Deep Purple Follow Up

In April 1984, eight years after the demise of Deep Purple, a full-scale (and legal) reunion took place with the "classic" Mark II line-up of 1969–1973: Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. The reformed band signed a worldwide deal with PolyGram, with Mercury Records releasing their albums in the US, and Polydor Records in the UK and other countries. The album Perfect Strangers was recorded in Vermont and released in October 1984. The album was commercially successful, reaching number 5 in the UK Albums Chart and number 12 on the Billboard 200 in the US. The album included the singles and concert staples "Knockin' At Your Back Door" and "Perfect Strangers". Perfect Strangers became the second Deep Purple album to go platinum in the US, following Machine Head (Made in Japan would also finally hit platinum status in the US in 1986, the same year Machine Head increased to double platinum).

The reunion tour followed, starting in Australia and winding its way across the world to North America, then into Europe by the following summer. Financially, the tour was also a tremendous success. In the US, the 1985 tour out-grossed every other artist except Bruce Springsteen. The UK homecoming saw the band headline the 1985 Knebworth Fayre in June, where the weather was bad (torrential rain and 6 inches (15 cm) of mud) in front of 80,000 fans. The gig was called the "Return of the Knebworth Fayre".

Mark II followed Perfect Strangers with The House of Blue Light in 1987, which was supported by another world tour (interrupted after Blackmore broke a finger on stage while trying to catch his guitar after throwing it in the air). A new live album Nobody's Perfect, which was culled from several shows on this tour, was released in 1988. In the UK a new Mark II version of "Hush" was also released in 1988 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Deep Purple.

Ian Gillan was fired in 1989; his relations with Ritchie Blackmore had again soured, and their musical differences had diverged too far. Originally, the band intended to recruit Survivor frontman Jimi Jamison as Gillan's replacement. After two weeks of sessions with the band, however, Jamison announced he could not join Deep Purple owing to complications with Scotti Brothers Records, his record label.

Eventually, after auditioning several high-profile candidates, including Brian Howe (White Spirit, Ted Nugent, Bad Company), Doug Pinnick (King's X), Australians Jimmy Barnes (Cold Chisel) and John Farnham (Little River Band), Terry Brock (Strangeways, Giant) and Norman "Kal" Swan (Tytan, Lion, Bad Moon Rising), the band agreed on Joe Lynn Turner, who had previously been a member of Rainbow with Blackmore and Glover. This Mark V line-up recorded just one album, Slaves and Masters (1990), and undertook a world tour for most of 1991.

With the tour complete, the band set to work on another album, the early sessions of which would see Joe Lynn Turner being forced out. 1993 was going to be Deep Purple's 25th anniversary year, with Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Roger Glover (and the record company) wanting Ian Gillan back for another Mark II reunion to celebrate this milestone. Although Ritchie Blackmore preferred Turner to remain in the group, he grudgingly relented, after requesting and eventually receiving $250,000 in his bank account and Mark II completed the aptly titled The Battle Rages On... in 1993.

Ritchie Blackmore still disagreed with the decision, which created more tension between himself and the rest of the band, especially Ian Gillan. Of particular contention was that Gillan had reworked much of the material that had been written with Turner for the new album. Blackmore felt that Gillan's rewrites had made the songs less melodic than they had been in their original versions.

The band began a European tour, which was documented on the live album Come Hell or High Water, released in 1994. A live home video of the same name was also released, covering a show in Birmingham, England that displayed a very disgruntled Blackmore, who did not perform many of the guitar parts and who at one point threw a cup of water at a cameraman, for unknown reasons. The complete show was eventually released in 2006 as "Live at the NEC" but was quickly withdrawn after Gillan publicly complained, feeling it represented a bad time in the group's history: "It was one of the lowest points of my life – all of our lives, actually".

Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple for the second and final time after a show in Helsinki, Finland in November 1993. Joe Satriani was drafted to complete the Japanese dates in December and stayed on for a European summer tour in 1994. He was asked to join permanently, but his commitments to his contract with Epic Records prevented this. The band unanimously chose Dixie Dregs/Kansas guitarist Steve Morse as Satriani's successor in August 1994.

Steve Morse's arrival revitalised the band creatively, and in 1996 a new album titled Purpendicular was released, showing a wide variety of musical styles. Though in the Post-grunge mid '90s it was no surprise that it never made chart success on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. This Mark VII line-up then released a new live album Live at The Olympia '96 in 1997.

With a revamped set list to tour, Deep Purple enjoyed successful tours throughout the rest of the 1990s, releasing the harder-sounding Abandon in 1998, and touring with renewed enthusiasm. In 1999, Jon Lord, with the help of a Dutch fan, who was also a musicologist and composer, Marco de Goeij, painstakingly recreated the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, the original score having been lost.

It was once again performed at the Royal Albert Hall in September 1999, this time with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Mann. The concert also included songs from each member's solo careers, as well as a short Deep Purple set, and the occasion was commemorated on the 2000 album In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra.

2001 saw the release of the box set The Soundboard Series, containing concerts from the 2001 Australian Tour plus two from Tokyo, Japan.

Much of the next few years was spent on the road touring. The group continued forward until 2002 when founding member Jon Lord (who, along with Ian Paice, was the only member to be in all incarnations of the band) announced his amicable retirement from the band to pursue personal projects (especially orchestral work).

Jon Lord left his Hammond organ to his replacement, rock keyboard veteran Don Airey, who had helped Deep Purple out when Jon Lord's knee was injured in 2001. Don Airey had previously worked with Roger Glover as a member of Rainbow from 1979 to 1982.

In 2003, the new Mark VIII line-up released Bananas, their first studio album in five years, and began touring in support. EMI Records refused a contract extension with Deep Purple, possibly because of lower sales. Despite this, In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra sold more than Bananas.

The band played at the Live 8 concert in Park Place (Barrie, Ontario) in July 2005, and in October released their next album, Rapture of the Deep, which was followed by the Rapture of the Deep tour. Both Bananas and Rapture of the Deep were produced by Michael Bradford. In 2009 Ian Gillan said, "Record sales have been steadily declining, but people are prepared to pay a lot for concert tickets." In addition, Gillan stated: "I don't think happiness comes with money."

Deep Purple did concert tours in 48 countries in 2011. The Songs That Built Rock Tour used a 38-piece orchestra, and included a performance at The O₂ Arena in London. Until May 2011, the band members had disagreed about whether to make a new studio album,

because it would not really make money any more. Roger Glover stated that Deep Purple should make a new studio album "even if it costs us money." In early 2011, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes told VH1 they would like to reunite Mark III for the right opportunity, such as a benefit concert. This did not happen however, as Ritchie Blackmore was difficult to contact and was not interested, as he was busy with his current band Blackmore's Night.

The band's chief sound engineer of nine years of tours, Moray McMillin, died in September 2011, aged 57. After a lot of songwriting sessions in Europe, Deep Purple decided to record through the summer of 2012, and the band announced they would release their new studio album in 2013. Steve Morse announced to French magazine, Rock Hard that the new studio album would be produced by Bob Ezrin. On July 16, 2012 the band's co-founding member and former organ player, Jon Lord, died in London, aged 71. In December 2012 Roger Glover stated that the band had completed work on 14 songs for a new studio album, with 11 or 12 tracks set to appear on the final album to be released in 2013. On February 26, 2013 the title of the band's nineteenth studio album was announced as Now What?!, which was recorded and mixed in Nashville, Tennessee, and released on April 26, 2013.

The album contains the track "Vincent Price", named after the horror actor who had worked with both Ian Gillan and Roger Glover earlier in their careers.

On November 25, 2016, Deep Purple announced Infinite as the title of their twentieth studio album, which was released on April 7, 2017. In support for the album, Deep Purple embarked on May 13, 2017 in Bucharest, Romania on The Long Goodbye Tour. At the time of the tour's announcement in December 2016, Ian Paice told the Heavyworlds website it "may be the last big tour", adding that the band "don't know". He described the tour as being long in duration and said: "We haven't made any hard, fast plans, but it becomes obvious that you cannot tour the same way you did when you were 21. It becomes more and more difficult. People have other things in their lives, which take time. But never say never." On February 3, 2017, Deep Purple released a video version of "Time for Bedlam", the first track taken from the new album and the first new Deep Purple track for almost four years.

On February 29, 2020, a new track, "Throw My Bones" was released online, with a new album, Whoosh! planned for release in June. The release of the full-length album would later be postponed to August 7, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A review in NME said the album sounded nothing like contemporary music of 2020, but suggested that "maybe that's a good thing". Gillan confirmed in an interview on August 4, 2020 that he and the other members of Deep Purple have no immediate plans to retire.

On October 6, 2021, the band had announced the title of their cover album, Turning to Crime which was released on November 26, 2021.

In March 2022, Steve Morse announced that he had to take a hiatus from the band after his wife was diagnosed with cancer. The band, who had recently returned to live performances, continued touring with Simon McBride, formerly of Sweet Savage, standing in for Morse who at that point officially remained in the band. On July 23, 2022, it was announced that Morse would be leaving permanently in order to focus on caring for his wife as she battled cancer. Later that September, McBride was made an official member of the band.

In June 2022, Ian Gillan announced that the band had planned to work on their twenty-third studio album after the conclusion of the Whoosh! tour: "Deep Purple has got a writing session booked in March 2023, which I believe is to get started on thinking about our next record."

Titled =1 More Time, a 2024 tour was announced on March 19 of that year. Jefferson Starship were special guests on the Europe dates, and Reef were special guests for the UK shows. On April 24, 2024, it was announced the forthcoming release of a new studio album - the band's twenty-third one and the first with Simon McBride - whose title =1 and track listing were revealed, and the release date stated as July 19, of that year. It was the fifth Deep Purple album that Bob Ezrin had produced. The first single "Portable Door" was released on April 30. A second single, "Pictures of You", was released on June 5, 2024. A third single, "Lazy Sod" was released on July 5, 2024.

In a May 2025 interview with Rolling Stone Brasil, Ian Paice confirmed that Deep Purple have begun working on new material for their next album.

Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliot stated that "in 1971, there were only three bands that mattered: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple." Iron Maiden's bassist and primary songwriter, Steve Harris, states that his band's "heaviness" was inspired by "Black Sabbath and Deep Purple with a bit of Zeppelin thrown in." Van Halen founder Eddie Van Halen named "Burn" one of his favourite ever guitar riffs.

Queen guitarist Brian May referred to Ritchie Blackmore as "a trail blazer and technically incredible — unpredictable in every possible way...you never knew what you were gonna see when you went to see Purple".

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich states, "When I was nine years old it was all about Deep Purple. My all time favourite album is still Made in Japan". The band's 1974 album Stormbringer was the first record owned by Till Lindemann, vocalist of German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein.

While firmly placed in the Hard rock and Heavy metal categories, Deep Purple's music frequently incorporated elements of Progressive rock and Blues rock, prompting Canadian journalist Martin Popoff to once call the band "a reference point of a genre in metal without categorisation." Jason Ankeny of AllMusic said the band "made hard rock a fine art, and unleashed some of the greatest guitar riffs known to the world."

In 2000, Deep Purple were ranked number 22 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" programme. At the 2008 World Music Awards, the band received the Legend Award. In 2011, they received the Innovator Award at the 2011 Classic Rock Awards in London, A Rolling Stone readers' poll in 2012 ranked Made in Japan the sixth best live album of all time.

As part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of Machine Head (1972), Re-Machined: A Tribute to Deep Purple's Machine Head was released in 2012. This tribute album included Iron Maiden, Metallica, Steve Vai, Carlos Santana, The Flaming Lips, Black Label Society, Papa Roach vocalist Jacoby Shaddix, Chickenfoot (former Van Halen members,

Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers) and the supergroup Kings of Chaos (Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott, Steve Stevens, and former Guns N' Roses members Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum).

In 2007, Deep Purple were one of the featured artists in the fourth episode of the BBC/VH1 series Seven Ages of Rock – an episode focusing on Heavy metal. In May 2019 the group received the Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.

Before October 2012, Deep Purple had never been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (though they have been eligible since 1993), but were nominated for induction in 2012 and 2013. Despite ranking second in the public's vote on the Rock Hall fans' ballot, which had over half a million votes, they were not inducted by the Rock Hall committee.

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons and Rush bassist Geddy Lee commented that Deep Purple should obviously be among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. There have been criticisms in the past over Deep Purple not having been inducted. Toto guitarist Steve Lukather commented, "they put Patti Smith in there but not Deep Purple? What's the first song every kid learns how to play? ["Smoke on the Water"] ... And they're not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? ... the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has lost its cool because of the glaring omissions."

Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash expressed his surprise and disagreement regarding the non-induction of Deep Purple: "The list of people who haven't even been nominated is mind-boggling ... [the] big one for me is Deep Purple. How could you not induct Deep Purple?". Metallica band members James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett had also lobbied for the band's induction.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in April 2014, Ulrich pleaded: "I'm not going to get into the politics or all that stuff, but I got two words to say: 'Deep Purple'. That's all I have to say: Deep Purple. Seriously, people, Deep Purple. Two simple words in the English language ... 'Deep Purple'! Did I say that already?" In 2015, Chris Jericho, professional wrestler and vocalist of rock band Fozzy, stated: "that Deep Purple are not in it [Hall of Fame]. It's bullshit. Obviously there's some politics against them from getting in there."

In response to these, a Hall of Fame chief executive said, "The definition of 'Rock and roll' means different things to different people, but as broad as the classifications may be, they all share a common love of the music." Roger Glover got an inside word in there and they were talking of us as not "fashionable" enough.

"One of the jurors said, 'You know, Deep Purple, they're just one-hit wonders.' How can you deal with that kind of Philistinism, you know?".

Ian Gillan also commented, "I've fought all my life against being institutionalised and I think you have to actively search these things out, in other words mingle with the right people, and we don't get invited to those kind of things." On October 16, 2013 Deep Purple were again announced as nominees for inclusion to the Hall, and once again they were not inducted.

In April 2015, Deep Purple topped the list in a Rolling Stone readers poll of acts that should be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016. In October 2015, the band were nominated for induction for the third time. In December 2015, the band were announced as 2016 inductees into the Hall of Fame, with the Hall stating: "Deep Purple's non-inclusion in the Hall is a gaping hole which must now be filled", adding that along with fellow inductees Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, the band make up "the Holy Trinity of hard rock and metal bands."

The band was officially inducted on April 8, 2016. The Hall of Fame announced that the following members were included as inductees: Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Rod Evans, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. Excluded from induction were Nick Simper, Tommy Bolin, Joe Lynn Turner, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse and Don Airey.

It was reported that Ian Gillan announced that he was barring Hughes, Coverdale, Evans and Blackmore from playing with them onstage, as these members are not in the current "living, breathing" version of the band. When interviewed by Loudwire he stated however that this was not the case. An email was sent from his management to Blackmore's management but Blackmore claimed he never received said email. Of the seven living inducted members, five showed up. Blackmore did not attend; a posting on his Facebook page claimed he was honoured by the induction and had considered attending, until he received correspondence from Bruce Payne,

manager from the current touring version of Deep Purple saying, "No!" Evans, who had disappeared from the music scene more than three decades prior, also did not appear. Since Lord had died in 2012, his wife Vickie accepted his award on his behalf. The current members of the band played "Highway Star" for the opening performance. After a brief interlude playing the Booker T. & the M.G.'s song "Green Onions" while photos of the late Jon Lord flashed on the screen behind them, the current Deep Purple members played two more songs: "Hush" and their signature tune "Smoke on the Water". Although barred from playing with Deep Purple, both David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes (as well as Roger Glover) joined fellow inductees Cheap Trick and an all-star cast to perform a cover of the Fats Domino song "Ain't That a Shame".

"With almost no exceptions, every hard rock band in the last 40 years, including mine, traces its lineage directly back to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Where I grew up, and in the rest of the world outside of North America, all were equal in status, stature and influence. So in my heart – and I know I speak for many of my fellow musicians and millions of Purple fans when I confess that – I am somewhat bewildered that they are so late in getting in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." —Excerpt from Lars Ulrich's speech, inducting Deep Purple into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.