Guitarist Simon McBride recently issued a statement on Deep Purple’s official website and revealed his thoughts on joining them as a permanent member.
Deep Purple’s guitarist Steve Morse joined the band in 1994 and served as their guitarist for 28 years. However, he had to take a temporary hiatus from Deep Purple after his wife’s cancer diagnosis. Morse made this announcement in March 2022, and Simon McBride joined Deep Purple for the remainder of their tour.
In July, Morse made another announcement on his Facebook to let the fans know that his hiatus had become a permanent break. On the other hand, Simon McBride has continued playing with Deep Purple. According to McBride, he didn’t struggle to learn the band’s setlist since most were standard-issue songs, but some gave him a hard time.
Recently, Deep Purple announced that Simon McBride had become a permanent band member. In the announcement on the band’s website, McBride decided to reveal his thoughts on joining Deep Purple. He stated that he would’ve laughed if someone had told him he’d become the band’s guitarist.
Moreover, the musician expressed his happiness about becoming a member of Deep Purple and said he was honored to be among the great guitarists who played with the band. After that, he said he was excited to continue touring with Deep Purple. According to McBride, they might also write and record some songs together.
Here is what Simon McBride said in his statement on Deep Purple’s website:
“I’m very happy to be asked to join the band; at the start of the pandemic, if someone would have said to me that I was going to be the new guitarist in Deep Purple, I would have just laughed, but here we are, and it’s happening.
Deep Purple has a history of great guitarists, so I’m very honored to be asked to be part of that. They are all amazing musicians, and more importantly, I have become very good friends with the guys. So, I can’t wait to continue touring and even perhaps some writing and recording.“
Although McBride has tried not to imitate prior Deep Purple members with his guitar playing, some fans expected him to do so. In August, Simon stated that he didn’t want to play like another guitarist and wanted to reflect his musical personality in his playing style. Despite fans’ expectations, his bandmates supported him in being himself.
