Eager to see how does the band sound after yet another hiatus, and with a new guitar player? You’ve come to the right place. Live in Israel, May 22, 2022: Continue Reading »

Ritchie Blackmore has also resumed some very light touring with two shows in Pennsylvania. Here is some amusing anecdotage as told on May 19, 2022, in Harrisburg, followed by an old Purple classic Soldier of Fortune Continue Reading »

Guitar.com has more Blackmore quotes from his Sirius XM broadcast in April. On the nascient band that Chris Curtis was trying to form in early 1968:

I was living in Hamburg and I got a telegram from Chris Curtis saying ‘Come on over, I need you. We’re making a band’. headed over to England. I met Chris, who was obviously on some sort of medication and he said, ‘Right. Are you ready?’ and I went ‘Well… who’s in the band?

He went ‘we have Jon Lord [on keys]’ […] and I went, ‘Well who’s on bass?’ and he went ‘Well, I am,’ so I said ‘Okay, who’s on drums?’ and Chris went ‘I am,’ and I said ‘oh, well that’s great’. [Curtis then] goes ‘I’m also playing first guitar… you’re playing second guitar’ and I went ‘okay, so I’m playing second guitar to you? Very good’ […] that’s how we started Deep Purple.

[I remember that Lord and myself] met the managers involved and they thought [Curtis] was a little bit crazy. [When we both] got together, I said to Jon Lord ‘Jon, this Chris Curtis… he’s a bit of a strange guy, right?” and he said ‘Yes’. […From then], Jon was probably my best friend in the band.

When [Jon] did pass away, it did affect me more than I thought it would, so I wrote the tune Carry On… Jon. It was very difficult to actually play that particular tune on stage without becoming emotional. This is for Jon.

Read more in Guitar.com

Deep Purple are resuming their touring in earnest today, May 22. The Jerusalem Post has a blurb ahead of the two shows in Israel welcoming the band to the country. Roger Glover was interviewed for the occasion:

Maturity may have something to do with longevity, but it all depends on the personalities in the band. Some bands are volatile, and others are calm. For us, Steve Morse brought an era of peace to the band. When he joined, we decided we weren’t going to be led by anyone. We were a band of five members, all of them equal leaders. So there’s no jealousy and no motives for any arguments.

It’s not like we haven’t been playing; we just haven’t been playing together. So we do have to actually rehearse together a couple times. It’s brushing off the cobwebs, but it always falls into place. It’s a bit like putting a comfortable glove back on.

Read more in Jerusalem Post.

Ritchie Blackmore was a guest host on SiriusXM’s Guitar Greats show last month (April 12) where he discussed some of his biggest guitar inspirations, and Jimi Hendrix in particular:

When [Hendrix] came to England, Jeff Beck came up to me and said ‘Ritchie, we’ve got to do something about this guy’,” Blackmore said. “And I said ‘who are you talking about?’ And he said ‘Jimi Hendrix, he’s killing everybody over here – he’s upsetting everybody!’

And I’m like ‘well Jeff if you can’t do it, nobody else is going to do it’ because I always thought of Jeff as being the best rock player.

I followed him because I thought the way he used riffs [and surrounded songs] in a riff – it had magical moments. Brilliant guitar player and he also looked like he was from the moon.

Really in a way he didn’t have to play the guitar, because he looked so strange and different to the typical English musician, and it worked and i’m so glad it did. Unfortunately it only worked for three years, but he certainly set the world alight.

I only met him once. It was in the Whiskey in Hollywood and I was going into the toilet and he was playing with his hair or something. I mean I always thought of Jimi Hendrix as the ‘Wild Man Of Borneo’ and there he is – fixing his hair in the mirror.

That was the only time I met him and we kind of nodded to each other and that was it. So I never really got to know him, yet he certainly set the world on fire.

Besides Hendrix, other guitar players mentioned as inspirational were Les Paul, Albert Lee, Eric Johnson, and Trevor Rabin.

Thanks to Guitar.com for the quotes.

Whitesnake legend Bernie Marsden hosted a special evening at Coles Book Shop in Bicester, England on Thursday, May 12, to celebrate the vinyl release of his recent albums of blues standards Kings and Chess. Continue Reading »

Ronnie James Dio passed away on May 16, 2010. Louder Sound is reprinting the tribute article that first appeared in Classic Rock magazine #147, June 2010.

Music was central to his life from an early age. Although he never received any formal vocal training, as a child he mastered French horn and trumpet, to which he later attributed the breathing control pivotal to his singing power. He played bass guitar in his first professional group, The Vegas Kings, a rockabilly outfit formed in 1957 and based in New York State. But it didn’t take him long to answer his true calling.

By the end of 1958, he was lead singer of a new-look band, Ronnie & The Red Caps, later renamed Ronnie Dio & The Prophets after Ronnie had adopted a stage name appropriated from mobster Johnny Dio. Success did not come quickly. As the rock era dawned in the 60s, Dio toiled in obscurity as leader of the Electric Elves, subsequently shortened to Elf. But in the early 70s came the break that he had longed for, when Deep Purple’s Roger Glover and Ian Paice saw potential in Elf and elected to produce the band’s self-titled debut album.

And from there, a strong connection was formed between the two bands – a connection that led Dio to the man who would transform his career and change his life…

Continue reading in Louder Sound.

The charismatic Elizabeth digs into Perfect Strangers off the infamous ’93 Birmingham gig.

I have been absolutely enthralled by Ian Gillan’s vocal prowess, and Richie Blackmore’s captivating guitar solos. So here we are with the next of your most recommended Deep Purple songs, this time without a solo for me to interrupt with a pause…

Thanks to Mike Whiteley for the heads up.

Another prolific musician professes his love for Deep Purple, and this time it’s Steve Vai. In his interview to My Planet Rocks he said:

Well, when I was a kid, I was a huge Deep Purple fan. I was so bummed when Ritchie Blackmore left the band, when those guys left and they weren’t in the band anymore. And they got this new guy, this new bass player (Glenn Hughes, who replaced Roger Glover), and singer – David Coverdale, and I just thought, ‘You don’t like him immediately,’ because he’s not your hero. But then I bought that record (1973’s ‘Burn’), and my God, I was stunned. He was such a great singer. He was inching up on number one. When I saw, I think it was the Us Festival, where David was really singing, I just became a fan, and was a fan of the Coverdale Deep Purple for all those records.

And then, I went into other things, but when the Whitesnake record came out in the ’80s, the Whitesnake record that had all that great, incredible music, and his voice – that’s a dedication to that seed of rock and roll that he expresses. It was so refreshing, and plus, these pipes, you know? I really enjoyed that record, and when the call came in to join the band, I just thought, ‘How could this be?’ I went from one crazy, incredible frontman David Lee Roth to another. I just knew that was an amazing opportunity, to sing with someone that I considered one of the greatest rock singers. Just the quality and the power in the voice.

Here is the interview. Purple bits start at around 13 minute mark.

Thanks to Raised On Radio for liberating the interview and to Ultimate Guitar for the transcription.

Guitar Player presents these bits of wisdom from Steve Morse.

In the early ’80s, during his Dixie Dregs years, the Deep Purple guitarist shared some fantastic tips that many electric guitar and acoustic guitar players will no doubt still find useful.

We’ve had a rummage through the Guitar Player vault to bring you five of his finest…

1. Warming Up

“The important part about warming up is not to do it too hard right at the beginning – do it slow and easy, then work up. You want to get your muscles warmed up, and then let them relax and loosen up. Then go and do it some more.

“In three to five minutes you can get warmed up enough to break for about 30 seconds or a minute. Then you can practice for as long as you want, as long as you mix it up. Don’t do too much of one thing.”

Continue reading at GuitarPlayer.com.