Deep Purple’s main rivals, according to Bev Bevan: “Seriously”
From The Beatles vs The Beach Boys to Kendrick Lamar vs Drake, rivalry within the creative world can often be a good thing.
When you have a rivalry between two different artists, you tend to find that they start pushing out some of their best music. Engaging with your creative side can be difficult when you don’t have an incentive to do so, and what better incentive is there than trying to one-up someone you consider yourself an opponent of?
Kendrick Lamar has recently embarked on his biggest tour ever, and it would be foolish to suggest that his previous beef with Drake and the songs that came out as a result of said beef didn’t play a part in it. When discussing the reason he decided to start such a musical feud, he said it’s because he treats art in the same way people treat sport: he wants to be the best.
“My intent was to always keep, I think from day one, was to always keep the nature of it as a sport,” said Lamar. “I don’t care how motherfuckers look at it as a collaborative effort, you know, that’s cool too, but I love when artists grit their teeth. Like, I still watch battle raps […] This has always been the core definition of who I am, and it’s been that way since day one.”
That rivalry turned pretty ugly, with accusations made about domestic violence and underage sexual offences. It should be noted, not all rivalries in music need to go that far, as Bev Bevan once alluded to when he was talking about drumming for Black Sabbath on their Born Again tour from 1983 to 1984. As someone who had provided percussion for a range of great acts prior to these shows, he was the perfect man for the job, even if he wasn’t a huge fan of the band beforehand.
“It’s [a] funny thing, by the way, that I didn’t even know Black Sabbath fellows before,” he explained. “Seriously. I had met Sabbath only once before in Frankfurt in ‘76, where I had a chat with Ozzy”.
Bevan went on to talk about the rivalries that existed within music in those days, but confirmed that all of them were done in jest. While bands wanted to be the best and were competing with one another to do so, there was never any genuine hatred between them.
“Black Sabbath and Deep Purple were rivals, but we liked each other,” he elaborated. “In the ’70s, all bands respected each other and were competing in a friendly way. Us, Sabbath, Free […] Bands were different back then. Nowadays, all bands are the same. They all have a great show, but the music is all the same.”
Maybe he has unlocked the secret to the perfect kind of rivalry with that line: It’s all well and good to want to be the best, but the second you’re competing against someone who you think has a sound too close to your own, things start to become a lot more personal. Fans of rap music will tell you that Lamar and Drake don’t have remotely similar styles, but it could well be that because they were both frequently compared to one another in discussions about who the best was, things got a touch too personal.
