Deep Purple’s Highway Star was born on a tour bus going to Portsmouth in 1971 when a reporter asked the band how they wrote songs. To demonstrate, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore grabbed an acoustic guitar and began playing a riff consisting of a single “G” repeated over and over, while vocalist Ian Gillan improvised lyrics over the top. The song was refined and was performed that same night. First appearing on the 1972 LP Machine Head, the track remains one of the band’s staples in live concerts, and was the set opener even before it was released on any album.
