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

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.

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 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.

Things evolve. People mature.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

'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.

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

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.

I write every day.

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 have got a good imagination.

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

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

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