Tonight’s mystery artists when asked by their new guitarist what they wanted they said be yourself and don’t try to copy who you are replacing. Can you guess who asked the question or the band he was joining??

The interview was with the webpage Vintagerock.com and Roger Glover of Deep Purple. That said the person with the question was Steve Morse that was hired to replace Ritchie Blackmore. Not easy shoes to fill for sure. Here is what was said about those days of change:

VR: Steve Morse is just a monster and he’s been in the band for 20 years I guess … much longer than Ritchie Blackmore was. I think we can all agree he’s a total master with a tone style all his own. What do you think he’s brought to this band that distinguishes him from his predecessor?

 

RG: Well, when he first joined the band — in fact, before he joined the band, I met him and we knew he was willing to join. He says, “What do you want from me?” I said, “Well, as far as I’m concerned, I want you to be you.” When you’re replacing someone like Ritchie Blackmore, well you don’t replace him. Because if you replace him, you replace him with someone who sounds like him, or looks like him, or writes like him, and then it becomes a parody of him. And I think a band is five people who are all really committed to the same direction. The successful bands are ones that all respect each other and you have to be 100 percent yourself. And that’s what I said to him, that you have to be 100 percent yourself. He said, “I can play anything?” I said, “Try it. If you like it, we’ll play it. There’s no rules. You don’t have to write or contribute to a formula. It’s who you are, is what we want.” And he’s a virtuoso and virtuosos have to be who they are. They can’t pretend to be someone else.

Here's Deep Purple with Ritchie and Glover.  Watch and you'll know why Steve asked the question.

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