Simon McBride responds to Steve Morse praising his playing and explains how he and Ritchie Blackmore are similar.
While Steve Morse, the band’s longest-serving guitarist, had to leave, Deep Purple found more than a worthy successor in Simon McBride. He possesses all the necessary musical and guitar skills. Simon is so talented, in fact, that Morse himself acknowledged this in an interview with Ultimate Guitar.
While Deep Purple is promoting their brand-new album “=1,” we had a chance to speak with Simon and find out his thoughts on Steve praising his work. We also asked him to compare the parts and techniques of Ritchie Blackmore and Steve Morse.
Steve Morse, who I recently interviewed, gave me high marks on your playing. Do you know that Steve Morse thinks highly of the way you play?
“No, I’m not conscious of that. Steve is one of the guitar world’s idols, so hearing that is incredible. He hails from a generation of guitarists that were simply amazing on stage. I am aware that he suffers from arthritis and other conditions that affect his hands.”
“Yet as you age, it becomes increasingly difficult to retain all that skill. However, at the time, what he was doing was simply terrifying. I recall wondering, “How does he do that?” after seeing a few films of the Dregs and his own project. That is very astonishing.
“I consider myself quite fortunate that he is a fan. Because it’s always comforting to hear from someone of that caliber that they are knowledgeable about their subject. Steve’s approval of my playing indicates that I’m making progress.”
Which portions of Blackmore’s and Morse’s would you compare?
“They’re actually pretty comparable; they’re just from different genres. I’ve always thought of us as products. There is nothing we can do to stop the influences that affect us. Simply put, whatever we learn and whatever we listen to gets out.”
“And in my opinion, Steve has a different background than Ritchie. Steve has a voice that is more progressive and has more of a country background. However, he never used it in a very showy way in Purple. He never felt the need to simply declare, “I’m going to play a million notes per second and shred here.” He used it in a really melodious way.”
Ritchie was the same. Ritchie had always had a touch of the classical music, even though he came of age during that bluesy rock period. It was more or less the same thing, but he added the occasional touch of, you know, flash here and there while still keeping it melodic. Hence, despite coming from two distinct perspectives of
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