This was a sad surprise to me when they showed him on the news. I got to see Deep Purple for their reunion Perfect Strangers. I ran up to the stage (as I used to do back then) and ended up a few feet in front of the first row (The guys who paid scalpers for front row tickets must have been pissed off since I was closer to the stage). I don't feel that Deep Purple is really Deep Purple without Ritchie and Jon. Both of them playing together and gave Deep Purple their unique sound.