Deep Purple Guitarist Steve Morse Abruptly Leaves Band For Heartbreaking Reason 

A gentleman...who clearly has his priorities correct. Godspeed, Steve. (And, RIP, Janine...peace & healing to the Morse Family). 😓

I really appreciate what Steve brought to Deep Purple, my favorite band. Some of the best stuff they've ever recorded.

Damn! That sucks he’s leaving, but he’s gotta be there for his wife.

Sad as it is, Steve's doing the right thing in being there for his wife when she needs him most... Love and best wishes to both of them.

Prayers and positive vibes sent to he's wife I'm proud of him being there for her I beat cervical cancer before I was 29 I was alone,so him being there for her fills my heart with hope and joy she'll beat this 🤲🙏📿🛐

May she return to full health. Respect to Steve for being a great husband. Thank you for all you've done, my friend. 🤘

That’s a man, who knows what’s most important in life. He loves his wife above all else.

real man stepping up for help his love his wife. what a true man. great reason. prayers for jannine morrse

Love and prayers to Steve and his wife. World class guitarist.

A truly iconic band , their music is timeless. Sending Steve & his wife , blessings of cont. healing/ support & comfort , for a successful outcome. All will miss him there in the shows, but, nothing is anything without love... 🙏✨🎵🎶⏳💞💕

I have met Steve many times.We had a 30 minute conversation at h o b in Orlando one night. A true gentleman and all sound nice guy.We live in same town and he gave a clinic for all the locals. I wish him and his wife the very best.

Steve is the man.. these life incidents'... suck.. but that is life. 😔 we all face this. Thank you Steve for every musical inspiration 🫡🇺🇸🥹

Oh no!! I hope she recovers soon. Steve is such a good guy, an amazing musician, and has been such an incredibly fantastic addition to Deep Purple.

Had the pleasure to hang and talk to Steve on a flight from Tampa to Phoenix early 2018. Just a regular rock n roller nice guy. Best wishes to the family.

Very sad. Steve has left his mark to say the least. I will always remember the first time I heard Abandon. Wow! He was awesome! Respect! ❤

Steve is, above all, an outstanding human being, as well as a complete musician that has blessed us with his music! As a true DP fan from my young years till now, I've discovered him through Deep Purple Live at Olympia 96 and since now I looked upon him as a true inspiration! This hurts me a lot, but family comes first and Steve is someone who looks after everyone he loves! I wish him all the best and I wish his wife receive much need love and support from him and his loved ones! You will be missed mr Steve! Love you!

This is both sad and happy, it's great he will be with her but sad band lost such great guitarist. God bless both of them.

Steve is an awesome guitarist and a class A person. Take care of your wife Steve.

Ian Gillan looks like my old middle school typing teacher after a few drinks.

Prayers so much Steve !

Class musician and class guy , family always comes first.

Prayers for him, wife and family. Honorable and talented legend. 🙏🏾

that's a real man right there

My thoughts and prayers go to Steve and his wife. Wishing the absolute best for her. Steve has blessed this world with his exceptional talent for many years and I hope that his wife will be blessed with an exceptional recovery.

Very sad. Steve Morse has been one of my favorite guitarists for many years going back to the Dixie dregs. Cancer has strike my family... 9 loved ones in the past 5 years, and also my mother who is an AML survivor, she will make 10 sadly, sooner than later . I know what his wife and he and his family are going through. There isn't anything anyone can say other than, sorry. It's a miserable and horrible plague which has been in the rise for the last couple decades. And there are SO many young ones who are stricken before they even have a chance to live. It's devastating, it's heart wrenching There's just nothing else I can say on it. He is a really nice person from what everyone says who've had the pleasure of knowing him, and I'm sure his wife is a lovely person. I hope they are able to share as much time together as possible.

I hope his wife and the rest of his family can make it through this. My thoughts and prayers are with them. Good luck.

Prayers for Steve and his wife! 🙏🏼

Many prayers and love to your wife and family brother. Be with her.

God bless him and his wife. He is doing the right thing. My prayers go out to him and his wife and family

Positive vibes Steve.

So sad. Prayers for his wife and family 🙏🏻

Family always comes first. There's nothing more important.

Respect!!

I saw Purple with Morse and they were great

He will always be a member of the band but Iam glad he’s taking this time to be there for his wife when you have a loved one u love a lot this is what u have to do much love to him and respect its not easy dealing with this kinda disease I hope his wife gets a speedy recovery we all should take this time and appreciate what he’s doing rock on 🤘🏾

PRAYERS TO THE FAMILY STEVE

Steve. If you happen to read this I am so sorry for you and your wife what you’re going through I have been fortunate enough to see you play with the purple twice once in St. Louis and once in Kansas City on the long goodbye tour. I remember in the documentary for infinite that you said you wanted to be the last guitars to Deep Purple. I hope that happens for you that you can come back I don’t know what your belief system is but I believe Jesus heals when it’s as well of course but I pray for your wife all the time when I think of you. If you ever happened to read this there’s been a lot of miraculous healings at our church in Ozark Missouri James River Church you can watch the services live online and they pray for people over the Internet as well and there of been people healed at home watching I know a lot of people scoff at this sort of thing and I don’t know how you feel about it. But give it a try you never know the purple is one of my favorite bands and you seem like such a kind gentleman every time I’ve heard interviews I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting you all hope to someday. God bless and I pray for your wife and your well-being God bless my name is Jon mcquerter

Very sorry to hear and prayers 🙏 to his wife. 😀😃😄😁

Prayers to his wife and his family

So sorry to just realize this now. My wife is a cancer survivor for 20 years now, but man she needed me, and I will always need her. Totally understand doing what you need to do when you need to do it. For what it's worth a friend of mine got me backstage with the Dregs in the early 80's at the Bottom Line in NYC, and the band had to buy their drinks! What! Steve bought me a Heineken - a kind man and obviously world class musician. Thank you Steve and thoughts and prayers for your wife and you and your family.

I've been a fan of Steve Morse since his days with the Dixie Dregs, Flying Colors, and Deep Purpke. God Bless his wife and his family.

God bless you and your family I hope she fights it. I am a cancer survivor and I hope she will be as well. ❤️ 😍 💖 🙏

Love Steve's gentle, dry sense of humor - he suggests that he never got the distinctive intro lick to "Smoke On The Water" right! And right after Steve replaced Ritchie, he was asked, one time, "What's it like to be in Ritchie Blackmore's shoes?" And his reply was that "When Ritchie left the band, he took his shoes with him." Best of all, was that he's always been pleasant to work with; and so, ever since he started playing with Deep Purple, the friction caused by the mercurial Blackmore vanished, and so gigs were almost always mostly pleasant for the band and the crew, which made for better shows. The whole Deep Purple story is just magical, and will probably NEVER be matched.

Family first.

One of the best guitarist on this planet! Prayers for Steve’s wife. 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Steve Morse is the nicest musician I've ever met. In Toronto the 1990s I believe, I remember Ghostwind it made me cry and i want that song on loop for my funeral. SO It has been written so it shall be done if my mother f__kin family will get it right.

God bless your wife Steve....

Prayers all around. God bless!!

Will pray for Steves wife hope she will get well soon

Steve Morse revitalized DP and was their best guitarist of all time. Very sad about his wife and I wish her and him the best.

respect to steve for helping his wife

All the best to them both 🇬🇧 uk

Sending my best. Love ya Steve Morse n fam!

Oh no! Steve my heart is with you 🙏🏻

Sad news. Hope she feels better soon. Steve's shoes must be hard to fill. Good luck to all, and be in good health.

Excellent news!!!!!!!

Damn hope the best for Steve and his wife

Prayers for Jeanine and Steve

I've seen Morse 6 or 7 times over the yrs. My favorite guitarist by far. I hope his wife somehow beats cancer and then Morse returns to performing live, with Purple or in some other band.

prayer to his wife❤️🙏

Prayer's 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Sending ❤️

Smoke on the water is like literally the first song every guitar player learns so sad to hear about this 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Hope that his wife gets well

❤

Steve is cool . I met him at guitar center

Truley a great man

May the Morse be with you.

💙💙💙💙💙

Salutations to the guitarist who quits to look after his ailing wife, something worth mentioning is that he was asked to replace the great Ritchie Blackmore back in 1994, in his time with the DP, he has never never been critical of Ritchie, in one of his interviews, Steve singled out Ritchie for his inventive playing styles and many other master pieces created by Ritchie... 😀👍

Steve is a great guitarist and minimal as good as Blackmore and definitely a nicer guy !

Oh man, I didn't realize he left DP because of his wife's illness. I thought maybe he'd just had his fill of touring all over the world after 1/'4 century. All the best to Steve and his wife and family.

Sometimes you got to know when to hang up the boots

🙏

Deep Purple should audition the guitarist from Rainbow.

Morel noooo!!!

I read about Tony Dow from Leave it to Beaver dying from cancer to be told later it was falsely reported and that he is at a hospice now. Then, when I read this I thought Steve Morse had cancer. Does this make me a jerk for feeling relieved it's not him? It is sad that his wife has cancer, but in all honesty and I have to be truthful here I hope this gives him time to play his own music. I think he was awesome with Deep Purple, but when I got into him in the 80s I was listening to Dixie Dregs and The Steve Morse Band stuff. Maybe this will give him "at home" time to write ballads and wonderful stuff for his wife and us to share. Don't get me wrong, by far, Deep Purple's "Burn" album is one of my favorites but the great thing about these legend bands is that they can feature new talent. Robert Plant is doing this with Led Zeppelin hits. I hope Deep Purple does this. It will be a win win situation, and it would be a win win win with his wife. There, now I don't feel like such a jerk.

Steve played on 8 Purple albums...that's one less than Blackmore...who played on 9. Pace was the only member who played on ever Purple album. Both of them are fantastic guitarists...but Blackmore was the Mozart of Rock Riffs. 🎼🎶🎸

Sad. Hope, his wife overcomes the disease.

And he has arthritis as well... Rock on Mr morse

Everyone knows how to play Smoke On The Water on guitar. Legend.

Guitairst 💖

So We must say that; RIP Deep Purple. Officialy Steve is no longer Deep Purple member-this is new info from official band site.

"...I guess you have to jiggle the key just right, because I never got it open." Does this mean he never felt he was ever doing justice to the way Ritchie Blackmore played SOTW although he totally looked like he nailed it every time? Terrible news really. Wish him and his wife all the best.

As it should be...

PLEASE GOD.. NOT THE PURP...

Sorry but I've not heard of these bands in years, are they just touring or still creating new music?

Sad as f

Best solution for his wife, best solution for Deep Purple. Morse was never a good player with Deep Purple and in the last years he has become really bad because of illness and age. I know, fans don't want to hear the truth.

Ok

Oh crap. I’ve hardly practiced and haven’t played all that much deep purple. Damn how am I gonna pull this off? What if they call satriani again? Damn it. Simon. Figures. Lol

Time to stop Deep Purple.

Its the wonder of nature baby, but what does corey taylor think about this?

He probably got bored of playing smoke on the water 😂

But I thought Biden promised the cure? Prayers for Mrs. Morse.

Deep Purple might get better with a decent axeman! Morse stuff is bloody boring.

God bless you both! Praying!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏