Steve Morse quit music for aviation – and Lynyrd Skynyrd convinced him to return
Steve Morse is a certified legend of the guitar world, having founded the Dixie Dregs and gone on to become Deep Purple‘s longest-serving guitarist, prior to his departure in 2022. However it turns out there was a time in his life when he was ready to leave it all behind and pursue an alternative career.
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Morse recently revealed that for a while, he quit music to become a commercial pilot. Eventually, he was persuaded to pick up a guitar again by the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
“The [Dixie] Dregs kind of broke up in 1981. We’ve done six records. I felt like maybe the music business was a little bit too weird for me,” he admits in an interview with Ernie Ball. “So I started doing some odd jobs, running a bulldozer, cutting hay for people, stuff like that. Not trying to work as a musician. It didn’t last too long, because I felt like I really missed it.
“So I had to figure out something to do, you know, to eat and pay my bills. Phil Walden from Capricorn Records was encouraging me to try to make my own band, you know, ‘Wherever the problems were, in the past, do your own thing.’ You know, I thought that if I had a trio, I could manage everything and get through the lean times better.
“It would be a real workout for me, musically, but that’s something I really relished,” he continued. “So we did the Steve Morse Band, starting in the early to mid-’80s. And went through that for, I don’t know, we went for years. And kind of burned out. Or, you know, we’ve been around the circuit enough times where it was getting repetitive.
“I got the opportunity to work on a new song with Kansas that turned into me doing more songs with Kansas and finally turned into me doing an album and then a tour, then another tour, then another album and tour.”
Jaded by the workings of the music industry, Morse considered a career change. “I felt maybe I should take advantage of the fact that I had a bunch of flying time from flying my band around. My friends, they were airline pilots. They were telling me what a great job that would be.”
“And I thought, ‘You know what? If I had that job, I could just record anything I wanted. And I could do music without having to worry about, you know, pleasing anybody in the business end.’ And that really appealed to me.
“So during that time, I recorded my first solo album called High Tension Wires. And the whole intent of that to record company people was just, ‘I don’t care. I’m here to make music and that’s it.’
“Getting that job was a lot of fun. A big challenge and I really enjoyed it. But once I did it and did it repetitively, I realised every job has things you don’t like about it. Sometimes you just have to deal with stuff.”
Around this time, Lynyrd Skynyrd got in touch with an opportunity Morse couldn’t refuse. “I remember coming back from a long, long day,” he began.
“It started in two in the morning and I still have my uniform on, and on the phone was Gary Rossington [Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist] and he said, ‘Hey, we’re down at the Omni [an indoor arena in Atlanta, Georgia]. Man, you gotta come down. Bring your guitar. We’re recording tonight.’
“I said, ‘I’ve been at work all day and I cut off all my hair.’ He said, ‘Bring your guitar. I’ll see you at six.’ I didn’t make it at six. I couldn’t. I mean, I’m too far away.
“So I [finally] got there. They’re already playing. They look over, and Gary gets the message that I’m here. He says, ‘All right, everybody, we’re gonna bring up Steve Morse to play on the song Gimme Back My Bullets.’”
“So somebody pushed me up on stage. And here’s an amp I’ve never plugged in before…”
With Morse in tow, the band leapt recording what would eventually become 1998’s Southern By The Grace Of God: Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour 1987.
“One of the Lynyrd Skynyrd albums is me sitting in with them. And I said, ‘If it’s ever going to be this cool again, I should get back into music full-time. Because this is awesome.’”
Morse then joined Deep Purple, who he performed with for almost three decades until he quit in July 2022 to take care of his wife, Janine, who had been diagnosed with cancer. Last year, he brought the Steve Morse Band back together for their first performance in 10 years.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
