This is the headline today on the official website of Jon Lord:
"It is with deep sadness we announce the passing of Jon Lord, who suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism today, Monday 16th July at the London Clinic, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jon was surrounded by his loving family."
Jon Lord was the founder of the Deep Purple back in 1968, as well as the author of their most iconic songs, pieces that made rock history, building a genre from the ground up: Smoke on the Water, Highway Star, Pictures of Home, Child in Time, Perfect Strangers just to name a few.
He was responsible for the contamination, at the time the first, between rock and classical music, with the legendary album "Deep Purple live with the Philharmonic Orquestra".a work that went on to inspire bands such as Queen or Genesis and composers such as Yanni.
For several years he had left the band to devote himself to his solo project, painting the baroque style that had made him one of the most recognisable and loved keyboardists on the international scene with blues.
Jon was known for his strong character, not always affable: his quarrels with the other founder of Deep Purple, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, are legendary.
What Jon leaves behind is a musical legacy of inestimable value. Probably the most famous keyboardist in rock leaves the scene for the last time, but his music continues, both the music played by his former bandmates and that which he composed later, but above all that which lives on in the cellars and rooms of every young person who starts listening to rock, in which his infinite music surely resonates.
As of yesterday, the Highway Star has found its place in the sky.
Hi Jon.
