IAN GILLAN - Pullin' Pints At The Inn Page 4
by Martin Popoff

Rather... "Blind Man - I just wanted something with a slow pace. I didn't want any complicated arrangements. Because if you're having a jam situation, you don't ask people to come in and play Rapture Of The Deep or something complex like that. I wanted it to be a straight rock 'n' roll set, so if they weren't too familiar, it was an obvious thing. So blues was the obvious way of bringing some texture and dynamics into the set. And I think that, along with Loving On Borrowed Time, which is a bit more dramatic, were the obvious choices. Demon's Eye, I don't think that was my idea. I think it was the producer's idea. That's cool, because it's a nice shuffle."

"And Smoke On The Water was designed to be there as a vehicle. Everyone came in and did two or three songs, and nobody was allowed to leave until they took one pass at Smoke On The Water. And there were some nerves there, believe it or not. I know that Satriani was nervous when he played that with Purple the first time (for those who don't recall, Satriani was indeed very briefly, and only in a live setting, part of the Purps). Strangely enough, it seems like such a simple thing, but it's quite an important little bugger. Steve Morse cut his finger, just before. He was a bit nervous, and I said, 'Have a beer.' So he cut his finger on the ring pull-tab of the beer; not badly, but there was blood everywhere. And he said, 'Look, I'm bleeding for you.' And he played the solo immaculately, and he put a Band-Aid on, we went for a beer and forgot about it. But I was phoning everyone a couple weeks after making the record, to say thanks for coming, and I said, by the way, did you manage to get all the blood out of your guitar? He said, 'You must be joking, I put three coats of clear varnish on it. That blood's there forever.' Isn't that cool? It meant a lot to him. And me too."