Steve Morse has recently acknowledged and explained why Deep Purple and Kansas fans hate him.
Morse sat down with Rick Beato for a new interview and discussed songwriting, creating music, and fans. While chatting about his contributions to both Deep Purple and Kansas, the rocker also mentioned the amount of hate he received from the people coming to their shows. In Morse’s words, despite the hate, some people still adored what he did once they heard what he sounded like on stage:
“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.”
Morse went on by explaining the soft spot to win the hearts of the audience:
“I know it’s not cool to a lot of people to be enjoying the music as much as I do on stage, but I think it comes across most of them, it softens them up. Especially when I do a little bit of, ‘This is a little bit of how Ritchie played the solo. No I’m not Ritchie I can’t do it like him but I’m gonna improvise my own thing.’ I think that’s the sweet spot, showing that you care, you give the nod to them and you also can’t help but be yourself.”
Morse’s Role In Deep Purple
In 1994, Morse became a member of Deep Purple, taking over from Blackmore. Prior to Morse’s permanent role, Joe Satriani had temporarily replaced Blackmore for the final leg of ‘The Battle Rages On’ tour in Japan and the European dates the following summer. Morse ultimately emerged as the band’s longest-serving guitarist. He contributed to eight studio albums, spanning from 1996’s ‘Purpendicular’ to 2021’s ‘Turning to Crime.’ He also made appearances on the live albums.
After a 28 year old career with Deep Purple, he quit the band on July 23, 2022. His decision to depart from the band was due to his wife Janine’s illness.
Morse Received Great Hate For Replacing Blackmore
Morse has played the guitarist role in Deep Purple for 26 years. While his popularity within the band soared, it also attracted a great amount of criticism and animosity. In an earlier interview, he revealed that the amount of hate he received was daunting, but the experience of playing with Deep Purple was the opposite:
“The only thing that surprised me was that some of the fans really just hated me. They thought I was the reason Ritchie wasn’t in the band anymore. On my first UK tour, people were throwing shit at me.”
Despite never having met or engaged in real-life conversations with Blackmore, Morse shared that he took the time to listen to the music created by Blackmore and his wife. He expressed a positive opinion, stating that he liked their work.
