“He said, ‘It’s not going to happen.’ He gave me that tough-guy New York thing. I said, ‘How about something that is going to happen?’ It was career suicide, but it felt really good”: How Steve Morse took on a media mogul and got away with it

Steve Morse and Clive Davis — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Having stood down from Deep Purple to care for his late wife Janine – the subject of on Taken By An Angel on his new album Triangulation – Steve Morse regrouped with bassist Dave LaRue and drummer Van Romaine.

“With the Dregs, everybody’s scattered to the winds,” former Kansas guitarist Morse explains. “The most manageable project was the trio stuff, and Van or Dave said we should do something. I’ve been playing with them for close to 40 years, so it’s an extremely comfortable situation, musically and personally.”

The album includes eye- and ear-catching collaborations with fellow virtuoso guitarists John Petrucci of Dream Theater and Eric Johnson of fusion fame. But those spots nearly didn’t happen.

“I hate asking for favours,” says Morse. “These guys are my friends, and they get people asking them all the time, ‘Will you play on this?’ When you call somebody, you’re interrupting their home time. And I hate piggybacking on other people’s energy and hard work.

“So I was extremely sensitive about that. But I realised it’s been 16 years since the last record, and I don’t know how many more albums there’s going to be with my name on it. So I called them, and the guys played fantastic.

Steve Morse Band feat. Kevin Morse - Taken by An Angel (Official Music Video 4K) - YouTube

Watch On

“I still feel guilty that imposing on them has made the record more valuable. But we’ve been friends for a long time. This was something that they did out of love and mutual respect.”

There was a time when Morse was ready to be far more assertive – notably in 1983, when the Dregs (formerly Dixie Dregs) had encountered label issues while releasing the previous year’s album Industry Standard. With the line-up in tatters, Morse approached Arista boss Clive Davis.

“We had a contract,” the guitarist says.”It had been expensive for us to pay the legal fees to negotiate it. Under the contract, we had a good amount in the budget to do the next album. But Arista said no.

“I went to Clive Davis’ office in Manhattan, and he said, ‘No, it’s not going to happen.’ He gave me that tough-guy New York thing. I said, ‘Well, how about something that is going to happen? Can you sign a release so that I’m out of this deal and the band?’ He said, ‘Yeah; go up to Legal. I’ll send a memo and they’ll have the papers ready.’ So I did.

“That was career suicide, but it also felt really good. I’d rather be in a 10-seat club, playing my music to people that enjoy it, than to deal with that again.

“I was too young to realise that every profession, every job, has its intolerable things. Being self-employed makes more sense for someone like me.”

Triangulation is on sale now.

Nick Shilton has written extensively for Prog since its launch in 2009 and prior to that freelanced for various music magazines including Classic Rock. Since 2019 he has also run Kingmaker Publishing, which to date has published two acclaimed biographies of Genesis as well as Marillion keyboardist Mark Kelly’s autobiography, and Kingmaker Management (looking after the careers of various bands including Big Big Train). Nick started his career as a finance lawyer in London and Paris before founding a leading international recruitment business and has previously also run a record label.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.