that applies by the way, to all Deep Purple. We have absolutely no say. It´s astonishing for a band of that power and contractually it was so castrated by the dinosaur elements of contracts in those days. Very disagreeable and of course still in play. Of the current Purple I believe several members tried to change this several years ago and lost in the British courts. I couldn´t stand what they did to “Burn” and “Stormbringer” and it was very disappointing to me and I have no involvement, so I won´t promote those things. Kevin Shirley was very respectful to me. He did “Come taste the band” and did a masterly job on it and I´d love if he did the “Burn” and “Stormbringer” records, but I have no say in that. I just collect my royalties. One of the things that I fully embrace is the freedom and the liberation that I have in my career now.

Read more in the Metal Shrine.

Thanks to Classic Rock for the info.

Update (Mar 26): it appears that the recording has been removed from the radio station’s website.

Argentinian radio station Vorterix has broadcasted a 13 minute preview of Now what?! with a lot more music than what we have been exposed before. You have to mentally tune out the DJs babbling all over the music, but you do get to hear more of the album.

Timing of the tracks in the clip:
0:53 – 3:52 — A Simple Song
3:59 – 6:00 — Weirdistan
6:06 – 8:25 — Out Of Hand
8:30 – end — Hell To Pay (album version)

Listen on vorterix.com.

Thanks to ptr from Deep Purple Fan Forum (via Daniel Bengtsson) for the info.

Edel/earMUSIC has made available a second preview clip from Now What?! — Hell to Pay. Well, sort of “available”. They really screwed the pooch on this one as the video is actually not available in many countries, including such major Purple markets as UK, Germany and Canada.

Go try your luck, or if it doesn’t work try one of the proxies in other countries.

Jens Johansson and Timo Kotipelto of Finnish/Swedish metal band Stratovarius provide us with the first (to our knowledge) public review of Now what?! Que lots of Nordic restraint.
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Some time in late May / early June 2011 Ian Gillan spoke to the Queen’s Park Rangers fan club, as he is an avid supporter of QPR himself for many years. he shared bits of anecdotage about his decision to say ‘yes’ to Purple reunion in 1984 (and how QPR was involved), and we also learn which team Don Airey is supporting.

Listen to the conversation on QPRnet (flash required).

Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen for the info.

Don Airey spoke to AsiaOne before the Singapore gig earlier this month and when the topic of conversation turned to the Rock’n’Roll HoF, shared this:

Newman’s fantastic but he’s not really a rock act, is he? Neither is Donna Summer, although she made one of the greatest records I’ve ever heard. If you’re going to have a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, let’s have some rock and rollers in there.

There was a kind of ripple of excitement, like ‘Oh, we’ve been nominated!’. Then Ian [Gillan] said, ‘Don’t worry, we won’t get in’.

He also revealed that Uncommon Man from NowWhat?! will be a tribute to Jon Lord:

The awful news came through that Jon had passed away and we went in and recorded an improvised introduction to this number. It was really about Jon and it is quite moving, I must say.

He was always friendly to me, especially when I joined the band. He was a lovely man, Jon, and he’s greatly missed by everyone.