Deep Purple

Hailing from England, Deep Purple ranks among the most enduring figures in classic rock, having sustained a recorded legacy that stretches across nearly seven decades. Together with Cream, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, the group shaped the contours of hard rock and the earliest strains of heavy metal. Although personnel changes have remained a constant, Deep Purple essentially launched and sustained the careers of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, bassist Roger Glover, vocalists Ian Gillan and David Coverdale, drummer Ian Paice, and keyboardist and composer Jon Lord. Not long before his passing in 2012, Lord credited the band’s sales of more than 100 million albums to what he called “musical restlessness.”

Their initial singles leaned heavily on covers and explored psychedelic pop territory, among them “Kentucky Woman,” “Hush,” and “Might Just Take Your Life,” alongside the 1968 albums Shades of Deep Purple and The Book of Taliesyn. Following the release of the ambitious Concerto for Group and Orchestra in 1970, the group began delivering dense, riff-driven slabs of hard rock. Deep Purple in Rock from that same year and Machine Head from 1972 highlighted the forceful, proto-metal guitar figures that powered “Smoke on the Water,” “Highway Star,” and “Woman from Tokyo,” all captured at peak intensity on the concert recording Made in Japan. Even as musical fashions evolved, Deep Purple maintained chart presence during the 1980s with Perfect Strangers and Nobody’s Perfect. In the 1990s, amid the dominance of grunge and alternative rock, they caught observers off guard with the well-received Slaves and Masters and The Battle Rages On. Their contributions to the hard-rock vocabulary persisted into the new century, as Rapture of the Deep (2005), Infinite (2017), Whoosh! (2020), and =1 (2024) each secured notable chart positions.

Deep Purple came together in Hertford, England, in 1968. The original lineup included guitarist Blackmore, singer Rod Evans, bassist Nick Simper, keyboardist Jon Lord, and drummer Ian Paice. First known as Roundabout, the ensemble was assembled as a backing unit for former Searchers drummer Chris Curtis, yet soon struck out independently, playing shows in Scandinavia before commencing work on their debut album, Shades of Deep Purple. That record, the most pop-leaning of their career, produced a Top Five American single with its version of Joe South’s “Hush,” though it drew little attention in Britain. The Book of Taliesyn appeared the following year, initially in the United States, and again reached the American Top 40 with a cover of Neil Diamond’s “Kentucky Woman.”

On their self-titled third album, the band’s scope widened; the material displayed greater intricacy and weight as Lord’s classically informed keyboards moved to the foreground. Shortly after its release, their American label Tetragrammaton collapsed. With Evans and Simper departing, the group rebuilt around singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, both recruited from the pop outfit Episode Six.

The reconstituted Deep Purple’s first effort, 1970’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra, continued the attempt to merge rock and classical forms. Recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the project met with tepid response, prompting Blackmore to assume artistic direction and steer the band toward a heavier, guitar-centric sound that showcased Gillan’s commanding voice. The strategy succeeded: Deep Purple in Rock marked the start of the group’s most fertile and profitable era. In Britain the album surpassed one million copies, while the subsequent single “Black Night” climbed to number two on the U.K. charts. Fireball, issued in 1971, also fared strongly and yielded the hit “Strange Kind of Woman.”

Intended sessions for the next album at the Casino in Montreux, Switzerland, were disrupted when the venue was destroyed by fire during a Frank Zappa performance; the incident directly inspired the enduring AOR staple “Smoke on the Water.” Included on the multi-platinum Machine Head, the track reached the U.S. Top Five in mid-1972 and elevated Deep Purple to rock’s upper tier. The band reinforced that standing with the 1973 release Who Do We Think We Are and its single “Woman from Tokyo.” Persistent creative friction between Blackmore and Gillan led to Gillan’s exit that year, followed soon by Glover’s departure. Singer David Coverdale and bassist-singer Glenn Hughes joined for 1974’s Burn, after which Gillan launched a solo career under his own name.

Following the completion of Stormbringer later that year, Blackmore exited to form Rainbow with vocalist Ronnie James Dio. His successor, ex-James Gang guitarist Tommy Bolin, appeared on Come Taste the Band. The accumulated shifts proved destabilizing, and after a final tour the band disbanded in 1976. Coverdale subsequently founded Whitesnake, while Bolin died of a drug overdose before year’s end.

The classic lineup of Blackmore, Gillan, Lord, Glover, and Paice reconvened in 1984 for the platinum-certified Perfect Strangers. The House of Blue Light arrived three years later, yet recurring tensions prompted Gillan’s second departure in mid-1989. Former Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner fronted 1990’s Slaves and Masters before Gillan returned for The Battle Rages On…, an ironically titled release that coincided with Blackmore’s mid-tour exit; Joe Satriani filled in temporarily.

Steve Morse assumed the guitar role in 1994 after a stint with Kansas. The refreshed ensemble recorded Purpendicular in 1996, which found favor with longtime followers. Abandon followed in 1998, and a 1999 orchestral concert appeared the next year as Live at the Royal Albert Hall. That same year the four-disc box set Shades: 1968-1998 compiled hits, demos, live performances, and previously unreleased material spanning all lineups. Blackmore, meanwhile, issued one album with a revived Rainbow (1998’s Stranger in Us All) before launching the Renaissance-styled Blackmore’s Night alongside fiancée and vocalist Candice Night.

Lineup shifts notwithstanding, Deep Purple stayed active deep into the 21st century. Keyboardist Lord left in 2002 to pursue several classical projects and succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2012 after roughly a year of illness. Don Airey took his place, and the lineup of Gillan, Glover, Paice, Morse, and Airey produced Bananas in 2003 and Rapture of the Deep in 2005. Numerous archival collections and live documents also appeared during this period, including the 25th-anniversary edition of Machine Head, Friends & Relatives, Rhino’s The Very Best Of, Days May Come and Days May Go: The 1975 California Rehearsals, and DVDs such as Total Abandon: Live Australia 1999, In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, Bombay Calling, and New Live & Rare. Produced by Bob Ezrin, the strong and timeless Now What?! surfaced in early 2013.

Surviving members gathered for a commemorative concert at Royal Albert Hall on April 4, 2014, marking the 45th anniversary of Jon Lord’s “Concerto for Group and Orchestra.” The event was preserved on film and on the two albums Celebrating Jon Lord: The Rock Legend and Celebrating Jon Lord: The Composer, both issued in fall 2014. The band returned to Nashville with Ezrin in early 2016. A teaser single of the opening track “Time for Bedlam” preceded the January announcement of Infinite’s title, artwork, and track list. In an interview Airey characterized the album as “a little heavier than the last one…a bit more prog.” Infinite arrived in April 2017 ahead of the global “Long Goodbye Tour.” Later that year Rhino released Fire in the Sky, a 40-track overview containing at least one song from every studio album through 2013’s Now What?!. The tour was documented on the 2018 live set The Infinite Live Recordings, Vol. 1. Afterward Ezrin again summoned the group to Nashville. Adopting the motto “Deep Purple is putting the ‘Deep’ back into ‘Purple’,” they explored multiple stylistic avenues. The resulting Whoosh! appeared in 2020 and became their highest-charting studio album in the U.K. (number 4) in 46 years. A covers collection, Turning To Crime, followed in 2021 and featured interpretations of Love’s “7 and 7 Is,” Cream’s “White Room,” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.” Morse stepped away shortly after its release to support his wife’s recovery from cancer. Former Sweet Savage singer and guitarist Simon McBride joined as his replacement and made his studio debut on 2024’s =1, the band’s 23rd studio album.