Will Deep Purple’s Next Tour Be Their Last?
Are Deep Purple hinting at bigger news with the title of their upcoming tour? It's apparently going to be called the InFinite the Long Goodbye Tour, suggesting that the band will retire from the road after the dates.
The Spain-based Metal Circus quotes "a source very close to the management" who confirms Deep Purple will step back from what's been a very active touring schedule in recent years. Early flyers for Deep Purple's June 2017 appearances in France also reportedly featured the words "Final Tour" beneath the band's familiar logo, though more recent material does not.
The news follows a health scare last summer for drummer Ian Paice, the only member to have been part of every different permutation of Deep Purple. The band halted a summer tour after he "woke up to find that the right side of [his] body was feeling numb and [he] could not control [his] right hand and fingers." Paice admitted himself to a hospital, where he said he was "diagnosed with having suffered a mini stroke."
Those were the first shows Paice had missed since Deep Purple's 1968 founding. The band confirmed the title of its latest album earlier this week. Infinite will follow 2013's well-received Now What?!, which became their first U.K. Top 20 album since The House of Blue Light in 1987. Deep Purple mounted a rare U.S. tour last year.
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