And that’s how they started Deep Purple
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.
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Gentle words from Ritchie. They’ll draw a smile on Jon’s face.
May 22nd, 2022 at 15:28Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord were a great team!! As far as I am concerned they are in the same league as Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards. They made DP THE Greatest live band of all time IMHO!
May 23rd, 2022 at 08:19