I`ve been listening to it for the last few days and it grows better with each listen. A very classy album by a legendary band.
I have interviewed a few members including Ian Gillan (a couple of times), Roger Glover, David Coverdale (a couple of times), Glenn Hughes (4 or 5 times) & Joe Lyn Turner. I also did Ritchie Blackmore by email so I don`t know if that really counts but his guitar tech transcribed the answers to my questions and sent them back to me. I know he did this as he was also Mick Box from Uriah Heep`s guitar tech and I spoke to him a couple of months later and he told me how they did a few questions each night and he wrote them up!!). I`ve also done Joe Satriani three times, I know he was never a full member but did step in to fulfil a Japanese tour when Blackmore quit.
I think one of my most memorable was Jon Lord. He was playing a classical show at Durham Cathedral. I ended up going through the Bishop of Durham to the cathedral press office to Jon Lord`s manager. He`d been doing a press session with the BBC and ITV and the local papers where they all fired questions at him and then I had my slot in the library. So I ended up having tea and biscuits with Jon Lord in Durham cathedral and had about 15 minutes when his press agent came in and said that he had to go. He leant over and patted my arm and said that it was nice to talk to someone who knew what he was talking about as the press tent earlier had been the same questions about Smoke on the Water etc. I said it was a shame that we`d run out of time as I had a fair few more things to ask him. He gave me his managers contact details and said we could finish the interview over the phone. Sure enough, we did just that and I got an extra hour and a half. What a lovely gesture and something that he didn`t have to do at all. He was one of the most polite, cultured musicians that I have ever mentioned and was genuinely saddened when he died.
As you know Don Airey took his place after he retired from Deep Purple and he was so complimentary about Don saying he was the only person he could see carrying on the legacy. What a gentleman.
I may well, if all goes according to plan, be adding to my list of Deep Purple interviews later this week