Steve Morse, who played for 28 years from 1994 to 2022, is the guitarist for Deep Purple who has been there the longest, with Ritchie Blackmore having held the title for 16 years, from 1968 to 1975 and 1984 to 1993. However, during a composition session with Purple, Morse discovered that his wife, Janine, was gravely ill, and he was forced to leave the band.
In addition to discussing his upcoming reunion tour with the Dixie Dregs and contemporary shredders, Morse also gave an interview to Ultimate Guitar in which he reflected on his time with Deep Purple and the events leading up to his departure.
“Quite a bit different from Purple, but the basics are the same. The fundamentals of music regardless of what style you play are the same. And the basics of performance in any medium and any work environment where you’re doing something you love but you want to do your best, you have to train and really put everything you can into it so that you can go on stage and relax, and enjoy the moment. Because when you are playing and enjoying it, it conveys that whole spiritual message that we try to bring to the audience. Music is the international language for that reason.”
“But anyway, back to the differences. With Purple, we did thousands of gigs. So, there’s no more real challenges to, ‘Wow. Am I doing to get this part? Am I going to remember that this sound changes before this part? Am I going to be able to make that switch and then change from seventh position to thirteenth position in one-sixteenth note?’ There was none of that. It was just, ‘Just relax and have a good time. It’s a fun, exciting time.'”
“Now, with the Dixie Dregs, there are a lot of things that are more intense about it. The music is harder to play, the parts are harder to play, the soloing feels similar to playing in Purple. Because the soloing, the band was more or less letting me do what I’d want. That was really a cool part of being in Purple. But the parts are much harder either with Steve Morse Band or the Dregs. And there’s a lot more sound switching to do with doing my own music.”
