“Somebody has left; somebody’s been fired. It’s an awful feeling, and I’ve never actually personally been involved with the decisions.”

Drummer Ian Paice said that going through a lineup change has never been easy, but noted that Deep Purple always tried to fill the vacated spots with the best musicians available and “always respect their audience.”

As of now, Deep Purple has been rocking out for 56 years, during which time it saw over a dozen members come and go, with drummer Ian Paice being the last remaining original member who’s still with the band. And while fans inevitably take some lineup changes harder than others — many are still dreaming of seeing Ritchie Blackmore reunite with the band, whereas the loss of Jon Lord was obviously painful in itself — Paice, as the one person who’s been through it all, tells Brian Tellis of Radio One International that losing a band member is never easy (transcription via Rock Celebrities):

“The hardest thing is when you own a band and you’ve had a lot of success, you wake up in the morning you have a band, somebody gives you a phone call in the afternoon, you don’t have the band. Somebody has left; somebody’s been fired. It’s an awful feeling, and I’ve never actually personally been involved with the decisions. They have been made by other people, but you have to get on with life and try and find a way to continue.”

The topic is especially relevant in the aftermath of Steve Morse’s departure in 2022. The American virtuoso, whose tenure in Deep Purple was longer than any other guitarist (including Blackmore), was replaced by the Northern Irish ax-wielder Simon McBride after he decided to step down to take care of his ailing wife Janine, who tragically lost her battle with cancer in early February this year.

Explaining his formula for getting through all those tough goodbyes, Paice added:

“Whatever formation Deep Purple has had, we’ve always tried to find the best people available to fill in those slots. It’s never always going to be the same. It can’t be, because if you have four or five musicians working together, the dynamic changes. You lose one, you’ve changed 20%. You lose two; you’ve changed 40% of that chemistry. So it does change, but all the way through history, I believe that one thing people have always done is always respect their audience.”

Needless to say, it is also tough for musicians who find themselves joining a well-established band with interpersonal dynamics they usually know little of, and a horde of fans scrutinizing their every move. Speaking to Rick Beato late last year, Steve Morse reflected on his experience of filling Ritchie Blackmore’s shoes:

“The people that hate me for being born, they would go to the shows just because I’m not the original guy. They want to see that guy on the albums. They’re waiting to get the albums signed, and I’m not the original guy. Those people will begrudgingly say, ‘Okay yeah, it was kind of neat,’ if they see me giving my heart and soul and loving the music and enjoying it.”