“I still have my uniform on, and I said, ‘I’ve been at work all day and I cut off all my hair.’ Gary said, ‘Bring your guitar. I’ll see you at six’”: Steve Morse quit music to become an airline pilot – until Lynyrd Skynyrd persuaded him to return
Steve Morse has had a stellar career. From founding the Dixie Dregs to becoming Deep Purple’s longest-serving guitarist, his name is forever etched in rock history.
However, he recently revealed that there was a period in his life when he quit playing guitar professionally altogether. Instead, he embarked on a career as a commercial airline co-pilot before Lynyrd Skynyrd reignited his passion for music as a profession.
“The [Dixie] Dregs kind of broke up in 1981. We’ve done six records. I felt like maybe the music business was a little bit too weird for me. So I started doing some odd jobs, running a bulldozer, cutting hay for people, stuff like that. Not trying to work as a musician. It didn’t last too long, because I felt like I really missed it,” he says in a new interview with Ernie Ball.
Ernie Ball String Theory ft. Steve Morse – YouTube
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“So I had to figure out something to do, you know, to eat and pay my bills. Phil Walden from Capricorn Records was encouraging me to try to make my own band, you know, ‘Wherever the problems were, in the past, do your own thing.’ You know, I thought that if I had a trio, I could manage everything and get through the lean times better.
“It would be a real workout for me, musically, but that’s something I really relished. So we did the Steve Morse Band, starting in the early to mid-’80s. And went through that for, I don’t know, we went for years. And kind of burned out. Or, you know, we’ve been around the circuit enough times where it was getting repetitive.
“I got the opportunity to work on a new song with Kansas that turned into me doing more songs with Kansas and finally turned into me doing an album and then a tour, then another tour, then another album and tour.”
After this rollercoaster of a career, Morse became jaded by the highs and lows of the music industry, and seriously considered switching jobs.
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“I felt maybe I should take advantage of the fact that I had a bunch of flying time from flying my band around. My friends, they were airline pilots. They were telling me what a great job that would be.
Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water (Live, 1999, Australia) – YouTube
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“And I thought, ‘You know what? If I had that job, I could just record anything I wanted. And I could do music without having to worry about, you know, pleasing anybody in the business end.’ And that really appealed to me.
“So during that time, I recorded my first solo album called High Tension Wires. And the whole intent of that to record company people was just, ‘I don’t care. I’m here to make music and that’s it.’
“Getting that job was a lot of fun. A big challenge and I really enjoyed it. But once I did it and did it repetitively, I realized every job has things you don’t like about it. Sometimes you just have to deal with stuff.”
It was at this point that Lynyrd Skynyrd got in touch with Morse and offered a spur-of-the-moment opportunity that would change his life forever. “I remember coming back from a long, long day.
“It started in two in the morning and I still have my uniform on, and on the phone was Gary Rossington [Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist] and said, ‘Hey, we’re down at the Omni [an indoor arena in Atlanta, Georgia]. Man, you gotta come down. Bring your guitar. We’re recording tonight.’
“I said, ‘I’ve been at work all day and I cut off all my hair.’ He said, ‘Bring your guitar. I’ll see you at six.’ I didn’t make it at six. I couldn’t. I mean, I’m too far away.
“So I [finally] got there. They’re already playing. They look over, and Gary gets the message that I’m here. He says, ‘All right, everybody, we’re gonna bring up Steve Morse to play on the song Gimme Back My Bullets.’
“So somebody pushed me up on stage. And here’s an amp I’ve never plugged in before…”
Morse didn’t have time to think things through, as the band had already started recording what would later become 1998’s Southern By The Grace Of God: Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour 1987.
“One of the Lynyrd Skynyrd albums is me sitting in with them. And I said, ‘If it’s ever going to be this cool again, I should get back into music full-time. Because this is awesome.’”
Morse would go on to join Deep Purple, who he played with 28 years before stepping down in July 2022. The following year, he reunited the Steve Morse Band for their first tour in 10 years, all while battling pain in his picking hand.
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Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology, and how this is shaping the future of the music industry. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Dream Wife, K.Flay, Yīn Yīn, and Black Honey, among others. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her art-rock/psych-punk band ĠENN.
