Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride says he was given complete freedom to be himself when he joined the band. Even so, there are certain parts of the group's iconic catalog he daren't change.
The Irishman — who had previously worked with Purple vocalist Ian Gillan, keyboardist Don Airey and drummer Ian Paice on various side projects — was handpicked as Steve Morse's successor in 2022. He initially joined as a stand-in while Morse took a leave of absence to care for his ill wife, before eventually becoming the band's full-time guitarist.
McBride's transition into Deep Purple has been notably smooth. His blues-based style has made him an immediate fit within the group's sound.
"We had a fantastic 20-odd years with Steve Morse, who is a magnificent player," Gillan told Planet Rock last month. "Steve's roots are in southern rock, and that's a bit more languid than our style. So when Simon came in, [we were] back in business. It's like 1970s Purple with modern touches."
Speaking to Guitar Interactive as the band prepares to release SPLAT!, their second album with McBride, the guitarist says he was handed the keys to the Deep Purple Lamborghini with "zero pressure" to emulate any of the players who came before him.
"The only pressure came from me," he says with a laugh. "When I first started, I was only stepping in for Steve. I was just a session dude. When I became part of the band, they didn't want another Ritchie Blackmore, they didn't want another Steve Morse or Tommy Bolin.
"They said, 'You're here because of you. We don't want you to sound like Steve, we don't want you to sound like Ritchie. We've done that.' It was great to hear."
Even so, McBride says joining a band with more than five decades of history requires a certain amount of restraint.
"Obviously, when you join a band like Deep Purple with such a history of songs and great guitarists, you have to be respectful," he says. "There's certain things I can't change, like 'Highway Star' — I think if I changed the solo on that I would probably get shot."
He learned just how attached audiences are to some of those classic guitar parts while performing in South America.
"I remember playing in South America, there were 65,000 people, and the first song was 'Highway Star,'" he recalls. "I go for the solo, and 65,000 people sang that solo back to me, so I was like, 'Thank God I didn't change that fucking thing!'
"You have to appreciate that certain solos are little constructed pieces of music within a song. There are other songs where you can change and improvise; there are parts of the 'Smoke on the Water' solo I love, and there are parts where I mix it up a bit."
McBride appreciates that there are more than five decades of history behind Deep Purple. While he is mindful of preserving some of the band's most celebrated moments, he also knows he can't lose himself in the process.
"If you try to play like somebody else, you'll never ever truly be yourself as a player — you'll end up just being a clone," he says. "It's one of the reasons I don't play a Strat. As soon as I pick up a Strat, I instantly want to play Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimi Hendrix."
Instead, McBride typically plays a PRS 408, a guitar that helps distinguish him from the players who came before him.
Elsewhere, Blackmore recently reflected on the night Christopher Cross filled in for him in Deep Purple, while David Coverdale has spoken about the "uncomfortable spiral downward" that marked Tommy Bolin's brief tenure in the band.
