Donald Smith Airey (born 21 June 1948) is an English musician. He came to prominence as the keyboardist of the rock band

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

during 1979–1982. He has been the keyboardist of

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

, the band from which Rainbow was a spinoff, since 2002, after the retirement of Jon Lord. As well as Rainbow and Deep Purple, he has had a long and productive career playing with many other acts, including

Gary Moore Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 19526 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career, he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, Heavy metal music, heavy ...

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Judas Priest have also been referred to as one of the p ...

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

, Jethro Tull,

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1978. The group were originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their ow ...

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

Wishbone Ash Wishbone Ash are a British Rock music, rock band who achieved success in the early to mid-1970s. Their albums include ''Wishbone Ash (album), Wishbone Ash'' (1970), ''Pilgrimage (Wishbone Ash album), Pilgrimage'' (1971), ''Argus (album), Argu ...

, Colosseum II, Ten, Sinner, Michael Schenker,

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

, Divlje jagode and Living Loud. He has also worked with

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End theatre, West End and on Broadway theatre, Broad ...

Early life

Inspired by his father, Norman Airey, Don Airey took a love for music at a young age and was trained in classical piano from the age of seven. He continued his love for music by earning a degree at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

and a diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music (where he studied under Ryszard Bakst). Following his studies, he formed a band and worked on P&O cruise liners travelling the world.

Career

1970s work

In 1971 he moved to London and joined

Cozy Powell Cozy Powell (born Colin Trevor Flooks; 29 December 1947 – 5 April 1998) was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, B ...

's band Hammer. In 1975 he joined Jon Hiseman's highly influential jazz rock band Colosseum II, along with

, Neil Murray, Mike Starrs and later John Mole. They made three albums and also formed the core band for

's album '' Variations'', a set of variations on a theme by Paganini. Don worked on several albums with solo artists and was a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

on the 1978

album '' Never Say Die!'' Soon after, he joined guitarist

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English lead guitarist. He was a founding member and the guitarist of Deep Purple, one of the pioneering bands of hard rock. After leaving Deep Purple in 1975, Blackmore formed the band Rainbow ...

's band,

, and featured on Gary Moore's solo debut '' Back on the Streets''. With Rainbow he contributed to two hit albums, '' Down to Earth'' and '' Difficult to Cure''.

1980s work

After leaving Rainbow in 1981, Airey joined with Ozzy Osbourne for a three-year stint where he helped with the albums '' Bark at the Moon'' and '' Speak of the Devil''. He also played on the Diary of a Madman Tour from 1981 to 1982 and appears on '' Blizzard of Ozz'' and was also the only witness to Randy Rhoads's death. Airey joined Jethro Tull in 1987 for their tour in support of '' Crest of a Knave''. The same year also saw the release of

's multi-platinum ''

'', on which Airey played keyboards. Soon after he quit the band to record the solo album ''K2 – Tales of Triumph and Tragedy''. In it he plays with Gary Moore and Keith Airey – guitars, Cozy Powell – drums, Laurence Cottle – bass, Chris (Hamlet) Thompson, Colin Blunstone, Mel Galley, and Genki Hitomi – vocals.

1990s onwards

In 1990, Airey recorded keyboard parts for several songs on

's album ''

Painkiller An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic, antalgic, pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used for pain management. Analgesics are conceptually distinct from anesthetics, which temporarily reduce, and in s ...

''. However, because Judas Priest wanted the album to have a heavier sound than their previous work, only one song on ''Painkiller'', " A Touch of Evil", prominently features Airey. In a 2020 interview, Airey revealed that he also played most of the album's bass parts on a

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

, as Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill was unable to participate in recording sessions due to illness. He also toured with the Japanese heavy metal band

Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to sho ...

, in 1990 and 1992. In 1997 he arranged and played on "

Love Shine a Light "Love Shine a Light" is a song by British rock band Katrina and the Waves written by Kimberley Rew. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 held in Dublin, resulting in the country's fifth and most recent win at the contest. It was released as a ...

" by

Katrina and the Waves Katrina and the Waves were a British Rock music, rock band formed in Cambridge in 1981, widely known for their 1985 hit "Walking on Sunshine (Katrina and the Waves song), Walking on Sunshine". They won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the ...

, conducting the accompanying orchestra at the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. The song won the contest. In 1999 he joined Manchester-based melodic hard rock band Ten where he played keyboards on the album ''

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

'', which was released in 2000. He also toured with the band in support of the new album. Airey played keyboards on the song "Darkness Be My Friend" by

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

vocalist Bruce Dickinson, released on the 2002 reissue of Dickinson's debut solo album '' Tattooed Millionaire''. Airey also played keyboards on At Vance's Olaf Lenk's first solo album ''Sunset Cruise''. In 2006 Airey featured on

's release '' Old New Ballads Blues'' contributing to all tracks. In 2008 Airey released his second solo album, ''A Light in the Sky'' and recently it has been announced that another solo album from Airey is set to premiere in 2011. In early 2014 Airey joined hard rock band Hollywood Monsters where he played keyboards (Hammond B3 organ) on the track "Move On" on the album "Big Trouble" which was released in 2014 on Mausoleum Records. The album features Steph Honde on vocals and guitars,

Vinny Appice Vincent Samson Appice (born September 13, 1957) is an American rock and metal drummer best known for his work with the bands Dio (band), Dio, Black Sabbath, and Heaven & Hell (band), Heaven & Hell. Of Italian descent, he is the younger brother ...

on drums, Tim Bogert on bass and Paul Di'Anno on lead vocals on the bonus track. On 18 January 2017, Airey was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History. In January 2020, Airey played two shows with Uriah Heep, filling in for Phil Lanzon after the keyboardist's son died.

Deep Purple

Airey joined

in 2001 to fill in for an injured Jon Lord, who subsequently retired from the band. Airey joined the band as a full-time keyboardist in March 2002. He has recorded seven studio albums with the band, ''

Bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...

,'' '' Rapture of the Deep,'' '' Now What?!'', '' Infinite'', '' Whoosh!'', '' Turning to Crime'', and ''=1.'' Interviewed by Jeb Wright, for Classic Rock Revisited, about the album ''Now What?!'', he said "Well, it's Deep Purple and there is a Hammond there. There is only one way to go, really. Over the years, I have really worked on my sound, it didn't just happen overnight. The first two, or three, years I was with the band, I was using Jon's C3 and it was pretty knackered. I had it refurbished. It's been put in mothballs now... I much prefer Hammond A-100's, that's my choice."

Instruments and gear

Airey has employed many instruments and effect processors to aid him in the creation of his music and is well known for the use of his Hammond A100. In an interview with Keyboard Magazine Don Airey explained that he preferred the Hammond A-100 over other organs (including the Hammond B-3) for their "purer tone" in live settings. He also uses Leslie 122 speakers and a Hughes and Kettner Puretone amplifier. For piano sounds, Airey uses a Kurzweil PC3K8 and also uses a Moog Voyager. He also uses several rack and pedal based units such as a Roland Fantom. Airey is also an endorsing artist for several effects companies including Neunaber Audio and TC Electronic and currently uses a Neunaber Seraphim Shimmer as well as a TC Hall of Fame Reverb and a TC Flashback Delay.

Personal life

Airey lives with his wife, Doris, and their three children in South West

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

. In 1992, Airey's son suffered from a serious illness, causing him to slow down his musical activity until 1995. Airey is an ardent Sunderland A.F.C. fan. He has a brother, Keith Airey, who played guitar for Nik Kershaw during the mid-1980s and the reformed version of The Zombies from 2001 to 2010 and is currently lead guitarist for the London stage show '' Mamma Mia!''. His other brother, Paul Airey, played piano for SlowBone and Rollups and currently works with Robbie Gladwell and his band. He is currently writing a book about his experiences in the music business.

Discography

Solo

As band member

As session member

Guest appearances

* 1976 –

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional Baseball in the United States, baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nickna ...

– ''Kid's Stuff'' * 1978 – Jim Rafferty – ''Don't Talk Back'' * 1979 – Bernie Marsden – ''And About Time Too'' * 1985 – Alaska – ''The Pack'' * 1985 –

Phenomena A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...

– ''Phenomena'' * 1985 –

Phil Lynott Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the co-founder, lead vocalist, bassist, and primary songwriter for the hard rock band Thin Lizzy. He was known for his distinctive ...

– " Out in the Fields" * 1986 –

Zeno Zeno may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Zeno (surname) Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 B ...

– ''Zeno'' * 1987 – Wild Strawberries – ''Wild Strawberries'' * 1987 –

Helix A helix (; ) is a shape like a cylindrical coil spring or the thread of a machine screw. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is for ...

– '' Wild in the Streets'' * 1988 – Fastway – '' On Target'' * 1988 – Jethro Tull – '' 20 Years of Jethro Tull'' * 1989 – Crossbones – ''Crossbones'' * 1990 – Perfect Crime – ''Blond on Blonde'' * 1990 – Jagged Edge – ''You Don't Love Me'' * 1990 – Bruce Dickinson – '' Tattooed Millionaire'' * 1990 – Forcefield – ''IV – Let the Wild Run Free'' * 1990 –

Tigertailz Tigertailz are a Welsh glam metal band from Cardiff. Their 1990 album '' Bezerk'' made the Top 40 on the UK Albums Chart and contained the hit singles "Love Bomb Baby" and "Heaven". The band reformed in 2005. History Formation and early year ...

– '' Bezerk'' * 1991 –

Graham Bonnet Graham Bonnet (born 23 December 1947) is an English rock singer. He has recorded and performed as a solo artist and as a member of several hard rock and heavy metal music, heavy metal bands including Rainbow (rock band), Rainbow, Michael Schenke ...

– ''Here Comes the Night'' * 1992 –

– ''Domestic Booty'' * 1992 – Kaizoku – ''Kaizoku'' * 1992 –

– '' Back to the Light'' * 1994 – The Kick – ''Tough Trip Thru Paradise'' * 1994 –

– ''Turnaround'' * 1998 –

Colin Blunstone Colin Edward Michael Blunstone (born 24 June 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 60 years, Blunstone came to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Rock music, rock band the Zombies, which rel ...

– ''The Light'' * 1998 – The Cage – ''The Cage'' * 1998 – Olaf Lenk – ''Sunset Cruise'' * 1998 – Eddie Hardin – ''Wind in the Willows (live)'' * 1999 – Millennium – ''Millennium'' * 2000 – Micky Moody – ''I Eat Them for Breakfast'' * 2000 –

Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

– ''Silver'' * 2000 – Olaf Lenk's F.O.O.D. – ''Fun Stuff'' * 2001 – Silver – ''Dream Machines'' * 2001 – Rolf Munkes' Empire – ''Hypnotica'' * 2002 –

Metalium Metalium is a power metal band from Hamburg, Germany, Hamburg, Germany, who released eight albums from 1999 to 2011 before disbanding. The band was reactivated in 2023 by founding members Henning Basse and Matthias Lange. Their style of music is ...

– '' Hero Nation – Chapter Three'' * 2002 – Bernie Marsden – ''Big Boy Blue'' * 2002 – Rolf Munkes' Empire – ''Trading Souls'' * 2003 – Silver – ''Intruder'' * 2005 – Kimberley Rew – ''Essex Hideaway'' * 2006 – Gwyn Ashton – ''Prohibition'' * 2009 – Carl Sentance – ''Mind Doctor'' * 2011 –

– '' Elegant Stealth'' * 2012 – Persian Risk – ''Once a King'' * 2012 – Various artists – ''Help! For Japan'' * 2013 – Schubert – ''In Rock'' * 2014 - Hollywood Monsters - ''Big Trouble'' * 2014 - AraPacis - ''A Disturbing Awakening'' * 2021 -

- ''Never Surrender''

References

External links

*
Don Airey Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2014) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Airey, Don 1948 births Living people People educated at Bede Grammar School for Boys Musicians from Sunderland English rock keyboardists English heavy metal keyboardists Deep Purple members The Ozzy Osbourne Band members Rainbow (rock band) members The Gary Moore Band members Anthem (band) members Alumni of the University of Nottingham Strawbs members Michael Schenker Group members Colosseum (band) members 21st-century English conductors (music) Living Loud members Quatermass (band) members Ten (band) members The Company of Snakes members Empire (German band) members Fastway (band) members English blues rock musicians