Don Airey — born in Sunderland, England, on 21 June 1948 — has been Deep Purple's keyboard player since 2002, when he replaced Jon Lord. Taking that seat meant assuming one of the hardest posts in rock: the instrument Lord had practically invented on his own. Airey arrived with a matching résumé. He passed through Rainbow, played with Gary Moore and Whitesnake and, above all, was the keyboard player in Ozzy Osbourne's band in the early 1980s — the organ introduction to "Mr. Crowley", on Blizzard of Ozz (1980), is his, one of the most recognisable openings in heavy metal. In Deep Purple his choice was to respect the established vocabulary rather than reinvent it: he keeps the distorted Hammond, the dialogue with the guitar and the long live improvisations, but he also brought more classical elements into the arrangements. He has been in the band for over two decades, long enough to have recorded more albums with the group than many members of the classic line-ups.
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