Deep Purple and Yes have no hard feelings – 53 years after the former group’s original guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, delayed the latter’s headline slot by setting fire to amplifiers at a festival.
The two legendary rock groups are reuniting for a series of US shows this summer, and despite the ruckus at the Jazz and Blues Festival in 1971, there is no bad blood between them.
Bassist Roger Glover, 78, recalled in an interview with Billboard: “We worked with them [Yes] years ago in the ’70s.
“We did some festivals together – one in particular called the Plumpton Jazz and Blues Festival in ’71. Ian Gillan and I had only been in the band a couple of months at that point. There was an argument about who’d be closing the show, and they won the argument and were closing the show. Ritchie (Blackmore, Purple’s original guitarist) set fire to his amplifiers and made them explode on stage. So they were delayed a lot and weren’t very happy with that.”
However, they didn’t hold a grudge, and the groups are set to hit the road again in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the classic rock staple ‘Smoke On The Water’.
Roger added: “We’ve met them since. They’re a great band. We saw (Yes guitarist) Steve Howe a couple years ago. We got on, no hard feelings. I don’t know which state they’re in now, which combination of musicians they have, so I’ll be happily surprised.”
The jaunt kicks off on August 14 at Hard Rock Live Hollywood, in Florida, and wraps on September 8 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Despite being in his late 70s, Roger is still rock’n’roll and recalled injuring his thumb after a night on the tequila, which delayed their work on their tune ‘Show Me’, which is the opening track on their new album ‘=1′, which is out now.
He spilled: “We were all invited to Alice Cooper’s 75th birthday party with (Ezrin).
“We finished early, and Simon and Don (Airey) and I went to a bar and hit the tequila a bit too much and I fell over and really hurt my thumb. The next morning was the last day of writing sessions, and my thumb was swollen all up and I couldn’t play anything. So I said, ‘Excuse me, lads, I have to get it checked out in a hospital or something,’ which I did. In the meantime, the idea of ‘Show Me’ had started, but it was later on when we worked it out. I couldn’t imagine what Ian would sing over that until I was in Portugal with him, and he just attacked it and found the right tune and everything, and we had the song.”