On this date (April 7th,) in 1975, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple to start Rainbow. The Deep Purple song “Highway Star” was written in the bus on the way to a gig and played for the first time that night. It ended up on machine Head in 1972. To date, Deep Purple have opened one studio album and three live albums with “Highway Star.” The band’s late keyboardist Jon Lord once explained how it was written on the way to a gig in Portsmouth, England.
“We needed a fast number to open the set, we’d got tired of the one that we
