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Ken Dashow
Steve Morse Won't Prevent Ritchie Blackmore-Deep Purple Reunion
posted by Andrew Magnotta - Aug 9, 2017
Longtime Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse indicated that he won't stand in the way of a reunion between his band and its founding guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore.
With the band openly considering retirement after its Long Goodbye Tour, the members have been asked often about whether a reunion with Blackmore—even if only for one show—was important to them.
On the other side of things, in a comment that surprised many, the famously stoic Blackmore indicated that he would rejoin his former band "because of the old times."
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While founding drummer Ian Paice said earlier this summer that "there's no point for us to consider" a reunion with Blackmore, Morse tells Billboard, "Fans would love it.
"It would be nice, I think, to see closure with everybody involved, and the bad feelings put aside."
But Morse, who joined Deep Purple in 1994, admitted that there are lots of barriers to a reunion, none of them him.
"There have been a lot of bad things said and done among the guys. It's like the ice that has to be broken."
If it could happen, Morse thinks it would be positive.
"I think they'd all get a kick out of it if they could get past the psychological barriers. A lot of people would feel intimidated to have somebody come who's likely to play over them, standing in front of them and stealing the spotlight or whatever. But I thought, 'A lot of people would love to see this.'"
The virtuoso, who's best known outside of Deep Purple as a member of The Dixie Dregs, Kansas and as the leader of The Steve Morse Band, says he was prepared to step aside for Blackmore when Deep Purple was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, but Blackmore never showed up.
See Deep Purple's remaining U.S. tour dates here.
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