When Simon McBride got the call to join Deep Purple, he had some big shoes to fill.

Not only was there the lasting guitar legacy of Ritchie Blackmore, but his direct predecessor, Steve Morse, had been the band’s longest-serving guitarist after he stepped down in 2022, and had left just as much of a mark on the legendary hard rock band (it’s worth noting that Joe Satriani said that he’d have a much tougher job standing in for Morse than he did with Blackmore).

However, the past couple of years have shown the Northern Irish musician to be exceptionally competent at his job, doing justice to both of Purple’s former guitar greats, while respectfully establishing his own sonic footprint within the band. McBride’s legendary bandmates also have nothing but the best to say about him, and Ian Gillan told “Qobuz” in a new interview that the guitarist has been an “amazing” fit. Reflecting on the moment Simon McBride became an official member, the vocalist said (transcription via Blabbermouth):

“It was funny. He’d been with us for about a year, and we came out of a bar one night somewhere, and I said, ‘Are you in the band yet or what?’ He said, ‘I think so.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I guess.’ So, it was like that.”

“Simon’s been amazing. He’s taken over from Steve Morse, and he’s changed things quite a lot. He’s a catalyst in the sense that how human chemistry can be that one little thing can change everything else.”

As for McBride’s playing style, the hard rock icon added:

“I think we all feel very relaxed with Simon’s style of playing. It’s very compatible with the way we started — very straight ahead. The platforms are simple. The virtuosity is on top. So it’s not like the showing off comes first. That’s just beautiful playing. It’s very natural, second nature to him. And they put a lot of drive back into the rhythm section, because he’s also a great rhythm player. And so when he’s sat in there with Ian [Paice, drummer] and Roger [Glover, bassist] and they’re cranking away, boy, it’s exciting. It’s really great. He doesn’t fake anything. There’s no pretense. He actually plays every single note accurately and I think we need, we like that. That’s a hallmark, I think, of Deep Purple guitar players. They’re right at the top of their tree. He’s very well respected in the guitar world.”

In a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, Simon McBride noted that playing Ritchie Blackmore’s parts wasn’t an exceptionally difficult challenge, as Blackmore was “never really a full technician.” However, there were a few bits that took some time to untangle:

“Most of it is actually not too bad. There’s one little lick which annoyed me for a long, long time, it’s in ‘Lazy’. I don’t play the same solo he plays in ‘Lazy,’ but ‘Lazy’ is one of those songs where I feel I can just improvise a bit more and just have a bit more fun with it.”

“But there’s this one lick he does in it, and I said, ‘I have to play that.’ And it’s a bitch of a lick. It’s not ultrafast. It’s just there’s a lot of chromatic stuff in it and slides in a very tight space, within three or four frets, and that’s it. So that, to me, is the hardest thing about playing Purple.”

 

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Simon McBride Names Most Difficult Ritchie Blackmore Guitar Part to Play, Explains Challenging Aspects of Ritchie’s Music

UG Exclusive: “Nothing was really difficult to play technique-wise. Ritchie was more of a creative player.”

Nearing six decades since the band’s official formation in 1968, Deep Purple has gone through so many stylistic and lineup changes, with Ian Paice remaining the sole original member today. But no matter the era or the lineup, all musicians in Deep Purple were nothing short of impressive. Their newest addition is Simon McBride, who replaced longtime member Steve Morse and is now officially present on the band’s upcoming studio album “=1,” which is being released on July 19.

While waiting for the record, we chatted with Simon and discussed some guitar-related Deep Purple stuff. Among other things, he reflected on the band’s original guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, and some of the challenging aspects of playing his music.

What is the most difficult Ritchie Blackmore part to play?

“Most of it is actually not too bad. There’s one little lick which annoyed me for a long, long time, it’s in ‘Lazy’. I don’t play the same solo he plays in ‘Lazy,’ but ‘Lazy’ is one of those songs where I feel I can just improvise a bit more and just have a bit more fun with it.”

“But there’s this one lick he does in it, and I said, ‘I have to play that.’ And it’s a bitch of a lick. It’s not ultrafast. It’s just there’s a lot of chromatic stuff in it and slides in a very tight space, within three or four frets, and that’s it. So that, to me, is the hardest thing about playing Purple.”

“Everything else, Ritchie was never really a full technician. So, nothing was really difficult to play technique-wise. Ritchie was more of a creative player.”

“Even ‘Highway Star,’ the fast part in that, it’s fast, but it’s not John Petrucci from Dream Theater or something ridiculously fast. It’s fast, but it fits the song. But everything else that he played was more just melodies. Ritchie played for the song most of the time. But yeah, that lick in ‘Lazy’ — that still haunts me every night when I come up to it. I’m like, ‘Oh shit, don’t screw it up!”