{"id":18825,"date":"2011-04-18T10:34:56","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T14:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=18825"},"modified":"2011-06-07T10:00:08","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T14:00:08","slug":"justins-japan-deep-purple-guitarist-steve-morse-weighs-in-on-the-japan-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/18\/justins-japan-deep-purple-guitarist-steve-morse-weighs-in-on-the-japan-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin’s Japan: Deep Purple Guitarist Steve Morse Weighs in on the Japan Catastrophe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Steve Morse, far right, with his Deep Purple bandmates. (Ellenwood Artist Group)<\/p><\/div>\n

By<\/strong><\/em> JQ magazine<\/strong><\/em><\/a> editor <\/strong><\/em>Justin Tedaldi<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)\u00a0for Examiner.com.\u00a0Visit his\u00a0page <\/strong><\/em>here<\/a> <\/strong><\/em>to subscribe for free alerts\u00a0on newly published stories. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Throughout its career, Deep Purple<\/a>\u2013who formed in England in 1968 and released their debut album that year\u2013has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. Revered in Japan, their iconic rock hits include “Smoke on the Water,” “Highway Star,” and “Woman from Tokyo.” After a four-year hiatus from American shores, the band\u2019s upcoming tour, called Deep Purple: The Songs That Built Rock, finds them returning with a symphony orchestra.<\/p>\n

In this exclusive interview, I spoke with Steve Morse<\/a>, the group\u2019s guitarist since 1994, about the tour, and his thoughts on the cataclysmic events happening in Japan.<\/p>\n

Regarding the recent catastrophe in Japan, is the band planning to do any special shows or benefits at this point?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, we haven\u2019t gotten anything that we\u2019re privy to at the moment. I think the thing in Japan is, they sort of differ from a Third World country that just totally doesn\u2019t know what to do. The people of Japan are so incredibly organized and capable, I don\u2019t know how anybody can help them that isn\u2019t right there. They need all kinds of support. The logistics of getting what they need to them is obviously the problem\u2014it\u2019s not being able to afford it, as far as what I\u2019ve seen. And don\u2019t forget that at this time I\u2019ve got a limited view, because I\u2019m working all the time [Morse was\u00a0touring with the band in Eastern Europe\u00a0during\u00a0this interview<\/em>], and I can\u2019t just turn on the TV and get anything set to a certain very narrow international news station.<\/p>\n

So from my point of view, it looks like they need more logistical support than moral support to raise more money for food or anything. I could be wrong, but it looks like they\u2019ve got that part covered, and the government is willing to do whatever it takes to get the people back on their feet and working again. But they\u2019re handling some really amazing problems right now, and one last thing that I get from that is how incredibly dignified they are in such a time of stress.<\/p>\n

Of course Deep Purple has a long relationship with Japan and its people, making live albums recorded there something special long before bands like Cheap Trick came along. What\u2019s it like when you go over there as a member of the group?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deep Purple has very old acquaintances, like promoter Mr. Udo, and everybody knows people there, so it\u2019s a friendly, familiar place. And like I said, it\u2019s so organized and dignified, it\u2019s just wonderful. It\u2019s wonderful to see a guy driving a cab that\u2019s spotless, with white gloves on, and that\u2019s any<\/em> cab you get into.<\/p>\n

The trains, they come exactly on time, they leave exactly on time, and they go really fast. So a lot of times we just ride the trains, because it\u2019s the best way to go. And when you\u2019ve got mass transit that\u2019s that organized, even in an earthquake zone, it\u2019s still the way to go. It beats traffic, you know? And whenever we get mass transit that\u2019s that organized and that cool and that fast and that reliable, I think then America could really cut down on one person per Suburban, you know? (Laughs.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Is there any place that you haven\u2019t played yet that you\u2019re looking forward to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, yeah. I\u2019d like to see\u2014and this is not a joke\u2014Antarctica. Because I\u2019m fascinated with technology and how people cope with things. Since I\u2019m a member of Deep Purple, and have played outside in the snow on top of a mountain, in a desert (laughs<\/em>) and in a monsoon in Korea, I think, outside, getting drenched, it seems like if we can play anywhere, we might as well go to the most extreme gig possible, and that would be Antarctica. Maybe even the North Pole, I don\u2019t know. But there\u2019s some parts of Africa that we haven\u2019t been to, and that would be interesting, especially if they were able to accommodate all the power and logistics for the band. The adventure never stops.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of the interview <\/em><\/strong>here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)\u00a0for Examiner.com.\u00a0Visit his\u00a0page here to subscribe for free alerts\u00a0on newly published stories. Throughout its career, Deep Purple\u2013who formed in England in 1968 and released their debut album that year\u2013has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. Revered in Japan, their iconic rock hits include “Smoke on the Water,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,340,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviewprofile","category-justins-japan","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-4TD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18825"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19855,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18825\/revisions\/19855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}