Countryside, Milwaukee & Palatine
Continued from page 24
Sat. Aug. 16
Holiday Inn
Countryside
6201 Joliet Road (Rt.66)
Countryside • 847-409-9656
Show Hours: 10-4pm
Sun. Aug. 17
Serb Hall
5101 W. Oklahoma
Milwaukee, WI
10am-4pm
Sun. Sept 7
Holiday Inn
Express
1550 E. Dundee Rd
Palatine, IL • 847-409-9656
Show Hours: 10-4pm
suggestions and helping to write songs. The
transition between Jon and Don was brilliant.
We did a tour of England when we knew Jon
wanted to leave and we had asked Don to replace him. And the way it worked is Don
played the whole set up until Perfect Strangers,
then after the keyboard solo, the lights went
down and you heard the familiar strains of
Jon"s organ. When the lights came back up, Jon
was there with us. So we did a tour with both
of them and that is how we broke Don in. For
me, that was a beautiful way for us to make the
transition and for Jon to make his exit. We all
respected Jon's decision. No one wanted him
to leave but we knew that was his choice. I
think he passed the baton on to Don in a very
beautiful way. Most band changes come with
acrimonious arguments or left to musical differences. There was none of that going on. It
was a lovely way to do it.
IE: It was odd because press peports said he
left the band to retire, but then he kept on
working as a solo artist..
RG: He never said he wanted to retire. He
wanted to retire from the road and touring; but
he was never going to retire as a musician. He
was a born musician; he could not have
stopped that. He did, however, want to concentrate on the music in his soul. That was much
more gentle and much more orchestral in nature. It took him five years to make that decision, and when he did we all respected that. He
has written some lovely music since.
IE: It was very sad when Jon Lord passed
away in 2012. Had the band known for some
time that he was that ill?
RG: Yes, we had still remained friends. In fact,
Jon and our drummer Ian Paice had married
twin sisters, so Ian was his brother in law. They
lived close to each other. We were very much in
touch with Jon. We thought he was getting better; he thought he was getting better too. I
spoke to him about a month before he died. We
had gone to record in Nashville. He was full of
plans. He wanted to get back to playing more
organ on stage; he wanted to get back into
playing blues. He was full of confidence. So,
we went to Nashville to record the album and
about a week or so into the recording, Paicey
said, 'Oh by the way, Jon's back in the hospital
and he's not doing too good.' And we thought,
‘Oh no!' And sure enough, two days later he
passed away. That was a hell of a shock.
IE: Is there still any kind of a relationship between the Deep Purple organization and
Ritchie Blackmore? Or is he persona nongrata?
RG: I don't know about Ritchie. He keeps to
himself. I have not spoken to Ritchie really,
since he left the band. That's not because I don't
want to; that's because he does not want to. He
is pursuing his own course and that is fine. If
he is happy; then we are happy for him. He's a
great guitarist and he has a very strong will. He
has to do what he has to do. We respect that.
IE: Lets talk about the upcoming tour. What
surprises can we expect?
RG: Well, if I told you that, then they wouldn't
be surprises! The thing is, whatever surprises
there are usually surprise us! Apart from the
songs that everyone knows we are doing some
obscure songs; some new songs. Within them
all – they are presented as skeletons that we can
change every night. There are different solos
and different stuff going on every night. It's
very fresh every night. Even the old songs
sound fresh. People always say to me, ‘ Aren't
you tired of playing Smoke On The Water,'?
46 illinoisentertainer.com august 2014
and I say: No, of course not! It's the kind of
song that I can play a different bass part nearly
every night. You can always experiment on
that one. It's always a surprise to us as it is to
the audience. What you get is pretty much five
musicians at the top of their game having a lot
of fun. And we have a lot of fun each night we
are on stage.
IE: Most fans and music industry insiders consider Machine Head to be the apex of Deep
Purple's recorded legacy. How do you feel
about that album now after 40 years?
RG: Obviously with that album and Made In
Japan (which was from the Machine Head era),
and Made In Japan was really the album that
broke "Smoke On The Water" in America especially, it was great to have that in your history.
You can be very in intimitated by that success.
There are a few bands that might say 'How can
we top that? How can we better that?' but we
actually don't think that way. We feel we
should just make the best music we can at the
time and that is all there is to it. Before Machine
Head came out we didn't know it was going to
be the album it became. And we certainly didn't know "Smoke On The Water" was going to
be the song it was going to be. So, it was not in
our hands, really. It was entirely up to the public. You don't try to write a classic; you just
write. Every now and then someone will come
up to us and say, ' How come you guys don't
write songs like "Highway Star" anymore?' Actually, we do. They just don't sound like
"Highway Star." If they sounded like "Highway Star" we would just be a copy of ourselves.
The thing to avoid is to become a parody of
yourself. All you can do is what is in your heart
at that time. No one knows what the future of
a song is going to be when you are doing it.
You can't predict that.
IE: The rhythm section of Ian Paice and Roger
Glover is one of the more ferocious in Rock 'N'
Roll's history. What's it like for you to play
with Ian Paice night after night?
RG: Well, thank you! When I first joined the
band I remember being totally blown away
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