(From Kerrang! No 81, Nov. 15 - 28 1984, pp. 19-21)
Geoff Barton: Listening to the 'Perfect Strangers' album, one of the first things that struck me was how much you seem to be enjoying yourself. You're obviously relishing being able to give that ol' Hammond organ full rein again...
Jon Lord: Oh yes, I've been having a marvellous time. But look - can I make a ground rule before we start in earnest? I know you were never a particularly keen Whitesnake fan and I don't really want to say anything against them - after all, they fed and clothed me for five years!
But... it did get to a point where I began to feel terribly restricted in that band. I was not so much misused as unused. At times I felt like I was nothing more than a convenient, portable orchestra. Just to get back with these guys again and be given a role more in line with my abilities and temperament... well, I find that very exciting.
GB: Doubtless, in the Depeche Mode dominated '80s, many people will find your style of keyboard playing old-fashioned.
JL: They may well do, Geoff. They may well do. But I would like to say this to my detractors... indeed to Purple's detractors: why shouldn't a hard rock band still at the height of its powers be able to exist alongside the likes of, as you say, Depeche Mode? Music is an international language, a receptable for people's emotions and feelings. It's one of the most wide ranging of all the arts and there's room enough in there for all of us.
Perhaps people should open their minds a little before they rush into print to condemn the Purple reunion. Or is that too much to hope for?
GB: You don't hear much of the big and beefy Hammond organ sound these days, do you?
JL: No. It's a great instrument. Sadly neglected, in my opinion. Of course, they don't make them any more - but only because the patent ran out and the forgot to renew it! I suppose the style in which it's used in rock music is something that myself, Keith Emerson and probably Rick Wakeman helped write the book on. I really don't see why it shouldn't be as valid now as it was then. After all, it's not that long ago...
GB: Maybe not in years. But in rock'n'roll terms, it's near enough an eternity.
JL: Except that some of the things that have happened, say, in the last four years of music have been harkbacks of the most plagiaristic kind. Most of the modern-day Metal bands seem to have taken Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as their mentors, as their starting points... but in doing so have somehow managed to become very insular and narrow-minded. They don't seem to be going anywhere. I don't like the term 'Heavy Metal' particularly, but I can understand why it's applied to some bands...
GB: And Deep Purple were never an HM outfit?
JL: Never. We never wore studded wristbands or posed for photos with blood pouring out of our mouths. That's OK, that's for people who're into a different style of music to us, but... look, this is probably going to pre-empt a question, but the good thing about this reunion is that there wasn't a single member who had to be dragged out of retirement into the band screaming: 'No! I don't want to!' There was no feeling of that at all.
It was just five people playing in different bands getting back into the group they used to be in, so... there's a strong feeling of a line connecting what happened then to what's happening now, which is something you don't get any more. I mean, I hear Blackmore riffs in the music of all these new Metal bands. I think to myself: 'Hey, I'm sure Ritchie wrote that in 1971...' You see, Purple's roots are far more diverse and wide-ranging than most of today's HM groups.
GB: You had nothing to emulate. you were pioneers, in a way.
JL: We had to invent something. We took from jazz, we took from old-fashioned rock'n'roll, we took from the classics; we took from here, there and everywhere. We were musical magpies in a way, and I found that delightful. And, as I say, some of the modern Metal bands haven't gone back much further than Sabbath, Purple...
GB: And you think they should?
JL: Yeah. Well, maybe not that... but wider, you know? Ritchie and myself used to do things onstage that were taken purely from the style of modern jazz. We used to swap musical jokes and attacks... he would play something and I'd have to see if I could match it. That provided a sense of humour, a sense of tension to the band... a sense of: what the hell's going to happen next? The audience didn't know, and nine times out of ten, neither did we! That was very exciting.
When we first started rehearsing for the material for 'Perfect Strangers' in Vermont, I remember Ritchie coming up to me saying: 'How do you get that sound out of your organ? I've spent the last seven years looking for keyboard players with that tone. You've done it straight away and I've spent hours with people trying to make them do the same'. I said: 'Well, you've got to be me, for a start! 'It doesn't make me any cleverer than the other guys, it just makes me me. And it meant that Ritchie had spent years looking for something in Rainbow that he could never find.
GB: You obviously feel that there's a place for Deep Purple's virtuoso sophisticated rock in the Eighties.
JL: We feel that. When we finally managed to reform after all those years of rumours and false starts, I must admit I began to feel quite excited - not only for myself, but for the music business...you know, one of those classic rock bands was coming back to play and tour some more! That's not an egotistical statement, just a statement of how I felt about it at the time. I still do feel that way, in fact. I'm pleased that we're back, because I think that, in a strange way, we can help. That sounds weird, I know. I mean just because we're back together again doesn't mean we're going to change the world or anything, but it's going to inject something just a little bit nice back into the music business. I know that might sound trite, but it's what I believe.
GB: People have been saying that the only reason you've reformed is for the money. A million dollars each, isn't it?
JL: It is? Look, I'm not going to spend all my energy excusing myself... what I am going to do is just simply say, come along and listen to us. And if you still think that at the end of the night, after hearing the album or after a year of the band being on the road showing the commitment I hope we do show... then, hell, you can just go away and continue to believe it. Our only chance to change that belief is - by example. This is getting very serious Geoff - and it shouldn't be, because rock'n'roll is all about having fun and enjoying yourself. And all of us in Purple, we certainly do have a good time. We always did, up until those last bitter few months...
GB: When the Mark Two Purple disbanded?
JL: Yeah. Because to me, when this line-up split, Deep Purple stopped. Of course, I know we carried on for a few years after with David and Glenn and then Tommy, but... I don't know, it was never quite the same. The last six months of this Mark Two line-up were terrible; I don't think any of us would care to go through such a miserable time again.
GB: What exactly happened to cause the band to break up?
JL: In 1972 we were on the road non-stop for 44 weeks. Six nights on, one night off for 44 solid weeks. And there was the most horrendous pressure on us at all times. I don't think Ritchie will mind me telling you this, but the only time I've seen a crack in the famous Blackmore sang-froid was somewhere in the middle of those 44 weeks, just before a gig in San Antonio, Texas. We were both walking down a hotel corridor and I was talking to Ritchie and... suddenly he wasn't there. I turned around and he was leaning against a wall with tears running down his cheeks. I asked him if he felt alright and he said, 'I don't know, I feel weird.' I asked him what he was crying for, and... he didn't even know he was crying. I started panicking, I said, 'Call the roadies! Get the manager! Hold the show!'
We got Ritchie back to his room, gave him a large brandy and eventually he started to feel a little better... I never want to have to experience that kind of pressure again. So, at the first meeting we had earlier this year, when we started talking about getting back together, I remember saying, 'OK, if we do it, let's do one thing, let's make sure that we take our time. I might want to see downtown Phoenix, Arizona instead of going pfft! right through it. Let's do a gig and have a day off. Even if it becomes a financially insecure exercise, f**k it, let's do it that way'
GB: And that's what you're going to do?
JL: That's what we're going to do, and that's the reason why I'm sure this Deep Purple reunion is going to be a long term thing. I mean, I love it, my fingers are working again, my mind's working again, I feel very much on top of what I'm doing. You know, all those years I spent in Whitesnake, I was still getting voted top of the old keyboard chart in the readers' polls in magazines, but... I always felt it was a bit of a con, really. People were voting for my reputation rather than for anything I was actually doing.
But now that I'm back with Purple, I'm going to give them back a reason to vote me number one.
[ PART 1 | IAN PAICE | IAN GILLAN | PART 2 ]
Transcription and HTML by Benjamin Weaver