Jon Lord

You know, I've been a huge Deep Purple fan since I was 14/15 and they're still my all-time favourite band so hearing the news that Jon Lord, one of the best instrumentalists of all time, died on Monday brought me down a quite a bit.  He was one of the few strangers on the planet that I always wanted to meet.  Probably because he's one of the best soloists (no matter what instrument) ever and he was never (on video or interview) a dick.  Pure class.  I'm sure he's the reason some aging rockers started to let their hair go gray. Jon was the coolest.

He was the main reason I bought the bootlegs and live albums.  Blackmore was always good but Jon was always better.  You can compare a guitar and an organ as long as you're talking about phrasing and where you can take a solo.  Also, he had a great way of getting out of a blooper and making it sound like it was on purpose.  Jon was definitely an influence on me trying to be a better soloist. Just because I play guitar doesn't mean all my influences are guitarists.

So I did have my own little memorial and it went like this:

• Concerto CD (69)
• In Rock CD
• Rosa's Cantina
• Lazy (from In Concert)
• Abandon CD

- I would have put on Fireball but it was already in the car.

In short, there will never be a better sound than Jon Lord at a Hammond Organ.