“Bob Ezrin was recording and I changed to a different guitar. Within five seconds, he stopped the tape and said, ‘There’s something wrong…’” Simon McBride on Deep Purple’s new golden age of heavy

Simon McBride poses with his PRS guitar.

Simon McBride has been with Deep Purple for almost four years now, but it was hard for him to believe initially.

“During the first year, whenever I’d see my name attached to Deep Purple, I just couldn’t make the connection in my brain,” he tells Guitarist. That feeling carried into McBride’s first record with the band, 2024’s =1, but listening to Deep Purple’s latest record, Splat! (which, for those keeping score, is the band’s 24th studio album), you can tell McBride has properly settled in.