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Love, The Duke
In the latest installment of Question Time with DC (hat airs on Whitesnake TV), the aforementioned DC shares a story of how he traded autographs with Hollywood icon John Wayne (the Alamo, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo not included).
There used to be a lovely dark bar at the Beverly Regent hotel called the El Padrino bar. And the amount of discreet assignations that went on there was quite remarkable. Anyway, I’m sitting there with our agent at the time, having a drink, and we have a show coming up at the weekend – this is Deep Purple.
And I went, ‘Oh my God. There’s John Wayne, for God’s sake.’ John Wayne in the corner with this beautiful young blonde. I’m sitting there tortured, going, ‘I should get an autograph for my mum. It would be amazing.’ And I’m going, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it. Oh, fuck it.’
So I got up, and I’m in those big snakeskin high-heel platform boots, and I wander over. And it’s happened to me a thousand of times. I said, ‘Excuse me, Mr Wayne. I’m so sorry to disturb you.’ And the blonde just sort of looks away, like, ‘Here we go.’
And he goes, ‘Yeah, kid.’ I went, ‘Listen, my mum’s a huge fan.’ I said, ‘Could I ask you for your autograph?’ He said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And he got a coaster, and he wrote ‘To Win. Love, The Duke. John Wayne’.
And I went, ‘Oh my God. This is amazing. Thank you so much.’ He said, ‘What are you doing in this place?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I’ve got a show at the weekend.’ He went, ‘Really?’ And he stands up, still a very imposing man. But his suits were kind of hanging off him – he’d kicked cancer.
And he went, ‘What’s the name of the group?’ And I said, ‘Deep Purple.’ He went, ‘God, my daughter’s been driving my office mad. It’s been sold out forever. Could you do anything?’
I said, ‘Just a moment, Mr Wayne.’ So I went over to the agent, got all the numbers for his office and came over. Then they asked me for my autograph. So I thought that was pretty spectacular.
Thanks to Louder Sound for the transcription and to James Gemmell for bringing it to your attention.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Lovely guy to have over a drink in the pub. He looks great for his age I have to say.
June 13th, 2023 at 06:08Peace ✌️
So, we finally know why the lyrics of coronarias redig is: ‘Ahh, aaahh, aaah.’
June 13th, 2023 at 10:36Cool story Mr.Coverdale !
But what happened to the blonde ???…
Peace !
June 13th, 2023 at 10:41Obviously Coverdale was ‘star struck’ at that time & we would hope oblivious as to who John Wayne actually was as a person. Do we need to go there these days Mr Coverdale? Anything for publicity. Cheers.
June 13th, 2023 at 11:12…….and the rest of the story from Mr Wayne, ” hey hon I ran into that singer you love and got you his autograph!” Who daddy, Robert, Roger….?” No hun David, last name starts with a C,. David Cassidy!????,
June 13th, 2023 at 11:15No hun David Coverdale, .. Oh daddy he’s in that band Deep Purple, they were really big a couple years ago…
really hun? They had a huge hit during flower power, around Woodstock, before Jimi, Janis, and Jim Morrison died. Then about 3 years later they had another smash, same band, although you wouldn’t think of it when hearing them called Smoke on the Water. kids learning guitar love that song. What happened to them honey? The problem is they can’t keep the band always people getting fired or quitting! It’s amazing they’ve been around this long. The guitar player left, Jenny told me about him, she’s more into them than me. He’s mean and moody though. Like’s to smash guitars, but the guy from The Who and Jimi Hendrix did that way before him. Jenny said they got a new player, but he’s American, and these guys are English. Apart from Jimi Hendrix, all the best players are from England. Gee sorry hun, I thought you would be excited, hear it is anyway. Hmmm David Coverdale, maybe Jenny will want it, she saw them when Smoke on the Water came out, thanx anyway Daddy.
Mr. Coverdale always giving great interviews
June 13th, 2023 at 11:39@5 ha, ha, good writer, you are. I myself wrote a novel about a bunch of friends (me was one, Pesoa’s style) who where together in 84, around the time PS was released, and get together again in 2019 (not in purpose), to fix something that went wrong then… It’s called “Estranys perfectes”, in catalan (translated Perfect Strangers) and it ends with a one only concert with all members of Marks II, III and V playing together…
Ha ha!, Fairy Tale, like Stephen king’s last. More now, that Morse is gone too.
Cheers.
June 13th, 2023 at 13:55Sit, children, sit … Uncle Uwe has a story to tell you:
Back in the mid seventies there was a teen magazine in Germany called POP (it’s editor Jürg Marquard was Swiss and would later on have his own international media group which included inter alia the very successful German edition of COSMOPOLITAN). POP was similar to BRAVO, so with any edition you’d find articles about the war between BCR and Sweet fans, Francis Rossi’s koi pond, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep members blaming each other for the last line-up split, a spectacular new band with make-up called Kiss and a few pages of educational treatises why you won’t die from your period, that most forms of petting won’t get you pregnant as well as that after-the-fact flushes with Coca-Cola are an unreliable, not recommendable contraceptive, all adorned with murkily lit soft focus light porn (anyone remember David Hamilton’s “Bilitis”?). POP had better paper (think PLAYBOY or PENTHOUSE, our older readers will know what I mean) and a more sophisticated/glammier layout than BRAVO, it was also more expensive. Their fold-out posters were of exquisite quality too. They always had great live pics of bands performing on stage.
Anyway, why am I writing all this? POP had a regular column where assorted stars would divulge personal trivia. And that is where I – 47 years ago, no less – first read about DC’s encounter with that mythological Hollywood figure. Only then a not yet quite so refined DC cited John Wayne as follows: “You’re with them? (Uwe: meaning DP) I’ve seen your picture in my daughter’s room then. She thinks the sun shines from your butthole …”. There was a small picture of David (circa Mk IV era) too, but I would like to unequivocally state here that – as far as I remember – it did NOT show him perineum sunning. (I’m glad we got that out of the way.)
We learn from this, my brethren, the story is old and likely true (people don’t remember made up things for half a century) and a younger DC was less reticent in using explicit language.
The DP loving daughter must have been Aissa, from the Duke’s third marriage and born in 1956; Marisa, his other daughter, born 1966 from the same marriage, would have been too young to frolic to the sounds of Burn and Stormbringer (with its oral sex inciting subliminal message at the beginning of the song!).
June 13th, 2023 at 14:03Aissa, far-right (to the left of her: little brother, baby-sis, mom & pop), back in the day (1972) when she likely still thought that Ian Gillan (and not DC) had orificial ‘hot-plasma-heat-incandescence-via-core-nuclear-fusion’-capabilities.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NpWYpFyDnxo/T8FPHeWhK2I/AAAAAAAAEz4/cAet_uiNHgU/s400/MV5BMTc5MDc0NjA2OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMjE1ODI2._V1._SX450_SY304_.jpg
I think THE HIGHWAY STAR, in its relentless journalistic quest, should really approach her and ask Aissa what her impressions of the Purple gig at the time had been. Not always have her choices been so impeccable.
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/01/wayne_daughter.jpg?resize=1536,1024&quality=75&strip=all
June 13th, 2023 at 15:47Some of those great POP magazine DP foldout posters which (over-)decorated my room …
https://bravo-archiv.de/pop-poster-1.php
https://bravo-archiv.de/pop-poster-2.php
https://bravo-archiv.de/pop-poster-3.php
https://bravo-archiv.de/pop-poster-4.php
https://bravo-archiv.de/pop-poster-5.php
(Huh, a poster of the Jon Lord Windows extravaganza in a teen magazine??? Yup, we’re sophisticated in Deutschland, didn’t you know?!)
https://bravo-archiv.de/pop-poster-6.php
https://bravo-archiv.de/pop-poster-7.php
June 13th, 2023 at 16:07Beautiful, Two of my hero’s. 🤣 👏
June 13th, 2023 at 16:41Blackmore playing an upside down Stratocaster? Hope this link works ok, it is from the same set that Uwe sent @ 10.
https://bravo-archiv.de/pop-poster-6.php
or maybe this might work?
https://bravo-archiv.de/nmimage.php?z=pop/1974-18-Deep-Purple-POP-Superposter.jpg&width=736&height=500&title=Deep%20Purple
June 13th, 2023 at 22:56@ 8,9 & 10…
Wow Uwe, you do know how to flush-out the history & articles !
qt.”We learn from this, my brethren, the story is old and likely true (people don’t remember made up things for half a century) and a younger DC was less reticent in using explicit language”.
LOL ! I always thought that DC needed to work on his stage announcements with DP back then…No doubt he had a few drinks, & maintained a strong pleasing voice during a show, but his announcements were mehhh…Better when GH did that imo…
eg “Here’s one for ya”!!!…
“Where’s the sunset” ???…
“Damn these *ucking flies, it must be my deodorant” lol !
He’s very-well mannered today, that’s for sure.
Peace !
June 14th, 2023 at 01:40A lot of great posters there Uwe. ELP is so underrated it’s criminal! I like the one mk2 pic, I have it in my Deep Purple Heavy Metal Photobook, that Roger Glover, and Ian Paice signed for me in New York in 2004. Paicey is at a bright blue drum kit, it’s not a Ludwig, but a Premier if you look closely.
June 14th, 2023 at 03:34That really happened, for sure. Actually it was The Duke himself who asked an autograph first, I was there to witness the whole thing with Johnny Cash.
June 14th, 2023 at 05:21I remember reading about Coverdale meeting Wayne in Circus Magazine way back when. Great magazine!
June 14th, 2023 at 07:27Herr MacGregor: That leftie Strat, yeah, I had almost forgotten about that though I had the poster. I guess it was Ritchie nurturing his inner Jimi Hendrix, it was a popular thing to do back then, KK Downing of Judas Priest as another Hendrix nerd had one too though he only went halfway with just a leftie neck (retaining a rightie body).
https://blabbermouth.net/news/k-k-downing-says-kks-priest-is-a-continuation-of-the-wonderful-music-he-made-with-judas-priest
Or maybe Ritchie just liked the sound/neck of that particular Strat.
And Gregster: Much as I adore Glenn, I always thought that even a young DC beat him on stage when it came to natural presence and authority. Glenn tended to be the overexcited puppy peeing on the rug (aided by substantial amounts of Colombian produce up his nose!), but DC contributed gravitas and general coolness. You’re right about his pleasant and deep speaking voice: I love stuff like when he announced in front of the Budokan crowd: “And now for the first time in Japan … Tommy Bolin is gonna sing for you!” as Tommy started playing the intro chords to Wild Dogs (that live version on Last Concert in Japan is the best rendition of the song ever) – which incidentally are identical with the ones of Glenn Hughes’ Holy Man (though that was written at a time when Glenn could not yet have heard Tommy’s song as that came out later). Unfortunately and for some years now, you can’t find the Wild Dogs vid from the Budokan gig on YouTube anymore (though it was available previously) – I guess it’s a rights quarrel with the Tommy Bolin estate.
I’m glad you all liked the POP poster gallery! Something is wired wrong with me that I keep remembering all this trivia stuff yet cannot even recollect what my own blood group is. I’m weird.
June 14th, 2023 at 12:57Thank you, Uwe Hornung for posting these posters from the old German POP magazine. It took me back in time and remembered my childhood. I had a few of these posters hanging on my bedroom wall.
June 14th, 2023 at 19:35@ 17 – I have never seen a image of Blackmore with a leftie Strat before. I actually had a close look at that with my magnifying glass just to make sure ha ha ha. Someone may have ‘photoshopped’ the Strat in. Blackmore playing around with the audience no doubt, a Hendrix nod indeed. Thanks for those poster images, there are some good ones there that certainly brought back a few memories. Cheers.
June 14th, 2023 at 23:19@ 14 – very well noted the Premier drum kit. The things we see every day eh? I clearly have needed to get out a little bit more in my time as I have never noticed that image before either.
June 15th, 2023 at 01:26I suppose that is what we get when one resides in Gondwanaland, ( Middle Earth) if ever there was one! And I cannot find any info on the Premier kit with Ian Paice also, maybe a in house kit used for that film shoot perhaps? Talking of ELP, yes a major player in the USA & other locations around the world back in the early to mid 1970’s. Greg Lake’s songs combined with all round brilliant musicianships, composition & arrangements & also a few American composers being covered in their repertoire would have also helped no doubt. An ode to those times when an ‘unconventional’ rock band became very well respected indeed for their musical quality. They were a huge act back in the day, I still cannot believe how popular they were considering they didn’t have a ‘front man’ in the normal sense of the word & definitely not a guitar hero at all. Mr Emerson certainly went about laying that ‘myth’ to rest. A dynamic drummer in Carl Palmer certainly helped as well. Cheers.
Hi all.
Are u sure the blonde was not a “blond.” Or maybe “the blonde” had something between his legs. Lol.
Long live DP family.
June 15th, 2023 at 06:02It’s very unsettling for me to find out how this place is FULL OF OLD PEOPLE !!!
June 15th, 2023 at 07:14@ 22- steady on ‘old son’ I hope you are not referring to the aficionados here commenting & or are you referring to the ‘older’ rockers themselves. If the former I would think ‘middle aged’ would be more appropriate at this time of our lives. Seriously though, surely there are a few ‘younger’ popular music fans here that are caught in this vast web that is ‘classic rock’? Cheers.
June 15th, 2023 at 08:57Herr MacGregor @19: Ritchie had more than one lefty Strat, not just the sunburst one, but also a natural fin one (see first pic, he’s playing the natural fin one, the sunburst one is leaning against its case on the left side) and pics of him playing one are NOT THAT RARE, they are just all from one era (Mk III, never seen him play one with either Mk II or Rainbow):
https://i.redd.it/n5j9l9brzu271.jpg
https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/default/poster/8/10/break/images/artworkimages/medium/2/ritchie-blackmore-on-stage-fin-costello.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRPvP0ljSSHAuqHWZy1ST-2QOKdCZZki8W2Bg&usqp=CAU
June 15th, 2023 at 09:39Elprupdeep, dare you not insinuate something!
https://i.imgur.com/0boJWqv.jpeg
June 15th, 2023 at 10:10Hey Mac, regarding ELP, I love guitar players, but in ELP the guitar isn’t even missed for me, and when it’s featured it’s usually in the ballads, I think Greg really only plays electric guitar in sections of Karn Evil 9. I saw them twice open for Jethro Tull, another favorite band and in the middle of Deep Purple as the headliner and Dream Theatre as the opener in 1998. Have seen CP’s ELP Legacy a few times and have a couple drum heads that Carl sighned at meet and greets after the shows, he’s always been my number one drummer, and I’ve seen Rush 3 times.
June 15th, 2023 at 10:23Uwe #22 what do you mean “Old People”? I’m only 66.
janbl
June 15th, 2023 at 12:01@ 24- thanks Uwe for the photos of Blackmore with those lefty Strats. I cannot remember if he mentioned any in that video years ago of him showing some of his guitars. He may have only featured a few guitars that he still uses then & I might go & look at that video clip again out of curiosity. Strange that he only played live with those lefties with MK3.
June 15th, 2023 at 12:48@ 26 – I do remember reading about those double billing gigs at that late 90’s time. I think Yes & Kansas did that also around the year 2000. I also remember reading about the DP & Dream Theater concerts. The ELP & Tull gigs had me salivating then & I was incredibly disappointed that ELP didn’t drop downunder throughout the 90’s, they went to Japan from my memory. So close & yet so far. Same with Rush, Kansas & King Crimson. We have missed many of the great bands here in Australia that never ventured out here for whatever reason. Cheers.
@19…There’s a MiJ DVD that made it to NZ, but didn’t make it here ( except for me ) that showcases a compiled amount of varied footage from around 1971-72, & the LH Jimi Stratocaster is seen a few times through it, often resting among a scattered pile of other Stratocasters…The DVD is apparently the one that came in the 6-disc-set of the last refresh of MiJ a few years ago now. I remember being quite happy at being able to grab it separately for a “tenner”, instead of having to buy the boxed-set…That said, though the DVD is quite good, it sadly doesn’t contain much footage at all of the 3-nights played there…So I’d guess that a further concert release of what actually is available may appear someday…And that also means I saved myself great disappointment should I have grabbed that last release, as the DVD was the main draw-card for purchase, thinking a show or bits & pieces would be on it. ( I already posses & savour many versions of MiJ folks, so save the tomatoes lol ).
Also, news “just-in” my mailbox indicates a whole new tour from the band across Europe will be underway very soon, as they offered the usual pre-tour VIP sales etc etc.. No spoilers from me, there’ll be a thread started soon here no doubt, but plenty of shows are organized. Uwe & many others will be stoked !
Peace !
June 15th, 2023 at 13:36Honorable janbl, my Elder full of wisdom and grace: Compared to you I’m a spring chicken at 63!
But rest not in peace yet, just assured: Youth is fleeting, immaturity can last forever!
https://itsfoss.community/uploads/default/original/2X/c/cd48ba0ea4efd01c20b8c6dc5ec216be310407aa.jpeg
https://www.pflegen-online.de/drimage/1320/743/1686/-/sites/default/files/2018-01/Kopie%20von%2020180104_Generation_MTV_Pflegeheim_Lautsprecher.jpg.webp
June 15th, 2023 at 15:41Just a little more info ’bout DC meeting JW.
June 15th, 2023 at 21:28It appears the concert in question that JW’s daughter wanted to attend was Friday, Feb. 27 1976. This was the CTTB tour with Tommy Bolin (BTW, I went to this show as well.) The concert was recorded for live broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour and eventually released on CD in 1995. I remember DC mentioning his conversation with John Wayne years ago, and the quote from Mr. Wayne, after David said he was in Deep Purple, was “My daughter thinks the sun shines out of your a–hole.” LOL!!
This link shows Blackmore with a few Lefty Strats & we can only guess what fate awaited those guitars back in 1974/5. Cheers.
https://twitter.com/AgaAgnes1991/status/1317104504245014529/photo/1
June 16th, 2023 at 00:39@ 30 – ha ha ha, that image of the oldies arguing about their favourite band. Reminds me of when we were younger. A bit of a worry these days though as Father Time keeps reminding us, it is all over bar the shouting. God help us if we end up like that. Cheers.
June 16th, 2023 at 03:11Robert, and that was – as we all know – a very good Mk IV gig, so Aissa must have been pleased! A good Daddy then.
Unfortunately, Mr Wayne’s success in wrestling down cancer wasn’t ultimately successful: Having been diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964 (he was a chain smoker), he had lost his complete left lung in treatment already by the late sixties, was then declared cancer-free, but succumbed to stomach cancer (like Ronnie James Dio) in 1979, four years after DC had met him. But The Duke sure put up a good fight.
But Robert, since you were there, we now have an eye witness of the Mk IV gig among us! Share your impressions!!! What did you think of it at the time? Was Blackmore’s departure seen as an issue by the audience or was everyone just happy that a kid from Boulder, Colorado, was now playing with those Brit stadium rock behemoths?
June 16th, 2023 at 10:35You jest, MacGregor, but I just read an article about the new generation of nursing home guests and one of the staff there said in an interview that they now have the first guests who insist on listening to AC/DC in the music room.
It’s coming, brace yourselves.
Incidentally: Are there Led Zeppelin-free retirement homes too?
June 16th, 2023 at 13:15@34…The music of Mk-IV speaks for itself, as it kicks-ass big-time…
One of life’s great regrets is that we received so little from Mk-IV, & yet so much.
Peace !
June 16th, 2023 at 13:40@ 35 – I do know two nurses who worked in the age care sector & they are both our age & into our era of music & I haven’t ever heard them saying that. Although we here in Australia are usually behind the times, so time will tell. As for those two bands you mentioned, I can only digress. Cheers.
June 16th, 2023 at 22:11Following the recent announcement that Hawkwind & The Crazy World of Arthur Brown are playing The Royal Albert Hall soon, I found this in regards to that story. Cheers.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1337005267200533&set=p.1337005267200533&type=3
June 16th, 2023 at 22:44@34 -The concert was sold out (JW needed CD’s help to get tix), so Blackmores departure didn’t seem as big a deal as it was in the UK. I was familiar with TB from the James Gang and Spectrum LPs and I liked the CTTB album as well as Teaser, so having him in DP wasn’t a shock to me. Fortunately Tommy played great that night ( thank god it was recorded), but that did not happen too often on that tour, unfortunately.
June 17th, 2023 at 23:49Thanks, Robert, that’s what I heard that American audiences didn’t mind Tommy at all (and he had a good natured, yet exotic-androgynous stage presence after all), but that the UK tour was an unhappy culmination of disappointed Blackmore fans still wearing flares and a music media fawning over skinny jeans and punk and very wary of Brit bands (more) popular in the US.
June 20th, 2023 at 00:09