Deep Purple intentionally misled fans on long goodbye tour

Musical artists misleading - lying? - fans that they are about to embark on their final tour and then either keep touring or have later tours is nothing new. Kiss has seemingly done that for decades. The Eagles promised us they were quitting a while ago and somehow keep gigging in some form or location (Las Vegas!).

Rock icons Deep Purple named their 2017 tour "The Long Goodbye" which clearly implied that the tour would be their last but might take a while. Nine years long, at least? Yep. The band is still scheduled to play shows through at least 2026. The part that is weird is that the band has not been touring the entire time.

In 2017, guitarist Steve Morse said the group named their tour "The Long Goodbye" because he said it was a "farewell tour." He did specify for him that it was the last time he planned on touring with Deep Purple, though he did continue to be a part of the band until 2022.

Deep Purple intentionally misled fans about the name of their 2017 tour

The band's tour did last a couple of years, but then they took a three-year break before going back out on the road. That time, they did not mislead fans and called the tour the "Whoosh! Tour." The band is back touring again currently in support of their latest record, =1.

The new tour has an even trickier name than the Long Goodbye one. The shows are called the "=1 More Time Tour." Does this mean the group won't tour after this run of gigs? Doubtful.

Plus, the band itself probably doesn't know when the shows will end. In a recent interview with SiriusXM's Eddie Trunk, Ian Gillan admitted that the 2017 tour was only called "The Long Goodbye" because promoters seemed to think ticket sales were lagging a bit. The band changed the tour name to include "goodbye" because it hinted this would be fans' last time to see Deep Purple live. In other words, the name was a lie.

Ultimately, though, does it matter? We don't want certain groups to stop touring, and we likely would see them as many times as we could. If we are told the group is not touring anymore, we'd buy tickets to the show. If the band comes back and tours again, we'd happily buy tickets again.

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