When I picked up my guitar, I spent the first day learning the chord E, the second day A, then B7, and all of a sudden, I could play the blues.

I sang 'Nessun Dorma' twice with Pavarotti, and he told me he'd heard 'Smoke' about five or six times, and every time was different. He was so jealous because if he deviated one jot from the traditional interpretation of the famous arias, he'd be crucified. We have the freedom.

I've been in music all my life.

We have been called old rockers, rock pensioners, and dinosaurs.

When I'm writing with Tony Iommi, for example, still it's very easy. We go in, and I know exactly what his style is. It's very distinctive, and you know exactly what he's looking for, and we know exactly where we're going from the first chord.

Purple - I mean, the music and the influence and the subliminal touches range from orchestral conversation to jazz to blues and soul and God knows what. It's a vast range of expressions.

I love extended solos. I used to like them in the old days a lot, because it used to give me time to go to the pub for a drink.

There's a wonderful woodland, spiritual song I wrote in Undercliff in Lyme Regis, and I used to walk up there with my dog and always come back with an idea.

I've played football with George Best, the greatest footballer that ever lived. That doesn't make me a footballer. And I've sung a duet with Pavarotti. That doesn't make me an opera singer. I can write and I have a story to tell, but I'm not going to make a career out of it.

I'm not a writer; I'm not a novelist.

I was an avid collector of Elvis' early stuff; for a young singer, he was an absolute inspiration. I soaked up what he did like blotting paper. It's the same as being in school - you learn by copying the maestro.

I know in my heart of hearts that Ritchie Blackmore is one of the great guitar players of all time. He's a fabulous technician, and he's got incredible skills, and he was a great showman.

'Classic rock' is never a label that we've given ourselves - it's one of the many labels that's been imposed on us.

We always used to describe ourselves as an instrumental band. Basically, the music was always instrumentally based, so the songs always came later.

I've never listened to any of Purple Mk III's records.

No matter what I do, I've always recognized that Deep Purple is primarily an instrumental band. That's where all the music comes from in rehearsals - it all stems from the music.

I have got a good imagination.

The thing to remember when you're re-recording pieces from the past is that you have to have respect for the original performances, recordings, and arrangements.

I write every day.

You can never criticize a monumental musician like Jon Lord or Richie Blackmore, or the part they played in the group, but life goes on.

The people who come to Purple shows are there for the music.

'Smoke On The Water' was ignored by everybody to begin with. We only did it in the shows because it was a filler track from 'Machine Head.' But then, one radio station picked up on it, and Warner Bros. edited it down to about three and a half minutes. It then started getting played by lots of different radio stations.

I think you function much better when you trust people and when you've got a sort of relationship where you can develop ideas within a framework.

It means a lot to a lot of people, 'Smoke On The Water.'

I know the guys in Metallica. I'm very honored that they were influenced by Deep Purple when they started, and they've always been very kind to us.

I used to do interviews - I still do - interviews every day, all day. And you go from maybe doing a couple of professional interviews, where you can hear the sound right, to everyone else sounds like they're at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The reason 'Fireball' is my favorite album of that period is that without 'Fireball,' we would never have been able to make 'Machine Head.'

The band's a really close-knit family. We've got fantastically good friendships and relationships that have developed after all these years.

If there was such a thing as a typical English gentleman in rock music, then it was Jon Lord.

To the general public in America, the lifespan of Deep Purple probably finished with our 1984 album, 'Perfect Strangers.'

The one thing nobody was taught was how to deal with success, and I think that happens to everyone who makes it at a young age.

Things evolve. People mature.

I have been touring since I got my first band in 1962, so there is no problem there. We are basically performing musicians, so that's what we do.

An album represents an artist or a band or a group of musicians at any given moment in time. You just produce the music that you feel good about and hope that the audience shows some interest in it.

I'm very grateful for the other bands and artists that stood up for us with a view to our induction - that's nice of them. But I wish that the Hall Of Fame had had the discretion to ask us first. It's now become a debate in which we are too late to have the final word.

Can you imagine doing 'Nessa Dorma' with Luciano Pavarotti the maestro? It's unbelievable. He's a very generous man.

I have to think that 'Nessa Dorma' is the greatest rock ballad that's never been recorded as such.

I've consciously avoided actually reading anything about Wikipedia.

I realised that if I wanted to carry on with my musical dreams, I had to change, so I started meditating, and I changed my life entirely.

I don't think we were anti-commercial. But we were anti-contrivance, and like Zeppelin, we found dignity through the music we were playing.

Infinity is almost impossible for an eight-year-old to grasp. It's an inquiring age, and you're beginning to shape your thoughts and questions about life in general at that stage.

When I was in my formative years, I rejected Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, and Dean Martin. I now realise they were all great artists, but at the time, as a young man, you have to clear the decks.

When I was a kid, every street had a band, and we'd steal members from each other.

If you start adapting to audiences, you're really second-guessing the situation, and it becomes a bit more like cabaret.

The thing about a band is, it's not so much how good the musicians are - it's the blend of personalities and characters. It's the human chemistry that makes up a good team.

Life's not so rocky now. It was very volatile when you're young: you've got no experience. Your sense of disappointment is far greater; your sense of success is overwhelming. And then you've got the emotional conflict within any group that you're not mature enough to deal with until you get older. It levels out.

There's very little you can do these days about having any impact at a launch for a record unless you keep it very secret, because communications are so immediate, and YouTube and everything else kind of spoils the party.

When you're young, you're immortal, or so you think, and you never think there will be problems ahead.

I've tried to avoid the rock & roll highway and have taken the scenic route. I think all the guys have been more concerned with the music and the band's legacy than with the commercial aspects of life.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to do what I do for a living.