In August 2011 he announced that he was cancelling all concerts to concentrate on creating Music as part of a therapy to fight Cancer. Sadly, today, Jon Lord lost that fight.
Lord, 71, was co-writer of one of Rocks abiding anthems ‘Smoke on the Water’ but will be most remembered by Deep Purple fans for the Band’s groundbreaking 1969 album ‘Concerto For Group & Orchestra’. In later years Don Airey took over keyboards with Deep Purple and Lord appeared with David Coverdale’s Band Whitesnake. as well as working on numerous solo projects. For myself, and a great many other Rock Music lovers of my generation, Deep Purple were THE Band of our youth. As recently as last Saturday I was reminded of the power still wielded by Purple when Martin Behr from local Band Sunny Skies needed to play barely three notes before the audience erupted. How many songs are so potently embedded in our hearts as ‘Smoke on the Water’? Thank You for putting Deep Purple in Rock and in our hearts Jon.