Deep Purple Talk About Their Image in Illustrated Form

Deep Purple has finally landed a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! Other 2016 inductees include Cheap Trick, Chicago, N.W.A and Steve Miller.

“I've heard quotes of somebody on the [Rock Hall voting] committee saying, 'Well, Deep Purple can't be in it, because they were a one-hit wonder'”, lead singer Ian Gillan told Rolling Stone in 2014. “I don't know if they were referring to “Hush” or “Smoke in the Water” or “Child in Time” or “Highway Star” or “Perfect Strangers,” any of those one hit wonders that we were.”

The English rockers formed in 1968 and have (understandably) endured many lineup changes during their impressive 47-year-long career. The band members being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will include: Ian Paice, Rictchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Rod Evans, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes and Jon Lord.

Whether or not eccentric—and estranged—guitarist Blackmore will attend the ceremony is a mystery to band mate Paice who told Rolling Stone “I wouldn't put money either way on that one.”

The feud between Gillan and Blackmore has always been a public matter. “If Ritchie had stayed in the band, it would have been the end of Deep Purple,” Gillan told the Argentina radio station Vorterix Rock 103.1 T”he shows were getting shorter and shorter, the audiences were getting smaller and smaller. We were playing in small halls, and they weren’t even full — they were half empty — and Ritchie was walking off stage every night.”

Gillan continued:
“And, of course, now the distance of time is so great that we just remember the good times. And we remember Ritchie as a great player, a great performer, a great writer, and I remember him as my roommate — I used to share rooms with him. But something happened with Ritchie, and that’s the end of that … I have no desire to pick up the phone to Ritchie, or have dinner with him, or meet him in Paris or Tokyo. I hope he’s well, and I hope he’s happy. And that’s the end of it.”

Despite Gillan's comments to the press, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has proven to be the best arena for reconciliation; if Courtney Love and Dave Grohl can bury the hatchet there, anyone can.

Here is what Gillan and Blackmore have said about their image in America. Quotation above via ultimateclassicrock.com.

—via theguardian.com