DEEP PURPLE Guitarist SIMON MCBRIDE Says Simple Songs Like 'Smoke On The Water' Are 'Most Challenging Ones' To Play

In a new interview with Rob Cass of the  dopeYEAH talk podcast, DEEP PURPLE guitarist Simon McBride, who officially joined the band in 2022 as the replacement for Steve Morse, was asked about the rumor that it took him only 40 minutes to learn the PURPLE set before he first played with the group. He laughed and responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The thing is with the PURPLE stuff, it's not overly complicated, but that's the beauty of it, and that's why it was so successful. 'Smoke On The Water' is three chords, really. And all the great songs, even 'Perfect Strangers', it's two or three chords. So it is quite simple. And I remember learning this stuff, and I always remember hearing this rumor that the guitar [on the DEEP PURPLE albums] was always panned to the left, and the keys were always panned to the right. So I did that. I went on, and I just panned everything to the left, and it's true. All I could hear was Ritchie [Blackmore, original DEEP PURPLE guitarist]. And so it was dead easy for me to hear it and pick up. And ever since I was a kid, I've always learned how to play the guitar just by using my ear. So I am very quick at picking up stuff, just by listening to something. I can usually pick up something instantly, if it's not too complicated. But, yeah, it wasn't that comp[licated]. There were a few tricky bits, obviously, but as they said, they played those songs for — what? — 30, 40 years or whatever now, and so they've evolved a little bit. So when you go to a rehearsal and it's, like, I'm playing the way Ritchie played it, 'No, no. It's evolved since that. It's changed.' And I go, 'Okay, can you show me it?' And Don's [Airey, current DEEP PURPLE keyboardist] brilliant. Don will show me it. Say it's a fast run. He'll show me at full speed. I say, 'Can you slow it down?' And he goes, 'Okay.' And then he plays it at full speed again. I'm going, 'Oh, okay.' So it's always a bit of a challenge."

Asked what he feels is "the greatest challenge about joining a band like DEEP PURPLE", Simon said: "The greatest challenge is basically just being yourself and not worrying or trying to be what was before. There's such a history with PURPLE, the guitarists in that band. You had Ritchie Blackmore, Tommy Bolin, Joe Satriani and Steve Morse, and there's always this thing. You say to yourself, 'Do I try to sound like Ritchie or anybody else?' 'Cause I've seen guys getting up and playing, and they all try to sound like Ritchie. And I was going, 'Ah.' It's being comfortable with your own playing and your own technique and your own ability is just to go, 'Nope, that's great, but unfortunately, I sound like me.' No matter how much I try to sound like Ritchie or Steve, I will never be able to play like them. I can only play like me. And so that's the biggest challenge, is getting across that barrier of going, 'Just do your thing.' And the guys were amazing because that's what they wanted. They didn't want another Steve or Ritchie or Tommy. They wanted me for what I do. And they made it so much easier for me to play. 'Cause I remember I was talking to Don about it, 'cause I was getting a bit stressed the first few shows. 'Well, I don't know what to play. Should I do it like this, but more like Ritchie?' And Don just says, 'Stuff all that crap. Just be yourself. Forget about it.' Obviously you play the riffs and what's there. There's certain iconic things within 'Highway Star' — I can't play anything but the solo that Ritchie does, 'cause it's an iconic piece of music in itself. But everything else, just be myself and do what I want, 'cause that's what I'm here for. I'm not here to be a Steve Morse clone or a Ritchie Blackmore clone. I wouldn't know how to. You They're incredible players and incredibly musicians and creators in their own right. I just have to be myself. That's the biggest challenge, I find. But I overcame it pretty quickly, with the help from the guys. They're making me feel so comfortable."

After Cass noted that McBride obviously has "the right temperament" to be in a band like DEEP PURPLE, Simon concurred. "Yeah. Well, I'm very easygoing," he said. "I don't really stress about anything, which annoys the hell out of my wife. 'Cause I don't stress about nothing. 'Cause I'm just going, 'Life's too short. What's the point?' Stressing about something will only affect me, not affect anybody else. So I think that helped a lot with the band. I just come in and all I wanted to do was have fun and play music, and the guys really responded to that, and I think it brought back memories of the way it used to be for them. Okay, this is fresh blood in the band. I have no airs or graces about myself or my playing. I just play. I just play the guitar, and I think that's what they like. I think if I came in and I had an ego, I think DEEP PURPLE would be finished. It wouldn't work, 'cause they've been in the game too long. They're not interested in any of that nonsense. 'Cause at the end of the day, all I am is a guitar player. I'm not a rocket scientist or something special. I'm just a guitarist. And that's the way I always think about it. I just go in, do what I'm here to do, and that's it."

Reflecting on the first show he played with DEEP PURPLE in May 2022, McBride said: "It was in Tel Aviv. I don't normally get nervous for shows. I think when I was 13 when I did my first show, I was a bit nervous. But I'm not a nervous person because I believe nerves come from being unprepared for something. So I'm always 120 percent prepared for everything. But I remember in Tel Aviv sitting backstage, and it was about 15 minutes till showtime, and then, bam, I was, like, 'Oh, crap.' And bear in mind, I hadn't done a gig 'cause prior to this was COVID. So I hadn't done a gig in two, three years. So my first gig was with DEEP PURPLE in front of — I don't know — 10, 12,000 people in this huge arena, and I was going, 'Oh, no. Jesus. Oh, God. Oh, my God'."

Asked to name the most challenging song to play in the DEEP PURPLE set, Simon said: "The most challenging ones are... Generally, the most challenging ones are the simple ones, like 'Smoke On The Water'. People always say, 'Ah, it's easy.' It is easy technically, but it's not easy to play. It's like any of this stuff. It's the delivery, it's the force of how you play it, it's your timing. It's what not to play. A lot of guitar players, when they play the riff of 'Smoke On The Water', they play it like a guitarist. They wanna add stuff to it. They wanna vibrato it. They wanna do this. But the beauty of the riff of 'Smoke On The Water' is its simplicity. It's [hums 'Smoke On The Water' riff] bam, bam, bam. That's all you have to do. So being disciplined enough just to — don't play anything else, just what's there. 'Cause when you're standing there, and I start the riff, and then Don joins me, then Roger [Glover, DEEP PURPLE bassist] joins me, this explosion of power comes out, which you would not get if I was fiddling around with it, or Don was. It's the four of us just doing this riff, and it's, like, 'Oh, God, here we go.'

"Technical stuff, believe it or not, is easier to play than the simple stuff," McBride explained. "That's what I always find — it's the simple stuff that's the hardest stuff in the world to nail, because it's not about the technique; it's the delivery of how you do it. I've seen bands play RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE stuff, and technically it's amazing, but it sounds god-awful. Because the guys in RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, they just have this way of playing that nothing is perfect. And it's those inconsistencies which make these players great. Same with all those bands from the middle of '70s, PURPLE and that. Nobody was perfect, which gives them that feel, that drive. It's like if you look at drummers — look at the drummer from QUEEN, every time he hit a snare drum, he couldn't keep the hi-hat closed. But it became his thing. It became his sound. It's Charlie Watts from THE ROLLING STONES. He couldn't hit the hi-hat and snare at the same time. But you listen to it, and you hear a drummer play it correctly, and it doesn't sound the same. It's that inconsistency, that little mistake that makes them have their own sort of style, if you wanna call it."

DEEP PURPLE will release a new studio album, "Splat!", on July 3 via earMUSIC. The band once again teamed up with renowned producer Bob Ezrin (KISS, PINK FLOYD, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper) to create what has been described in a press release as "the heaviest DEEP PURPLE album in many years."

To celebrate the release, DEEP PURPLE will continue their extensive 2026 touring schedule with no fewer than 86 shows across 28 countries on three continents.

There simply aren't enough superlatives to properly acknowledge the contribution DEEP PURPLE has made to rock music. Having sold more than 120 million albums and filled global arenas for decades, there's little wonder that the respected British radio station Planet Rock named the group the "Fifth Most Influential Band Ever". The band were also presented the "Legend Award" at the 2008 World Music Awards and were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2016.

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