I was a huge fan of Deep Purple, especially the earlier days, with the original lineup of: Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice, and of course, Jon Lord. Jon Lord is a pianist, Hammond organ player and a keyboard player. He was one of the founding members of Deep Purple in the early 70’s. He was the one who helped get the band formed.

Jon was born in Leicester, England. At the age of 5, he studied classical piano. His influences range from Bach to popular Medieval music. Later on in the years, he started listening to the blues, being inspired by Hammond blues organists: Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Brother Jack McDuff, and he was also inspired by the piano rock icon, Jerry Lee Lewis. In late 1967, Lord started to listen to rock music after seeing, Vanilla Fudge live, ’cause they were known for playing organ rock. As Lord got older, he studied acting and drama in London, while there, he played piano and the organ at clubs as a session musician. Lord’s first band before Deep Purple was, the Bill Ashton Combo, which is a jazz ensemble. Then he went on to join, the Art Woods.

In 1967, Jon Lord formed Deep Purple, after former Searchers drummer, Chris Curtis had plans in forming a supergroup called, the Roundabout. Ritchie Blackmore wanted the band name to be changed to, Deep Purple, in which the band name stuck even to this day. Jon Lord was leader of the band for a while since he was the one who helped form the band, but he gave up being leader later on and continued to play organ for them. Lord was organist of Deep Purple from 1968 – 1976. Later in the years, Lord rejoined Deep Purple in 1984 and continued to play with them up until sometime in 2012. In between the years, he hasn’t been with Deep Purple, Lord was also member of Whitesnake for quite some time, and he started his own, classical composing career.

Jon Lord died of cancer, he was 71, years old.

Kev