10 Facts About Rod Evans

Roderic Evans was born on 19 January 1947 and is a British retired singer known as a founding member of Deep Purple.

Rod Evans "had been fronting groups since he was 17" and played together with drummer Ian Paice in The Maze, formerly MI5.

Rod Evans was in a band called The Horizons in the mid 1960s.

In 1971, Rod Evans recorded a solo single for Capitol, titled "Hard To Be Without You", then went on to form Captain Beyond, along with former Johnny Winter drummer Bobby Caldwell, former Iron Butterfly bassist Lee Dorman and guitarist Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt, who was part of the last incarnation of Iron Butterfly.

Rod Evans left Captain Beyond and the music business after two albums.

Rod Evans then became a director of respiratory therapy at a western American hospital until 1980.

In 1980, Rod Evans was approached by a management company that specialized in the unscrupulous and frequently legally-actionable practice of reforming groups with a minimum of original members, often in violation of trademark and contractual law.

Also as a result, Rod Evans stopped receiving royalties from the Mark I Deep Purple albums.

Rod Evans has not appeared publicly since the 1980 court case and his current whereabouts are of considerable interest to fans of early Deep Purple.

On 8 April 2016, Rod Evans was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Deep Purple, but despite being invited, he did not attend the ceremony.