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Don Airey in Classic Rock
Classic Rock magazine has an interview with Don Airey in their latest issue (#340, with Fleetwood Mac on the cover). We don’t have many further details at the moment, apart from the blurb:
Q&A: Don Airey
The Deep Purple keyboard player, go-to session guy and solo artist on his new album, touring, Purple, Blackmore.
If you happen to have access and there’s something interesting in there, please post in comments.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
It’s mostly about his new solo album but he was asked about Purple and responded “I only came off the road on the 19th December so we’re having a bit of a break. Once the dust has settled down then we can look to the future” and one anecdote about Rainbow, he’d previously told the interviewer that sometimes Ritchie would solo leaning back on his Marshall stack but the roadies would have to push against it to stop it falling over. One time they forgot and Ritchie leant against the stack and he and it fell over backwards “Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on the Down To Earth tour. Ritchie gave me a wave as he was falling backwards and pointed. That was my cue for a ten minute solo.”
April 28th, 2025 at 06:42I hope he doesn’t use this interview as another opportunity to say how Simon is the best thing that ever happened to them and to slag Steve.
April 28th, 2025 at 13:40I agree John. Simon is an excellent guitar player but, to me, he lacks “that something” that makes him stand out. As for Don, I still think his performance on =1 wasn’t as good as any of his other DP albums. I’ve been called a lot of names for posting this, but (and I listened to it a few days ago), think =1 is not that good and is my least favorite DP album of all time. They’ve been my favorite band since 1973 but, for some reason, some people on this web sight think I have no right to speak badly about a DP album.
April 28th, 2025 at 19:45@ 3 – don’t worry Leslie, speak out all you like and I agree with you in many aspects. A new album always gets some people excited and that is fine, how long does that lasts is fine also. History never repeats and we all are aware of that conundrum. It is all over bar the shouting anyway, life eh? Go for it. Cheers.
April 28th, 2025 at 22:14