Deep Purple- Perfect Strangers @40- Ian Gillan, Roger Glover

It was a fateful day in 1984 when the members of the legendary “Mark II” lineup of Deep Purple, who gave the world Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball,  Machine Head,   Who Do We Think We Are,  and Made in Japan, reconvened after eleven long years apart. My guests In the Studio Deep Purple bass player Roger Glover and singer/lyricist Ian Gillan were both in attendance that fateful day along with founding guitarist brooding Ritchie Blackmore, industrial-strength drummer Ian Paice, and godfather of the heavy Hammond organ, Jon Lord. No minders, managers, or handlers with their own hidden agendas were invited. Anything but Perfect Strangers,  the hit album (#5 UK, #17 US) containing songs “Knockin’ at Your Back Door” and “Perfect Strangers” which would emerge in October 1984 from that historic meeting, ignited something which resulted in the Deep Purple 1985 arena tour ticket sales totals second only to Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA tour that year. And Deep Purple even headlined the prestigious Texxas Jam that summer. The subsequent departure (again) of Blackmore, and even the death of Jon Lord in 2012, could not derail a remarkable second act for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers even into the 21st century with Now What?! . –Redbeard