Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice has received some negative comments for playing on "X Moves," the new song by recently deceased rapper DMX.
In a videoon his Drumtribe YouTube channel he says, "Hip-hop and rap is not a genre of music that I have any great love for. Then again, it is not targeted at me...
"There's lots of sorts of music I don't really have an affinity with, and that's OK; we all like different stuff. And, over the years, I've played different styles of music — I've played with orchestras, I've played with jazz guys, I've played with big bands, I've done novelty records. It's not unusual for me to step outside my normal sphere of rock music; this is just another instance where I've done it...
"It might be a silly thing to say, but for 13 months now we haven't been able to do anything in the way of live shows, so studio stuff is about all we can realistically do to keep playing.
"A friend asked me to do this track, and for him, I did it. I never thought I'd get a chance to play that sort of thing, but the shot came along, so I did the best I could."
Paice adds that he never met DMX, nor did he charge a fee.
Paice, the longest serving member of Deep Purple, has also played on sessions for Paul McCartney, George Harrison, The Velvet Underground, Keith Emerson, Jim Capaldi, William Shatner and many others.