STEVE MORSE

Idle hands may be the devil's tools, but they certainly aren't at the ends of Steve Morse's arms. This guy has to be the busiest person in rock, covering guitar-slinging duties in Deep Purple, The Dixie Dregs, his own solo band, and raising a family. How does he do it? He must have taken one of them fancy time-management seminars, I guess... I'm just glad he had enough time to sit down with David Lee and give him this great interview DEEP PURPLE DIGEST is proud to host.



DAVID LEE You certainly have taken your time to put this tour together?

STEVE MORSE Well, it has been a while since the DREGS have been together. We did just a few shows to record a live album last year and now we are doing a tour because the live album is out, on Zebra records.

DL Has the fact that DEEP PURPLE is such an active band kept you from doing any DREGS work?

SM Yes, we are very active and that is the problem. More than that, it is not like a symphony schedule where you know it in advance, it is constantly changing and we play a lot of weird places too where the government may be overthrown at the time that we are booked (laughs) and so we will have to change the schedule. For instance, we were booked in Hong Kong and, Clinton may have done something, there was some kind of reason why rock and roll was going to happen so the Hong Kong gig fell through. It is always changing and I can't really book very far in advance for my own personal things.

DL What was everyone else in PURPLE preoccupied with that allowed you even this much time to concentrate on the DREGS?

SM They just wanted a little time off. We did a really long tour, it was over a year on and off, a year and a half around the world, twice.

DL You managed to get everybody from the DREGS in on this, was that hard to do considering the logistics of all the other players and each of their respective bands?

SM It was a little weird to figure out what to do at first because Andy wanted to play and then Dave LaRue wanted to play and they both are bass players. Andy plays with a pick and so he volunteered the idea of playing seven-string guitar and in a lot of the recordings I would double the bass lines as part of the overdubs so I thought that it would be neat to have an extra guitar player so we did that for most of the songs but he does play bass on a few things.

DL Which came first, the offer to record an album with the DREGS or the idea of just getting together to play some shows?

SM Ricky (Schultz) was the guy who was with MCA when we did my album, "HIGH TENSION WIRES," he was the record executive and so I think that it was his idea to get the band together. I sort of fought it actually, because there didn't seem like there would be enough time and then they said, "What about a live album?" And I said, "Well, that is possible." So we talked about what material would work and everything and so I said, "Yeah, I guess that would work." We got everybody together and in that case we had two different versions of the band play. We had Allen Sloan and Andy West doing some of the older tunes and then Jerry Goodman and Dave LaRue play on some of the newer stuff. That is how we did it, we actually switched off and then Dweezil Zappa played on "Peaches En Regalia" that his dad wrote.

DL I think that you have partially answered this already but, how was putting a song list together for the album done? Did you spend much time trying to figure out what the older fans wanted versus the newer fans desires and then balance it with what you all wanted to play?

SM It wasn't too difficult because one of the objects was to pick songs that each violinist likes or would do well with and ones that we hadn't put on a live album. It became, almost, a process of elimination and then it was like, "We got too many ballads so lets get rid of one of them," you know, it was just like making a set list. I suggested that we do some cover tunes that we used to do when we were playing clubs and that is how we got "Peaches" and "Jessica" by the ALLMAN BROTHERS.

DL Most of the time when a band reforms and a live album comes out of it the album is a kind of primer for the band, the stuff that you want to be known for, is that what this is or is it more "just one night in DREGS history?"

SM I would say that it is just one night. If I was going to say, "This is the band," I would want to go back and fix the guitar parts!(laughs) But, if I was to say, "This is the band, one night, in LA," I feel OK about it. It is extremely live and, in my case, every single note, breath or mistake that I did is exactly what I did and is on the record.

DL Do you have a different approach to the music when you are in a collaborative situation, like the DREGS, as opposed to a purely solo situation?

SM Oh, it is way different for me. One thing that I sort of give up is control, I have to realize that I am on a freight train that is just going whichever way it is going and I can't stop it or change it very much. On stage, you talk a lot about the "teamwork" aspects but we have got six people on stage so it is extremely important for people to lay out in certain spots and to be extremely dynamic in other spots so that you can hear each person playing. Our soundman doesn't know the material, I mean he works with five different groups, he doesn't know what is going on and we sorta have to be ready to do it for him. He is learning it now but. . .

DL Just as this tour ends he will know exactly when to push a fader up?(laughs)

SM (Laughing) Yeah but the object is to make it so he doesn't have to turn anything up very much and kind of mix ourselves a little bit as far as dynamics go or as far as the arrangement goes. Another adjustment I have to make is, I can't influence the tempo very much which when I play with the trio I have a lot of say-so in that. With PURPLE I feel a lot more free to play whereas with the DREGS, there are so many people playing that it is a little bit tight.

DL When you came into the whole DEEP PURPLE thing the aura of the band changed from one that was very dower and maybe even a bit gloomy to one where everyone was very happy and the music definitely reflected that change. Are you still riding that high with the rest of PURPLE?

SM Oh yeah. I have nothing but good thoughts when somebody mentions the band, DEEP PURPLE. It is like the most perfect gig for me in the whole world because there is everything, Jon Lord is just the most musical player that I have ever worked with, I mean, just naturally artistic and musical in every way and he loves to improvise and we get to do that onstage, I mean totally do that. Especially on our headlining shows where there is not a crunch for time and I love that. I have never really been able to do that on a regular basis before. Roger, he is so eclectic, he is the one that though it was a good idea to see if I wouldn't play with them. Ian Paice is just the most laid back personality that I know and he doesn't flaunt his talent, he just has it in abundance. He is so easy to play with because he just knows how to nail it. Ian Gillan just wants me to share the experience with him and it is not like he is the singer and then there is his backup band. He say's it all the time, "I just want to be on the stage so I can hear the band play."

DL The last time you guys were in town Ian gave some guy, a security guard, a tap on the head with his microphone to get him to stop roughing up a patron and was arrested and charged with assault after the gig. It was the most innocent little thing but it turned the atmosphere a bit sour. . .

SM And it cost thousands of dollars later too.

DL Really? That is just silly.

SM It is America, you spill your coffee and somebody has got to pay.

DL When things like that happen is it hard to put it aside and get on with the show?

SM Ian can, he can get past a bunch of stuff. I was embarrassed because I live here and America is the laughing stock of the world for these kinds of things. The fact that we can't. . .(shakes his head). . .Still, I think that America is the place to live for me but it doesn't mean that it is perfect.

DL It doesn't make you proud of that particular aspect of American culture?

SM Yeah, right. It was one of the most embarrassing things.

DL It is particularly sad because what people end up remembering are not the two hours of great music but the thirty seconds of silliness.

SM Yeah. Being in England a lot and being around the world a lot I have come to the conclusion that most men are hardy breeds but when it comes to America, I lose some of that sense. I sort of see us as being babies a lot and this whole attitude that somebody else is responsible for us is very embarrassing.

DL Have we been too privileged for too long?

SM Privileged? I don't know. I don't think that there is anything wrong with people working and making money and having something or creating something out of nothing, that is the American way and I totally believe in that but what I am talking about is that there is a feeling here like, "You owe me!" Especially, "if something bad happens to me, somebody owes me" whereas everywhere else in the world it is, "If something bad happens to me I had better pick myself up and start rebuilding."

DL Everybody has a sense of entitlement here.

SM Exactly!

DL Something that Steve Morse feels he is entitled to do is make records any time he has a spurt of inspiration so, not only do you have PURPLE going and THE DIXIE DREGS but there is a solo album coming up for Magna Carta and . . .

SM (Laughing) And the Symphony album with PURPLE just came out.

DL Yeah, exactly! Is this solo album going to be a Steve Morse Band thing or just Steve himself, what is it?

SM I don't even know. Right now we are just talking about how the mastering and the final touches on the mixes are going to be. The songs are my versions of writing in the style of people that were influences to me. I am tentatively calling it "MAJOR IMPACTS" all the things that were just big influences. What I did is I kind of mixed them the way that I remember them being like the drums being real flat and dry and not so loud but they are thinking that they want it to be a bit more modern sounding drums and stuff like that so I am going to do that.

DL Are there a lot of guests on it?

SM No, its just me and there is a lot of mimicking styles. Each track sounds different but you can see the similarities in some of my solos. There is a lot of stuff where I have done "dropping the needle tests" with people and only one guy got eleven out of eleven in figuring out who it was so, that was pretty cool.

DL Are you going to give us a hint as to whose styles you are writing in?

SM Sure, Hendrix, Clapton, THE BEATLES, THE BYRDS, ZEPPELIN, John McCloughlin, MOUNTAIN, that was one of my favorite ones. Some of the influences that were big to me I wasn't able to capture enough to even put it down to tape.

DL You were intimidated by something?

SM No not intimidated, Jeff Beck for instance, was so elusive and so hard for me to get that I combined him and Eric Johnson together because Eric was influenced by Jeff Beck a lot too so for that tune it was a combination.

DL So, he was your filter?

SM Yeah. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS, that was a cool one to do, that is most of them.

DL I noticed on the DEEP PURPLE website that you literally are only getting a few weeks to do this because they have got gigs booked up for the day after this DREGS tour ends, has the moving back and forth between the two been a problem at all?

SM It was a problem with this one because I said that I would do this tour if I didn't get squeezed at both ends and the day that this tour started I was in Germany with DEEP PURPLE and soon after this tour is done I am going to be going to Russia and Japan with DEEP PURPLE, which I am really glad about but I just need a little more time with my boy. I need time to get back with him, I sorta live alone now with my boy and I keep telling him that all Daddies need to work and so when I am gone for a long time I am supposed to be home for a long time to take him to school and stuff like that. Most Dads don't get to take their kids to school and pick them up form school, which I get to do and then take him to his little lessons afterwards.

DL Do you give your son lessons?

SM If he really, really, really wanted me to. I am kind of actively not pushing him into music. I am not sure why, it is just my instinct. I think that if he is going to play music he has really got to want it really bad because the business can drain the life out of you so quickly, any business can not just music. The touring and the fact that you are rated every day by your performance on that day, you know, a doctor or a lawyer has something on their wall that says they are a doctor or a lawyer and other than the fee structure there is no rating for them but musician, "How many records did you sell? How many tickets did you sell?" That is your worth, that is your value. It is so brutal and I would just like him to be happy with whatever he does, I am not pushing him.

DL You seem to have this really "up" aura around you, it is really cool to talk to somebody that genuinely seems happy with what they are doing, have you ever been this happy is, I guess, what I am trying to ask?

SM Yes. When I realized that I was able to continue working after THE DREGS and when I started doing the Steve Morse Band and went to clubs and people lined up outside the door to get in and paid money to come hear us play, and then did it more than once, that was the real indicator. A lot of times after you have been in a band people will pay money to see your current project but if they do it after the next time, that is when it is really cool because they might be doing it out of curiosity the first time, anyway that was a very happy time for me. I realized that I could work in the music business and I did solo shows, it was wonderful when I realized that there was life after THE DREGS. I would say getting up on stage with PURPLE, the first show that we did in Mexico, City for 15,000 people and to have Ian Gillan put his arm around me and say, "Here we go!" and then push me out to the front of the stage with him, that was wonderful.

DAVID LEE WILSON
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