Only Heavy Metal

We started the next album in Nashville on the 28th January. Thirteen days of pre-production and thirteen days recording in the studio. Lucky thirteen because we have thirteen tracks, all but finished except for vocals.
Coincidence or what? How many will end up on he album is hard to tell yet… maybe all of them, maybe not. I won’t even begin to describe the music––an impossible job in any case. Suffice to say I’ve been listening to the rough mixes and there’s a smile on my face.

Bob Ezrin and the team did their usual superb job. The next stage will be IG and I spending a week together, honing up on the lyrics before recording vocals in Toronto in April.

It was a real pleasure to meet up and jam with our Nashville friends. It’s a great city to be in, all kinds of nightlife, live music everywhere. It almost feels like being back in the 60s. Don and I went to see Diana Ross with the Nashville Philharmonic one night, the place was jumping, great band, she was exactly what is expected, voice, teeth and costume changes, etc. Jay and Dave of Rival Sons came to visit us in the studio when their tour hit town. We saw them do a fantastic gig that night, what a great band.

Legendary British hard rockers DEEP PURPLE have finished tracking their new album, the band's keyboardist Don Airey said in a phone interview with TASS ahead of the band’s concerts in Russia.

"As far as I know, it's all recorded and now," he said. "It's on the tender mercies of [producer] Bob Ezrin; he's going to mix it. I haven't been given a release date. I know nothing about that as yet. If I knew, I'd tell you, but I don't."

On September 14, 2002, hard rock pioneers DEEP PURPLE took the stage for a landmark concert at the NEC in Birmingham, England to bid farewell to founding member and keyboard legend Jon Lord.

On August 26, Eagle Rock Entertainment will deliver this very concert with the release of "Live At The NEC" on DVD and digital formats. Previously only available as part of the "Around The World Live" boxed set, this film is being made available for the first time as a standalone DVD.

Deep Purple reveal title, release date and first song from their new album “inFinite”, the highly anticipated follow up to their most recent worldwide chart topping album “NOW What?!”.

“inFinite” will be released on April 7th by earMUSIC.
“Time For Bedlam”, an up-tempo classic Deep Purple song, has just been made available via a lyric video: https://youtu.be/IfmXD90VWsg

The song will be available as instant grat as part of the digital album preorder as well as on all streaming platforms starting from Thursday, December 15th, midnight worldwide with the physical preorder of the album to start at the same time.

A limited edition EP for “Time For Bedlam”, with non-album songs and unreleased recordings will hit the shops on February 3rd.

A documentary movie, witnessing the songwriting process and the recording of the album with producer Bob Ezrin, has been produced, allowing for the first time for the fans to be part of the private band member interactions in the studio.
The movie will be included in some editions of the album and it will be presented before release in various fan events worldwide.

Deep Purple have recently announced their “Long Goodbye Tour”, which will bring the legendary live show once again all over the world.

Deep Purple have not yet answered, in fact, the many questions received by fans from all over the world who are speculating about the meaning of the title “inFinite” and "Long Goodbye".

Singer Ian Gillan has in fact declared:

“If you take it literally you may, quite reasonably, think the ‘Finite’ part of the word describes the life of Deep Purple, with a clear beginning and a nebulous end; but what of the ‘in’ bit? The word infinite is a three-dimensional double edged sword. It describes something that goes on forever in all directions; not unlike its temporal equivalent ‘Eternal’ What’s that all about?

Stephen Hawking declared (in ‘A brief History of Time’) that, before the Big Bang there was nothing. That would put the kybosh on the idea of our universe being Infinite, as he provides a starting point, which is not acceptable to the concept. So, Hawking’s universe in ‘Finite’; by definition; whether he agrees or not.

Ironically, he is quite wrong (scientists always are eventually), therefore the Universe is infinite, which means it will never end, and also means that it never started, and the corollary to that of course is that we don’t exist.

There is a metaphysical solution to all this, but it will have to wait until the tour is over because (thanks heavens) there are only 24 hours in a day (for the time being) or 10 hours in a metric day.
More on that later…”

Three members of the classic DEEP PURPLE lineup have shot down the possibility of a reunion with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.

Blackmore is a co-founder of DEEP PURPLE and wrote many of their most memorable riffs, including "Smoke On The Water", but he has not played with the group since his 1993 departure.

Steve Morse effectively took over Blackmore's slot in 1994 and has since been in the group longer than Ritchie.

During yesterday's (Tuesday, August 29) SiriusXM Town Hall, DEEP PURPLE's Ian Gillan (vocals), Ian Paice (drums) and Roger Glover (bass) were asked point blank if they would be open to playing with Blackmore again.

"Me personally, no," Gillan said. "I mean, I get on great with Ritchie these days, but I don't think Ritchie's playing great these days. And for that reason mostly, I don't think it would work."

Gillan clarified that he is only in contact with Blackmore "through our offices, through our connections and everything else" and added that "we have invited each other to dinner a couple of times, but we haven't been able to make it because I'm in London, he's in Long Island." He then reiterated: "But, no, I'd be against [a reunion]."

Paice was equally resistant to the idea, explaining: "I enjoy going on stage every night knowing that I'm [there] with my four friends and they're all gonna play every night. That wasn't always the case [while Ritchie was in the band], and I wouldn't want to go back to that again. It's just the way the man is. He is a man of great emotions. He works it out in black and white; there's no gray areas to Ritchie: 'I will or I won't,' 'I like it or I don't like it.' Sometimes your bandmembers can't suffer from that. And I wanna go on stage and have fun. I don't wanna go on stage and come off feeling so down and miserable. I'm not prepared to go back on that route again, no."

Glover, for his part, revealed that he hasn't spoken to Ritchie in "twenty-odd years," but insisted that he would "be happy to talk to him." Attributing their lack of personal interaction to the fact that Ritchie has "made himself very private," Glover added that "I don't think he approves of me very much, because of the remixes and the remasters that I did of the older albums. That's what I've heard anyway."

As for the prospect of PURPLE performing with Blackmore again, Glover said: "You can never say never, but I would doubt it very much."

Blackmore was recently quoted saying he woud like to play one last show with DEEP PURPLE "for nostalgia reasons." He also previously suggested that the band's manager had blocked him from joining them onstage during the 2016 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, and he used that as an excuse for not attending the event.

Despite Blackmore being a no-show at last year's Rock Hall, he was given several shoutouts during the induction speeches of the DEEP PURPLE members in attendance. In addition, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich, who inducted DEEP PURPLE into the institution, praised "Ritchie fucking Blackmore" for one of the most memorable guitar riffs of all time on "Smoke On The Water".