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Experience of how to come up with the goods
An outfit called Rock ‘n’ Roll Grad School talks to Dr. Donald Airey about his new album. If you’ve been paying attention, you may have already heard bits and pieces of what Don has to say here. Nevertheless, here it is:
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
“Simon – my guitarist ….”
So THAT is how Don sees the new power balance within DP – smart move! 🤣
And what happens if Big Ian decides to quit touring one day, will Don bring in Carl Sentance as the sixth (I’m counting GH too) lead singer of DP? WE ARE WITNESSING A COVERT TAKEOVER OF THE BAND BY THE SCHEMING & CONNIVING SUNDERLANDER !!! 🤐
Moving on … It’s nice to see in this type of format (normally populated by middle-aged or older male music nerds) a woman – Heidi Hedquist (of Swedish origin I presume from her surname) – for once, but overall the interview lumbers along a little at a stately pace or am I being too harsh (I probably am)? Not her fault either, but her co-host, Luke Poling, isn’t exactly interviewer Viagra. To his credit, he asks thoughtful questions, but the whole thing drags on quite a bit.
I’m also surprised that the Purple management did not – bump! – gently talk Don out of releasing a solo album that apparently features the new DP guitarist on all tracks. Could anyone have imagined a Jon Lord/Ritchie Blackmore joint solo album coming out in the 70s? At this point of their career it probably doesn’t matter, but you generally try to keep b(r)ands apart. Don and Simon – the two lead instrumentalists of DP – on a complete album together would be a little too close for comfort for me if I had my eyes on the next DP product. OTOH, Gillan & Glover’s Accidentally On Purpose wasn’t a much different side project (and unlike Don’s new album also a harbinger of band-internal issues in the then-DP camp).
March 20th, 2025 at 16:38Don’s place in Deep Purple is that of guest keyboard player, replacing the unreplaceable Jon Lord. A Don Airey takeover of the band would be bound to fail. As for Simon, he fills in the guitar parts for the absent and much missed Steve Morse. I’m sure both the Ian’s would be happy to remind them of this if they get too big for their boots.
March 22nd, 2025 at 22:11That’s unfair, Andrew, Don contributes more in writing than Jon to DP ever did, his organ certainly isn’t any less prominent than Jon’s in the mix and he’s a more ferocious soloist than Jon was towards the end of his tenure when he was starting to coast a little bit.
I was of course joking about Don taking over the band. He has, however, by now asserted himself as a key (no pun intended) member of it.
What I miss most about Jon – Herr MacGregor will no doubt reprimand me for being so superficial and shallow – are his “early-keyboard-rock-god-good-looks-turned-elder-statesman-ar(ock)istocracy” and the grand dramatic shapes he threw on stage.
https://i.makeagif.com/media/1-24-2016/IERuyK.gif
https://media.tenor.com/behhOVAYvB0AAAAM/jon-lord.gif
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9JYYLca3quSGSKaSsrE3Kd.jpg.webp
https://www.laizquierdadiario.com.ve/IMG/arton45257.jpg?1468627673
Don will always have the air(ey) of an unhurried public accountant standing on stage, but he has nerd charm. And except for the days of Mk I + of early Mk II until circa 1971, his musical stamp on Purple is likely greater than Jon’s ever was. Jon’s overall style and demeanor might have appealed to you more, but a “guest musician” Don is certainly not, not with DP he ain’t!
March 24th, 2025 at 04:05@3
Doing and behaving like Jon did Uwe, is a young man’s game!
Unfortunately Don has never had the appearance of a young man, not even when he was. But yes, Don is great!
March 24th, 2025 at 11:31Jon was great too and he has a certain charisma I have only seen in one other man in Purple (and I refuse to reveal whom I’m thinking about 😄)
@ 3 – Lord, Wakeman and Emerson, they all had their charisma. Have to love that among other things. Was Jon Lord the most ‘progressive’ rock member of DP, yes at the early onset he definitely was. He would have fitted into that genre very well. Don Airey, while not as flamboyant, certainly fits into that progressive rock genre. They all are ‘once in a lifetime’ keyboard players. Cheers.
March 24th, 2025 at 22:27Airey has played with Jethro Tull, that sentences him for life as PROG.
March 25th, 2025 at 20:32Yes, Don Airey did tour with Tull for one year, I was hoping at the time (1987) that he would join the band permanently for a while. I have a few live tracks with him performing from that tour. Not too bad all things considered, it passed our pub test anyway, that is the most important thing. His earlier stint with Colosseum II would also get him voted into the progressive genre I would imagine. Cheers.
https://jethrotull.com/the-attic/past-band-members-and-guests/don-airey/
March 26th, 2025 at 01:41I was actually really disappointed Don didn’t join Tull at that time. They were just starting to get back into rock music again after a brief sojourn into a horrible synth and drum machine album (Under Wraps) 1984, which then lead to a break for a while with Ian Anderson’s voice and throat issues blowing out on that ’84 tour. Joining a British rock institution like Jethro Tull would have been a good fit to my ears for Airey as Tull didn’t have a permanent keyboard player at that time. And they did win a Grammy for the hard rock slash metal? category that year, boo hoo to Metallica. At least 15 years later Airey then joined another British rock institution, whose name escapes me at present. While thinking of Tull and that image of Ian Anderson from the 70’s wearing a cod piece while standing on one leg. Does anyone else here envisage Uwe doing just that at a BN gig somewhere in Germany. An outdoor gig of course, or is it just me that suffers from these weird visions. Cheers.
March 26th, 2025 at 02:12To whom it may concern: It is true that I had a knee joint replacement surgery a couple of years ago, but I can still very well stand on both legs! At BN gigs I try to be inconspicuous, but at the same time aloof, so that nobody gets any ideas about trying to “schunkel” (= swaying with arms linked together) with me! 😑
March 26th, 2025 at 11:09@9
I am sorry to hear that 😞
Hope your new knee behaves 😉
March 26th, 2025 at 14:04Sorry Uwe, I had forgotten about your knee replacement surgery that you had mentioned earlier. Which knee or did you have both attended to? Anyway, I bet Ian Anderson doesn’t do that anymore, or maybe he still does manage after knee surgery. I don’t know as I don’t follow ‘Tull’ these days, or what he passes off as ‘Jethro Tull’ that is. It is a young mans game by the look of it. Rock ‘n Roll eh?. Cheers.
March 26th, 2025 at 21:36A short backstage German tv interview with Ian Anderson October 1987. Don Airey gets a mention at about the one minute mark. Typical Anderson humour also, saying that ‘keyboard players are dangerous people, previously it was drummers, now it is keyboard players”. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Spc3acnys&t=346s
March 27th, 2025 at 01:30I was joking! The new knee is fine, better than the yet unoperated one I dare say. I could stand on one leg on both with or without codpiece!
March 27th, 2025 at 07:48