Beginnings (1967–1968) In 1967, former
Searchers drummer
Chris Curtis contacted London businessman
Tony Edwards, in the hope he would manage a new group he was assembling, to be called Roundabout. Curtis' vision was a "supergroup" where the band members would 'get on' and 'get off', like a musical roundabout. Impressed with the plan, Edwards agreed to finance the venture with his two business partners
John Coletta and Ron Hire, who composed Hire-Edwards-Coletta Enterprises (HEC). Lord was then performing in a backing band for the vocal group
The Flower Pot Men, along with bassist
Nick Simper and drummer
Carlo Little (Simper had previously been in
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, and survived the 1966 car crash that killed Kidd). Lord alerted Simper and Little that he had been recruited for the Roundabout project, and they suggested guitarist
Ritchie Blackmore, whom Lord had never met. Simper had known Blackmore since the early 1960s when his first band, the Renegades, debuted around the same time as one of Blackmore's early bands, the Dominators. Lord convinced Nick Simper to join on bass, but Blackmore insisted they leave Carlo Little behind in favour of drummer
Bobby Woodman. The band lived, wrote and rehearsed at the house; it was fully kitted out with the latest
Marshall amplification During a brief tour of Denmark and Sweden in April, in which they were still billed as Roundabout, Blackmore suggested a new name: Deep Purple, after his grandmother's favourite song, "
Deep Purple" by
Peter DeRose. The group had resolved to choose a name after everyone had posted one on a board in rehearsal. Second to Deep Purple was "Concrete God", which the band thought was too harsh to take on, while other names suggested included "Orpheus" and "Sugarlump".
Mark I (1968–1969) ,
Ian Paice,
Rod Evans; seated left to right:
Ritchie Blackmore,
Jon Lord. In May 1968, the band moved into
Pye Studios in London's
Marble Arch to record their debut album,
Shades of Deep Purple, which was released in America in July by
Tetragrammaton Records, and in Britain in September by
EMI Records. The group had success in North America with a cover of
Joe South's "
Hush", and by September 1968, the song had reached No. 4 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in the US and No. 2 in the Canadian
RPM chart, pushing the
Shades LP up to No. 24 on
Billboards pop albums chart. The following month, Deep Purple were booked to support
Cream on the US leg of their
Goodbye tour. though sales for the album were not as strong (No. 54 in US, No. 48 in Canada).
The Book of Taliesyn was not released in the band's home country until the following year and, like its predecessor, it failed to have much impact on the
UK Albums Chart. During the late 1968 US tour, the band made several high-profile television appearances, including
Playboy After Dark and
The Dating Game (where, in addition to the band performing, Lord appeared as a contestant). Early in 1969, the band released the non-album single "Emmaretta", named after Emmaretta Marks, at that time a cast member of the musical
Hair, whom Evans was trying to seduce. During the 1969 American tour, Lord and Blackmore met with Paice to discuss their desire to develop the heavy rock side of the band further. They decided that Evans and Simper would not fit well with the style they envisioned, and both were replaced that summer. Paice stated, "A change had to come. If they hadn't left, the band would have totally disintegrated." Both Simper and Blackmore noted that Rod Evans already had one foot out of the door. Simper said that Evans had met a girl in
Hollywood and had eyes on being an actor, while Blackmore explained, "Rod just wanted to go to America and live in America." Evans and Simper were later co-founders of the bands
Captain Beyond and
Warhorse respectively.
Mark II (1969–1973) Deep Purple Mark II was formed in Hanwell Community Centre in West London in the summer of 1969. In search of a new vocalist, Blackmore set his own sights on 19-year-old singer
Terry Reid. Though he found the offer "flattering", Reid was still bound by an exclusive recording contract with his producer
Mickie Most and more interested in his solo career. Blackmore had to look elsewhere. The band sought out singer
Ian Gillan from
Episode Six, a band that had released several singles in the UK without achieving any great commercial success. Six's drummer
Mick Underwood – an old comrade of Blackmore's from his days in
the Outlaws – introduced the band to Gillan and bassist
Roger Glover. According to Nick Simper, "Gillan would join only with Roger Glover." This effectively killed Episode Six, which gave Underwood a persistent feeling of guilt that lasted nearly a decade, until Gillan recruited him for
his new post-Purple band in the late 1970s. According to Blackmore, Deep Purple was only interested in Gillan and not Glover, but Glover was retained on the advice of Ian Paice. Despite television appearances to promote the "Hallelujah" single in the UK, the song flopped. , Germany, 1970 In September 1969, the band gained some much-needed publicity in the UK with the
Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a three-movement epic composed by Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the
Royal Albert Hall in London with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by
Malcolm Arnold. Gillan and Blackmore were less than happy at the band being tagged as "a group who played with orchestras", both feeling that the
Concerto was a distraction that would get in the way of developing their desired hard-rocking style. Lord acknowledged that while the band members were not keen on the project going in, at the end of the performance "you could have put the five smiles together and spanned the
Thames." Lord would also write the
Gemini Suite, another orchestra/group collaboration in the same vein, for the band in late 1970, although the band's recording of the piece would not be released until 1993. In 1975, Blackmore stated that he thought the
Concerto for Group and Orchestra was not bad but that the
Gemini Suite was horrible and very disjointed. Roger Glover later noted that Jon Lord had appeared to be the leader of the band in the early years. Shortly after the orchestral release, Mark II began a hectic touring and recording schedule that was to see little respite for the next four years. The second album, and first studio album, of the Mark II era, released in 1970, was
In Rock (a title supported by the album's
Mount Rushmore–inspired cover), which contained "
Speed King", "Into The Fire" and "
Child in Time", all of which were staples of the band's live performances during that period. The non-album single "
Black Night", released around the same time, finally put Deep Purple into the UK Top 10. The interplay between Blackmore's guitar and Lord's distorted organ, coupled with Gillan's powerful, wide-ranging vocals and the rhythm section of Glover and Paice, now started to take on a unique identity that separated the band from its earlier albums. Along with Zeppelin's
Led Zeppelin II and Sabbath's
Paranoid,
In Rock codified the budding
heavy metal genre.
In Rock performed well, especially in the UK where it reached No. 4, while the "Black Night" single reached No. 2 on the
UK Singles Chart, and the band performed the song live on the
BBC's
Top of the Pops. The title track "
Fireball" was released as a single, as was "
Strange Kind of Woman", not from the album but recorded during the same sessions (although it replaced "Demon's Eye" on the US version of the album). "Strange Kind of Woman" became their second UK Top 10 single, reaching No. 8. On 24 October 1971 during the US leg of the
Fireball tour, the band was set to play the
Auditorium Theatre in Chicago when Ian Gillan contracted
hepatitis, forcing the band to play without him, with bassist Glover singing the set. After this, the rest of the US dates were cancelled and the band flew home. In early December 1971, the band travelled to Switzerland to record
Machine Head. The album was due to be recorded at the
Montreux Casino using the
Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, but a fire during a
Frank Zappa and
the Mothers of Invention concert, caused by a man firing a flare gun into the ceiling, burned down the Casino. This incident famously inspired the song "
Smoke on the Water". The album was later recorded in a corridor at the nearby empty
Grand Hôtel de Territet, with the exception of the music track to "Smoke on the Water". That was recorded at a vacant theatre called The Pavillon before the band was asked to leave. On recording "Smoke on the Water", Blackmore stated to
BBC Radio 2: "We did the whole thing in about four takes because we had to. The police were banging on the door. We knew it was the police, but we had such a good sound in this hall. We were waking up all the neighbours for about five miles in Montreux, because it was echo-ing through the mountains. I was just getting the last part of the riff down, we'd just finished it, when the police burst in and said 'you've got to stop'. We had the track down." Continuing to progress the musical direction of the previous two albums,
Machine Head was released in late March 1972 and became one of the band's most famous releases. It was the band's second No. 1 album in the UK while re-establishing them in North America, hitting No. 7 in the US and No. 1 in Canada. They continued to tour and record at a rate that would be rare thirty years on; when
Machine Head was recorded, the group had only been together three-and-a-half years, yet it was their sixth studio album and seventh album overall. , 1972 In January 1972, the band returned to tour the US once again. They then headed over to play Europe before resuming US dates in March. While in America, Blackmore contracted hepatitis, and the band attempted one show in
Flint, Michigan, without a guitarist before attempting to acquire the services of
Al Kooper, who rehearsed with the band before bowing out, suggesting
Spirit guitarist
Randy California instead. California played one show with the group, in
Quebec City, Quebec on 6 April, but the rest of this tour was cancelled as well. The band returned to the US in late May 1972 to undertake their third North America tour (of four total that year). A Japan tour in August of that year led to a double live album,
Made in Japan. Originally intended as a Japan-only release, its worldwide release became an instant hit, reaching platinum status in five countries, including the US. It remains one of rock music's most popular and highest selling live albums. However, internal tensions and exhaustion were more noticeable than ever. Following the successes of
Machine Head and
Made in Japan, the addition of
Who Do We Think We Are made Deep Purple the top-selling artists of 1973 in the US. Gillan admitted in a 1984 interview that the band were pushed by management to complete the
Who Do We Think We Are album on time and go on tour, although they badly needed a break. The bad feelings, including tensions with Blackmore, culminated in Gillan quitting the band after their second tour of Japan in the summer of 1973, followed by the dismissal of Glover, at Blackmore's insistence. In interviews later, Lord called the end of Mark II while the band was at its peak "the biggest shame in rock and roll; God knows what we would have done over the next three or four years. We were writing so well."
Mark III (1973–1975) (left),
David Coverdale (top), Jon Lord (middle), Ian Paice (bottom), Ritchie Blackmore (right). The band hired Midlands bassist/vocalist
Glenn Hughes, formerly of
Trapeze. According to Paice, Glover told him and Lord a few months before his official termination that he wanted to leave the band, so they had started to drop in on Trapeze shows. After acquiring Hughes, they debated continuing as a four-piece, with Hughes as bassist and lead vocalist. According to Hughes, he was told the band was bringing in
Paul Rodgers of
Free as a co-lead vocalist, but by that time Rodgers had just started
Bad Company. "They did ask", Rodgers recalled, "and I spoke to all of them at length about the possibility. Purple had toured Australia with Free's final lineup. I didn't do it because I was very much into the idea of forming Bad Company." Instead, auditions were held for lead vocal replacements. They settled on
David Coverdale, an unknown singer from
Saltburn in north-east England, primarily because Blackmore liked his masculine, blues-tinged voice. The band co-headlined (with
Emerson, Lake & Palmer) the
California Jam festival at
Ontario Motor Speedway in
Ontario, southern California, on 6 April 1974. Attracting over 300,000 fans, the festival also included 1970s rock giants
Black Sabbath,
Eagles,
Seals & Crofts and
Earth, Wind & Fire. Portions of the show were telecast on
ABC Television in the US, exposing the band to a wider audience. During the show Blackmore doused his amplifiers with petrol and set them on fire, blowing a hole in the stage. A month later, the band's 22 May performance at the
Gaumont State Cinema in
Kilburn, London, was recorded and later released in 1982 as
Live in London. Hughes and Coverdale brought vocal harmonies and elements of funk and blues, respectively, to the band's music, a sound that was even more apparent on the late 1974 release
Stormbringer. A new live album,
Made in Europe, culled from three shows on the
Stormbringer tour, was assembled during the summer of 1975, but would not see release until late 1976. After the show in
Stuttgart–
Böblingen, Blackmore announced on 26 March 1975 to his co-musicians in a room of the Arabella Hotel in
Munich that he was quitting the band. Lord, Paice, Coverdale and Hughes were speechless, for a few weeks later the band were due to go into the studio to record their next album. Blackmore's departure from Deep Purple, and therefore the end of Mark III, was announced on 21 June 1975. Blackmore then formed his own band with
Ronnie James Dio of
Elf, called
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, shortened to Rainbow after the
first album.
Mark IV (1975–1976) , Ian Paice, David Coverdale. Following Blackmore's departure, the group considered disbanding but decided to continue and find another guitarist.
Clem Clempson (
Colosseum,
Humble Pie),
Zal Cleminson (
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band),
Mick Ronson (
The Spiders From Mars) and
Rory Gallagher were considered; the final choice was American
Tommy Bolin. "He walked in, thin as a rake, his hair coloured green, yellow and blue with feathers in it. Slinking along beside him was this stunning Hawaiian girl in a crochet dress with nothing on underneath. He plugged into four
Marshall 100-watt stacks and...the job was his." But in an interview published by
Melody Maker in June 1975, Bolin claimed that he came to the audition following a recommendation from Blackmore. Bolin had been a member of many late-1960s bands – Denny & The Triumphs, American Standard, and
Zephyr, which released three albums from 1969 to 1972. Before he joined Deep Purple, Bolin's best-known recordings had been made as a session musician on
Billy Cobham's 1973
jazz fusion album
Spectrum, and as lead guitarist on two post-
Joe Walsh James Gang albums:
Bang (1973) and
Miami (1974). He had also played with
Dr. John,
Albert King,
the Good Rats,
Moxy and
Alphonse Mouzon, and was busy working on his first solo album,
Teaser, when he accepted the invitation to join Deep Purple. Bolin's influence was crucial, and with encouragement from Hughes and Coverdale, the guitarist developed much of the album's material. Despite Bolin's talents, his personal problems with hard drugs began to surface. During the
Come Taste the Band tour, many fans openly booed Bolin's inability to play solos like Ritchie Blackmore, not realising that Bolin was physically hampered by his addiction. At this same time, as he admitted in interviews years later, Hughes was suffering from cocaine addiction. The last show on the tour was on 15 March 1976 at the
Liverpool Empire Theatre. At the end of the concert, Coverdale walked off in tears and handed in his resignation. He was told there was no band left to quit, as Lord and Paice had already decided to break up the band. The break-up was made public in July 1976, with then-manager Rob Cooksey issuing a statement: "The band will not record or perform together as Deep Purple again".
Last Concert in Japan, a live album of the last concert on the Japanese leg of the
Come Taste the Band tour, was issued in 1977. Bolin went on to record his second solo album,
Private Eyes. On 4 December 1976, after a show in Miami supporting
Jeff Beck, Bolin was found unconscious by his girlfriend and bandmates. Unable to wake him, she hurriedly called paramedics, but it was too late. The official cause of death was multiple-drug intoxication. Bolin was 25 years old.
Band split (1976–1984) After the break-up, most of the members of Deep Purple went on to have considerable success in a number of other bands, including
Rainbow (1975–1984; Ritchie Blackmore and, from 1979, Roger Glover),
Whitesnake (1978–2022; David Coverdale, Jon Lord until 1984, and Ian Paice during 1979–1982) and
Gillan (1978–1982; Ian Gillan). Gillan also joined
Black Sabbath from late 1982 to early 1984 (Glenn Hughes would also join Sabbath for a short time later in the 1980s). The then-defunct Deep Purple began to gain a type of mystical status, with fan-driven reissues and newly assembled live and compilation albums being released throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. This fuelled a number of promoter-led attempts to get the band to reform, especially with the revival of the hard rock market in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1980, a
touring version of the band surfaced; of this, Rod Evans, who had left Captain Beyond at the end of 1973, was the only member who had ever been in Deep Purple. The legitimate Deep Purple camp brought legal action over unauthorised use of the name; this was eventually successful, and Evans was ordered to pay damages of US$672,000 for using the band name without permission.
Mark II reunion (1984–1989) , San Francisco, 1985. Pictured left to right: Roger Glover, Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Richie Blackmore (out of shot: Jon Lord). In April 1984, eight years after the demise of Deep Purple, a full-scale (and legal) reunion took place with the "classic" Mark II line-up of 1969–1973: Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. The reformed band signed a worldwide deal with
PolyGram, with
Mercury Records releasing their albums in the US, and
Polydor Records in the UK and other countries. The album
Perfect Strangers was recorded in
Vermont and released in October 1984. The album was commercially successful, reaching No. 5 in the
UK Albums Chart and No. 17 on the
Billboard 200 in the US.
Perfect Strangers became the second Deep Purple album to go platinum in the US, following
Machine Head (
Made in Japan would also finally hit platinum status in the US in 1986, the same year
Machine Head increased to double platinum). The reunion tour followed, starting in Australia and winding its way across the world to North America, then into Europe by the following summer. Financially, the tour was also a tremendous success. In the US, the 1985 tour out-grossed every other artist except
Bruce Springsteen. The UK homecoming saw the band headline the 1985
Knebworth Fayre in June, where the weather was bad (torrential rain and of mud) in front of 80,000 fans. The gig was called the "Return of the Knebworth Fayre". Mark II followed
Perfect Strangers with
The House of Blue Light in 1987, which was supported by another world tour (interrupted after Blackmore broke a finger on stage while trying to catch his guitar after throwing it in the air). A new live album ''
Nobody's Perfect'', which was culled from several shows on this tour, was released in 1988. In the UK a new Mark II version of "Hush" was also released in 1988 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Deep Purple.
Mark V (1989–1992) Gillan was fired in 1989; his relations with Blackmore had again soured, and their musical differences had diverged too far. Originally, the band intended to recruit
Survivor frontman
Jimi Jamison as Gillan's replacement. After two weeks of sessions with the band, however, Jamison announced he could not join Deep Purple owing to complications with
Scotti Brothers Records, his record label. Eventually, after auditioning several high-profile candidates, including
Brian Howe (
White Spirit,
Ted Nugent,
Bad Company),
Doug Pinnick (
King's X), Australians
Jimmy Barnes (
Cold Chisel) and
John Farnham (
Little River Band), Terry Brock (Strangeways,
Giant) and Norman "Kal" Swan (
Tytan,
Lion,
Bad Moon Rising), with some fans and critics feeling the music was closer in style to Rainbow than to Deep Purple.
Second Mark II reunion (1992–1993) and Mark VI (1993–1994) With the tour complete, the band set to work on another album, the early sessions of which would see Turner being forced out. 1993 was going to be Deep Purple's 25th anniversary year, with Lord, Paice and Glover (and the record company) wanting Gillan back for another Mark II reunion to celebrate this milestone. Although Blackmore preferred Turner to remain in the group, he grudgingly relented, after requesting and eventually receiving $250,000 in his bank account and Mark II completed the aptly titled
The Battle Rages On... in 1993. Blackmore still disagreed with the decision, which created more tension between himself and the rest of the band, especially Gillan. Of particular contention was that Gillan had reworked much of the material that had been written with Turner for the new album. Blackmore felt that Gillan's rewrites had made the songs less melodic than they had been in their original versions. The band began a European tour, which was documented on the live album
Come Hell or High Water, released in 1994. A live home video of the same name was also released, covering a show in
Birmingham, England, that displayed a very disgruntled Blackmore, who did not perform many of the guitar parts and who at one point threw a cup of water at a cameraman, for unknown reasons. The complete show was eventually released in 2006 as
Live at the NEC but was quickly withdrawn after Gillan publicly complained, feeling it represented a bad time in the group's history: Blackmore left Deep Purple for the second and final time after a show in
Helsinki, Finland, in November 1993.
Mark VII (1994–2002) Morse's arrival revitalised the band creatively, and in 1996 a new album titled
Purpendicular was released, showing a wide variety of musical styles – though in the
post-grunge mid-1990s it was no surprise that it never made chart success on the
Billboard 200 in the US. 2001 saw the release of the
box set The Soundboard Series, containing concerts from the 2001 Australian Tour plus two from Tokyo, Japan. Much of the next few years was spent on the road touring. The group continued forward until 2002 when founding member Lord announced his amicable retirement from the band to pursue personal projects (especially orchestral work). His departure left Ian Paice as the band's sole remaining founder member. Lord left his Hammond organ to his replacement, rock keyboard veteran
Don Airey, who had helped Deep Purple out when Lord's knee was injured in 2001. Airey had previously worked with Glover as a member of Rainbow from 1979 to 1982.
Mark VIII (2002–2022) In 2003, the new Mark VIII line-up released
Bananas, their first studio album in five years, and began touring in support.
EMI Records refused a contract extension with Deep Purple, possibly because of lower sales. playing the intro to "
Highway Star" at the
Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, 2005 The band played at the
Live 8 concert in
Park Place (
Barrie, Ontario) in July 2005, and in October released their next album,
Rapture of the Deep, which was followed by the
Rapture of the Deep tour. Both
Bananas and
Rapture of the Deep were produced by
Michael Bradford. In 2009 Ian Gillan said, "Record sales have been steadily declining, but people are prepared to pay a lot for concert tickets." In addition, Gillan stated: "I don't think happiness comes with money." Until May 2011, the band members had disagreed about whether to make a new studio album, because it would not really make money any more. Roger Glover stated that Deep Purple should make a new studio album "even if it costs us money." In early 2011, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes told
VH1 they would like to reunite Mark III for the right opportunity, such as a benefit concert. This did not happen however, as Ritchie Blackmore was difficult to contact and was not interested, as he was busy with his current band Blackmore's Night. The band's chief sound engineer of nine years of tours, Moray McMillin, died in September 2011, aged 57. After a lot of songwriting sessions in Europe, Steve Morse announced to French magazine
Rock Hard that the new studio album would be produced by
Bob Ezrin. On 16 July 2012 the band's co-founding member and former organ player, Jon Lord, died in London, aged 71. In December 2012 Roger Glover stated that the band had completed work on 14 songs for a new studio album, with 11 or 12 tracks set to appear on the final album to be released in 2013. On 26 February 2013 the title of the band's nineteenth studio album was announced as
Now What?!, which was recorded and mixed in
Nashville, Tennessee, and released on 26 April 2013. The album contains the track "
Vincent Price", named after the
horror actor who had worked with both Gillan and Glover earlier in their careers. , Ian Gillan. On 25 November 2016, Deep Purple announced
Infinite as the title of their twentieth studio album, which was released on 7 April 2017. In support for the album, Deep Purple embarked on 13 May 2017 in Bucharest, Romania on
The Long Goodbye Tour. At the time of the tour's announcement in December 2016, Paice told the Heavyworlds website it "may be the last big tour", adding that the band "don't know". He described the tour as being long in duration and said: "We haven't made any hard, fast plans, but it becomes obvious that you cannot tour the same way you did when you were 21. It becomes more and more difficult. People have other things in their lives, which take time. But never say never." On 3 February 2017, Deep Purple released a video version of "Time for Bedlam", the first track taken from the new album and the first new Deep Purple track for almost four years. On 29 February 2020, a new track, "Throw My Bones" was released online, with a new album
Whoosh! planned for release in June. The release of the full-length album would later be postponed to 7 August 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. A review in
NME said the album sounded nothing like contemporary music of 2020, but suggested that "maybe that's a good thing". Gillan confirmed in an interview on 4 August 2020 that he and the other members of Deep Purple have no immediate plans to retire. On 6 October 2021, the band had announced the title of their covers album,
Turning to Crime, which was released on 26 November 2021.
Mark IX (2022–present) . In March 2022, Morse announced that he had to take a hiatus from the band after his wife was diagnosed with cancer. The band, who had recently returned to live performances, continued touring with
Simon McBride, formerly of
Sweet Savage, standing in for Morse who at that point officially remained in the band. On 23 July 2022, it was announced that Morse would be leaving permanently in order to focus on caring for his wife as she battled cancer. Later that September, McBride was made an official member of the band. In June 2022, Gillan announced that the band had planned to work on their 23rd studio album after the conclusion of the
Whoosh! tour: "Deep Purple has got a writing session booked in March 2023, which I believe is to get started on thinking about our next record." Titled
=1 More Time, a 2024 tour was announced on 19 March of that year.
Jefferson Starship were special guests on the Europe dates, and
Reef were special guests for the UK shows. On 24 April 2024, it was announced the forthcoming release of a new studio album - the first with McBride - whose title
=1 and track listing were revealed, and the release date stated as 19 July of that year. It was the fifth Deep Purple album that Bob Ezrin had produced. The first single "Portable Door" was released on 30 April. A second single, "Pictures of You", was released on 5 June 2024. A third single, "Lazy Sod" was released on 5 July 2024. In a May 2025 interview with
Rolling Stone Brasil, Paice confirmed that Deep Purple have begun working on new material for their next album due for a possible 2026 release. In a November 2025 interview with
Uncut, Gillan confirmed that he has only 30% vision and that his eyesight "won't get better". He also opened up about potentially retiring from Deep Purple: "I think if I lose my energy I'm going to stop. I don't want to be an embarrassment to anyone. We're not far off that. It creeps up on you – you don't really notice." Gillan later retracted his statement about retiring, saying that they were often looking a long way ahead, and had no plans to retire at this stage. In August 2025, the band were confirmed to be performing at the
Hellfest music festival being held in
Clisson in June 2026. In March 2026 Deep Purple announced a North American tour with 24 dates through August and September 2026, with special guests
Kansas and
Jefferson Starship. In addition, Deep Purple toured Japan in April 2026, and they will tour Europe in the summer, the UK in November with
Mammoth and Jayler. During the band's 2026 Japanese tour, they were received by the country's Prime Minister,
Sanae Takaichi, who is a drummer and a fan of the band since childhood. During the visit, Takaichi gifted Ian Paice a pair of Japanese made drumsticks, telling the drummer, "You are my god". ==Artistry==