Don Airey
Don Airey ( born June 21, 1948 in Sunderland, England ) is an English rock musician. Since March 2002 he has been a member of the hard rock band Deep Purple, in which he replaced as a keyboard player with a penchant for the Hammond Organ Jon Lord.
In his long and prolific career - he has worked with more than 200 albums - he played previously with bands and artists such as Colosseum II, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Gary Moore, Brian May, Jethro Tull, Whitesnake, Michael Schenker Group, Rainbow, Strawbs, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Olaf Lenk and many others.
Biography
Don Airey was born on 21 June 1948 in the Northeast Sunderland. Even as a child he showed interest in music and took classical piano lessons. At age 13, he formed a jazz trio and played with several bands from Sunderland. Because he wanted to be a professional musician, he earned a degree from Nottingham University and a diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music.
In 1974 he went to London and initially joined Cozy Powell's band Hammer. After that he worked with on numerous albums by solo artists and the Colosseum successor band Colosseum II until 1978 shortly joined Black Sabbath and The Never Say to them! recorded, the last album of the Ozzy Osbourne era. In the same year he was listening to Gary Moore's second solo album, Back On The Streets and climbed in Ritchie Blackmore's band Rainbow, with whom he recorded the albums Down to Earth and Difficult to Cure.
In 1980 he worked with on Osbourne 's debut solo album Blizzard of Ozz, on which he particularly came with a keyboard intro to the song Mr. Crowley in appearance. After leaving Rainbow, he focused for three years to working with Osbourne, from which emerged the albums Bark at the Moon and Speak of the Devil. 1986 tried the former Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Asia drummer Carl Palmer put together a trio with Don Airey and the Californian singer, bassist and guitarist Robert Berry. But first volume samples gave unsatisfactory and the band did not materialize. In 1987, he joined Jethro Tull as a tour musician. This appointment he gave up to take the solo album K2.
Up to 2001, Airey had retired with a few short-lived exceptions from the music business. This year he first stepped in as an interim solution for the health- related failed during a tour Jon Lord in Deep Purple. When this finally left the band, Airey was declared the full-time keyboardist in March 2002. Emerged in this occupation, the albums Bananas and Rapture of the Deep, and Now What? . 2006 seemed Airey on Gary Moore's album Old New Ballard Blues on all tracks with. 2008 is his second solo album A light appeared in the sky. Airey lives with his wife and three children in the south west of Cambridgeshire in England.