During a recent live Q&A, guitarist Joe Satriani was asked would he have liked to continue his work with Deep Purple in the early 90s, to which he replied (transcribed by UG):
“If I could have I would have. But they really sort of borrowed me out of my solo career just as it was really entering a very interesting phase.
[metalwani_content_ad]“And I didn’t think that I’d be able to really give them 100%, and that’s what they needed. They were replacing Ritchie Blackmore and they needed someone who was a 100%. Thank god they found Steve Morse because he was a genius.”
Satriani joined Deep Purple after Ritchie Blackmore decided to leave the band for good on November 17, 1993. The band hired Joe Satriani same year in December to complete their planned tour dates and stayed for the 1994 European tour.