STEVE MORSE opens up on his battle with arthritis

In a new interview with American Musical Supply, acclaimed DEEP PURPLE and THE DIXIE DREGS guitarist Steve Morse spoke about the extent to which his battle with arthritis is affecting his guitar playing. The 71-year-old musician, who revealed in 2024 that there was no cartilage in his right-hand wrist anymore after he “practiced about 10,000 notes a day for decades”, was asked if there are any guitar “cheats” or techniques that make his playing easier as he gets older, Morse replied: “Oh, man. This must be so frustrating, if you are a young player and you’re still watching this, to hear an older guy who’s taking up one of the gigs you could be having, talking about how hard it is to play. But fear not, I’m not taking anybody’s place because I’m doing my own thing. But yeah, it’s hard to keep playing. And the reason why I wanna keep playing is because it really is a part of me — I mean, it’s a big part of me. So, yeah, the arthritis thing is huge. I’ve tried every treatment I can find. In fact, I’ve got another trip a thousand miles away to try something else. So, yeah, I changed my technique, changed my picking pattern, changed everything that I can to make it through whatever the challenge is.”

Steve continued: “I thought at one point that, ‘Dude, you’re done.’ And I thought, when I was in a kid going to see bands in Atlanta, it was a three-hour drive, a band called HYDRA came out. The bass player, his arm was cut off here. And he was playing the gig and he was getting into it, and it was great. And I remember that bass player from HYDRA. Every time I’m, I’m feeling bad about ‘this hurts’, ‘you gotta figure out a way to play’, he played a gig with a nub. And you think about Jeff Healey being blind and making his own technique.”

Morse added: “Humans adapt. And I’ve learned a lot from watching things on the farm, watching the ants, for instance, or… I’m like Bill Murray with the groundhogs. The persistence of animals counts, and insects. They keep on and on and on and they find a way. But they never stop. I guess that’s one of my big lessons, is don’t give up while you’ve still got a breath.”