QUOTES


archive:   1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14

    15    16    17    18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28   






How did you become involved with Blue Murder?

Carmine Appice: "I had my eye on Blue Murder because I really liked the way John Sykes played in Whitesnake and I loved the way Tony Franklin played in The Firm. When I heard they were getting a band together, they had Cozy Powell on drums. I was like, 'Man, Cozy is always getting these great gigs.' In the beginning of Cozy's career, he was like John Bonham, ya know? He told me I was his idol and he took a lot of my stuff and did it his own way. I was asked to join RAINBOW originally, but couldn't do it, so they got Cozy and when I couldn't do the Jeff Beck thing, they got Cozy. After a while, I was like, 'What are you my professional replacement?' He played with a lot of great groups, ya know? So when I heard he was playing with Blue Murder, I got upset... but then I heard that he was out."

Blasting-Zone August 2006




Some have put forth that the whole finale (of California Jam in 1974), with Ritchie smashing his guitars, exploding the amps and including attacking the cameraman, that it was all planned beforehand... what's the story on that?

Glenn Hughes: The whole thing with the blowing up of the Marshalls was planned. But we didn't know what it was. It was actually dynamite. But we really didn't know ahead how he was going to do it, nobody was told. We didn't know he was going to throw all that shit in the audience. We knew he was going to smash his guitar, but that happened every night with Ritchie. But the reason why he hit the cameraman was because onstage, Ritchie had an area, to his left vision, stage right, where nobody could stand there. No girlfriends, no wives, only his roadie. Because he just didn't like people being on his left. When we went onstage, our producer told the producer of the event, "Don't have a camera come over to that side, because Ritchie will do something." And eventually he did. It cost us about $18,000 to fix that camera. Let me tell you though, we sold a lot of records after that. It wasn't planned. He actually did try to shove the neck of the guitar through the lens. He missed, but he dented the camera very heavily. He really, really, really wanted to hurt that guy. Blackmore, he's pretty crazy. I'll bet a lot of kids got knocked out because of those guitars flying into the audience. He threw them in there. He hit me with a guitar one night. He told me never come across the drums to his side of the stage. Of course, I wanted to know why, and I did one night. He threw his guitar up and whacked me across the back. Tha's crazy. That's part of who he is, and I love him for it.

Nightwatcher, Rock'n'Roll Universe, 19th June 2006




There are a lot of people who would be very interested in seeing a Mark III reunion of Deep Purple, with you, David Coverdale and Ritchie Blackmore reforming with Jon Lord and Ian Paice for either some live shows, or even perhaps some new recordings. If the circumstances were right, would you be interested in pursuing something along those lines?

Glenn Hughes: I think David and I would do that. Speaking on behalf of David, and David and I have already spoken about this at Christmas. I think, at some point, you might see some kind of rumblings of this in the press. While Gillan, Glover and Paice are still out there, I don't know if it's ever going to happen. I think if that ever comes to a head, where Deep Purple kind of stops touring with the two Ians and Roger, who are very nice people by the way, it might happen. I wouldn't want to step on anybody's toes and do something that's inappropriate. But I think that if you got Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Paice together, it probably would be a very big tour. I think it would be remarkable. David and I have already discussed how great it would be for he and I to sing together. But it would only be in Deep Purple. And, it would only be with Ritchie Blackmore. At my age right now, 53, things have to make sense. I don't want to do something that is wrong now. As far as wrong being perceived by the press right now. Finally, especially the British press, they're finally behind me, and they're watching very closely everything I do. I've got to kind of get things in perspective. I haven't spoken with Ritchie about it. I haven't made that call, nobody has. I think he's enjoying his thing with his wife. I just think that, at the right time, at the right moment, the right place, it could happen. Is it today? I don't think it's right now. Is it next year? Who knows? But I think it'll be in the next 2 or 3 years if it's going to happen at all.

Nightwatcher, Rock'n'Roll Universe, 19th June 2006




How about a few words of the great guitar players you have worked with, Ritchie Blackmore.

David Coverdale: As with Jimmy Page, another Master that I comfortably sat at the feet of and soaked in as much of his gift as I could.

Speaking of Blackmore, remember Cal Jam? At the end of the show, Blackmore went crazy and smashed up his guitar and a television camera.

David Coverdale: We knew Ritchie was going to blow something up but we didn’t know he’d put so much explosive in the bloody amps! It scorched all of us. It was a fun moment and one that will live forever for me.

Jeb Wright, Classic Rock Revisited June 2006




The day Ritchie Blackmore left the sun came out.

Ian Gillan: I think there's a lot of interconnecting things. I have to go back now to '91 when Ritchie left. '92. Can't remember. Anyway early nineties. That tour we were playing small halls in Europe which is traditionally strong territory for us. Small halls, they were half sold out. And Ritchie was doing 40 minutes or an hour and then walking off, whatever he felt like and we were playing awfully. There was such a bad atmosphere in the band.

Everyone was looking down. Everyone was tense. Paicey was all over the place. I was singing horribly. Tense. Tight. No expression. And Roger and Jon were just keeping their head down and it was awful. We were very depressed and talking amongst ourselves -not Ritchie of course, but the rest of us were saying: 'I don't think I can't take much more of this, this is so depressing. After all the glorious years we had and it's just not… it's just not fun.'

So the band was about to end. We were approaching terminal velocity. And fortunately Ritchie left. He just sort of exploded because we wouldn't do what he said. And I think that was one of the main problems, Ritchie isn't a team player. He wants everyone to do what he tells them to do. And I think if he didn't have that attitude, then I think things would be a lot easier (laughs) for him. Anyway he left. And the day he left the sun came out.

Morley Seaver, Anti Music May 2006




I've heard Ronnie James Dio is on one cut (on Gillan's Inn). Why would you invite another vocalist?

Ian Gillan: Well, it was basically a party and I'm inviting mates. Ronnie said 'You fancy popping over for a glass of wine?" And I said to Ronnie, "While I'm over there, why don't you just exercise your tonsils on a couple of these things. (laughs) It's very simple. It's not even harmonies. It's just straightforward backing vocals, and I'd love to have you on the record just to say you were there and to show the world we're good mates." And he said he'd love to. He's on two or three songs just singing along.

Morley Seaver, Anti Music May 2006






Do you still communicate with Ritchie Blackmore?

Ian Gillan: (after a brief pause) No, we got divorced. I don't want to speak bad about him here. I mean there is a lot that people don't know about what happened, but when Ritchie left, the band was just about dead anyway. We spent the next 13 years getting it back up, and all I wish is that he is happy and fulfilled. He is a great guitarist and good luck to him.

Santa Monica Mirror April 2006







There have been rumours in the past few months that Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes would put Deep Purple Mark III back together.

Roger Glover: It's the first I heard of that rumour (laughter). It would be pretty difficult I think to put a rival Deep Purple back together again, not the least of which is the ownership of the name. They wouldn't be able to call it Deep Purple. There is one Deep Purple and that's the one that's in existence right now. It wouldn't surprise me if Ritchie and Jon got together and did something, I think in fact that would be probably a good idea, but it wouldn't be Deep Purple, it would be Ritchie and Jon. But I don't know anything, I've not heard of anything, we've not had any discussion about that.

The Avatar, Heidelberg 16 February 2006




You played in the original Monsters of Rock at Donnington 26 years ago, what are your memories of that day?

Roger Glover: There is one very clear memory and that's Cozy Powell. In his solo he used to do the "1812 Overture" which involved a couple of explosions. As it was such a big gig he wanted his explosions to be correspondingly as big and when the local council came round for a test firing before the show, I was walking past the mixing desk and had no idea what was going to happen when these things went off. It was huge and it left me deaf for a couple of minutes. The worst part is that it blew the cones out of half of the speakers and it did about £20,000 worth of damage. You know Cozy, he was the mad man macho "everything bigger than anything else" type of person. I really miss Cozy he was a lovely bloke. That was his last show with Rainbow. For me, I had just joined Rainbow and produced the Down To Earth album and I hadn't been in a band for 6 years so it was great being back on stage. I remember that as being a crowning achievement.

Metal Express Radio, Norway 31 March 2006





Of the groups that you played in, which did you enjoy most?

Don Airey: Apart from Deep Purple? Well, when I was still quite young I was in a band called Rainbow and that was very exciting. We had hit singles, we were on the television a lot and we traveled all around the world. Every band is your favorite band at that time, but you just move on through your life. You can look back and say, "Yeah, that was amazing."

I remember when I was in Rainbow and we first toured England, we played in a place called Newcastle, which is near my home. Now, we had been in America, so we didn't really appreciate how big we had become in England. And when I got out of my car and walked toward the stage door, there were hundreds of people there and they kind of jumped on me and they took my jacket! I lost my shirt and my coat and all I could think of was "What did I do wrong?" [laughs]

All of these incredible things happened to me, which at the time I didn't think that much about, but to look back on it you think, "My word, that was something." The other exciting band was called the Ozzy Osbourne Band and I was in Ozzy's band for four years and there was never a dull moment. Egypt Today, March 2006