DEEP PURPLE Keyboardist Recounts His Most Embarrassing Onstage Moment

May 22, 2003

DEEP PURPLE keyboardist Don Airey recently spoke to BBC Wear about his most embarrassing moment onstage. "[It was] playing with Ozzy at Madison Square Gardens in 1984 to 17,000 people," he said. "The keyboards were on a hydraulic lift complete with fake organ pipes. I used to appear for the second song playing the intro to 'Mr Crowley'.

"That night as the riser started its ascent, the power cable got caught in the mechanism and was yanked out, bringing the whole contraption to a sudden halt.

"The keyboards went off and there was total silence in the packed hall. My roadie, Bobby Thompson, froze.

"Looking over the rail I shouted to him, 'Bobby, put the plug back in!' No effect, so rather louder, 'Put the fucking plug back in.'

"Large sections of the audience picked up on this and in true New York style all took up the cry, 'Yeah Bobby, put the fucking plug back in!'

"In went the plug, the riser lurched back to life, and I completed the intro, the keyboards now horrendously out of tune."

Read the rest of the interview here.

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