Blockbuster: something is cooking! DEEP PURPLE’s DON AIREY officially set to Release New Solo Album featuring Simon In Early 2025″ I’ve always kept the solo in my…..
Don Airey, the keyboardist for DEEP PURPLE, discussed his intentions to make a new solo album in a recent interview with Stefan Nilsson of Roppongi Rocks. According to BLABBERMOUTH.NET’s transcription, he stated: “Well, I’ve always kept the solo… I was in my own band. That’s how we met Simon [McBride, the new guitarist for DEEP PURPLE], who ended up joining my band and playing a major role in it. When we first started writing together, our collaboration worked really well. And I always thought, ‘We won’t have to search far for someone if Steve [Morse, former guitarist for DEEP PURPLE] decides to quit PURPLE.”
“But we have an album in the can that we did prior to lockdown,” he said. The majority of it was completed prior to lockdown, and the vocals were added afterwards. And earMUSIC has that in the can. And I believe that will be out before the end of March.”
Asked if the upcoming album will feature Simon on guitar, Don replied: “Yeah, yeah, but it’s under my name. It’s like a solo album, but, really, it’s just my band playing it. I think it’s gonna be called ‘Push To The Edge’.”
It is hard to find a name amongst all those that over the last 35 years have left their mark in the history of rock that has not utilized Don‘s keyboard skills at some point.
The list includes OZZY OSBOURNE, RAINBOW, WHITESNAKE, JUDAS PRIEST, Gary Moore, Brian May, JETHRO TULL, BLACK SABBATH and, obviously, DEEP PURPLE, the band of which Airey has been a full-time member for over 20 years.
The now 76-year-old Airey stated to Rolling Stone in 2022 that he and his DEEP PURPLE colleagues had no specific plans to stop performing live. “The farewell tour began in 2017.” 2019 was the scheduled end date,” he said. However, the reality is that, as a musician in a band, you may feel like you’re in charge, but you’re not. You are being run by the business.
“Of course, there was so much demand for the band to continue from the promoters and agents that we said, ‘Okay, we’ll do one more year.'”
Regarding when he thinks DEEP PURPLE will finally call it quits, Don said: “The words of T.S. Eliot [the greatest English-language poet of his generation] come to mind: ‘This is the way the band ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.’ I think we won’t know it’s the last gig. We won’t have a clue that this one is going to be the last one. That’s how it’s going to end. It’s going to be no big scenario.
“I agree with Buddy Guy’s remarks. ‘Musicians don’t retire,’ he remarked. They fall. Thoughts of playing and touring with the grandchildren in the garden and bouncing them up and down on your knee do cross your mind. It’s a dependency. I’m hoping to continue playing for a long time.”
