Stealing Deep Purple

The promoter Steve Green passed away on January 9^th 2026. His name is frequently mentioned in connection to the New Deep Purple. 

If you’ve read Stealing Deep Purple you know I’m sceptical about his involvement. Many fans on the internet are convinced he was the brains behind the operation but no one that I have spoken with can give me  concrete info or a paper trail to follow. Steve Green himself denied having any involvement. 

One of the reasons I think there’s a desperate desire for Steve to be involved as it absolves Rod Evans of some of the responsibility, and we don’t like our heroes to make bad decisions (I say this as someone who spent hours looking for a tangible connection, rather than circumstantial. Perhaps it was my own desire not to see Rod’s own mistakes). 

When Steve passed away I had just finished the first draft of a 15,000 word essay (or a four part blog) about his life. I had hoped to talk to him personally about the bands he was involved with. I have no motive other than to find out his side of the stories. 

Curiously the online memorials and tributes say little of his years between the late 1960s and 1984. The upcoming series will fill that gap as accurately as possible. 

Readers of the pages will know of many reconstituted bands he was involved in (Steppenwolf, The Byrds, Iron Butterfly, The MC5 etc). I’ve voiced theories that the Steve Green / Advent Talent bands had touring schedules that were booked like bar bands rather than planned out tours of areas, with groups zig-zagging all over the United States. 

Another theory that seems plausible is that Steve had a pool of musicians that he would use to build a band around once he’d acquired a licence to promote a name.

For instance; Iron Butterfly signing an agreement that meant Green could put Iron Butterfly bands on the road as long as the contained one legacy member. We also know that there were several Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf bands that had no actual members in them, although Green denies this had anything to do with him.

It’s not even beyond the imagination that the musicians would play in different gigs under different names on a show-by-show basis. Like a company may have a freelance pool. There’s evidence to suggest that The Mike Pinera Band would play as Cactus or Iron Butterfly or The Blues Image depending on who the promoter was wanting to book; three band names, one group of musicians.

The musician Randy Ruff first came to public attention as the piano player for Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Gary Lewis was a the child of a Hollywood legend and 1960s teen idol. 

“I went to a Dodgers game and I ran into Gary Lewis, son of Jerry Lewis. Had just fired his piano player and he is the lead singer of a famous band called Gary Lewis and the Playboys”  Randal Ruff, Stm8rJoe Youtube Channel 

Randy’s CV of acts is pretty stellar, on the surface you’d be right to be in awe. After Gary Lewis he went on to play with other notable acts including the Grass Roots (sometime billed as Grassroots). They were a 1960s band who were the studio creation of Lou Adler and songwriters PF Sloan and Steve Barri to cash in on the folk-rock boom. 

Initially, the group that went out on the road weren’t the artists who played on the records. A number of different musicians were formed to be the live version of the Grass Roots, the most successful being the incarnation made up by a band called The 13^th Floor (not the Elevators!) who played together between 1967 and 1974. By the time Ruff had joined in 1977 the music scene had significantly changed and hits had dried up. By 1978 There had been over 25 performers through the Grass Roots ranks in a little over 10 years.  

“(After Gary Lewis and the Playboys) I kinda joined the Grass Roots which is another recording act and then Jan and Dean (who) were a bizarre group of surfers, playing organ and piano. Then Dean (Torrence) kinda quit for a while and then needed another Dean to fill in so I was Dean of Jan and Dean for about eight months of my life” Randal Ruff, Stm8rJoe Youtube Channel 

While he simplifies the story, it is on the surface very true. I don’t think Dean was involved in the first place and that the person who was Dean before him, also wasn’t Dean.

What he omits is that the ‘new’ Dean was never advertised to the public. While some shows were correctly publicised as the Jan and Dean revue featuring Jan Berry, other nights were just promoted as Jan and Dean. In at least one show, there was no Jan and no Dean, just Randy and another stand in singer. 

” We will probably sue them. We have checks made out to Dean Torrence endorsed by Randy Ruff. That’s FBI time as far as I’m concerned…. Ruff claims he was the original keyboard player in the band, he never was. He says that Jan and Dean broke up in 1961 and he was Dean after that. There’s no truth in that.”   Winston Simone, Dean Torrence’s manager,  The Kenosha News October 13th 1978

It should be pointed out that that the threats to sue in cases like this are almost always. a show for the press and fans. Deny everything and to pretend to be outraged. With a few exceptions, when,something like this happens then the aggrieved parties are usually in on the caper and often benefiting from it. A public showing of outrage at a former bandmate or promoter is usually exactly just that. There’s sometimes even a clause in the license agreement to prevent parties from discussing the license in public.

Randy’s next job was a big step up, he joined a legendary southern rock outfit; Black Oak Arkansas. The story goes that BAO had recently split with their founding frontman Jim Dandy and carried on without him. But in actuality, the former band mate had licensed the name from him and built a new version; 

“Jim Dandy has leased the name to one of the former members and there’s a band touring the country now as a sort of tribute playing old material” Butch Stone, Former BAO Manager, November 27^th 1980 Baxter Bulletin 

Ruff was brought in to cover the keyboard and lead vocal parts in the newly leased band. He had a similar tone to Jim Dandy and wisely didn’t try to compete with his stage persona. Occasionally Dandy would guest with them and Ruff would sing backing vocals. 

Randy Ruff as pictured The South Bend Tribune (Indiana), 6^th September 1981 

Jim Dandy was supposed to be forming a new band called Savage but found bookings hard to come by. So Savage became Jim Dandy and Savage and then Savage Innocence Featuring Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas. Eventually he was being billed as Jim Dandy’s Black Oak Arkansas or Black Oak Featuring Jim Dandy. Now a lot of this can be down to local venues perhaps being economical with the truth but ultimately, there were more than one Black Oak Arkansas bands on the road at the same time. 

“The five piece band that appeared at Cinders was billed around town as Black Oak Arkansas, but that’s a misnomer, Dandy said: ‘I’m the only one left from Black Oak…. those other guys are back home. These will be called Savage Innocence’” Mike Francis, Staff Writer The Bulletin, Oregon 16th March. 1981 

All of this may seem like curious if pointless information.  Until it’s known that Gary Lewis and The Playboys, The Grass Roots, Jan and Dean and Black Oak Arkansas  were all represented by Steve Green’s Management company or his Advent Talent agency at some point. 

In the mid-1980s Randy Ruff had quit BOA.  Jim Dandy returned to the main group and Ruff had found himself fronting his own band, Ruff Ryders. Given Ruff’s previous bands they were big enough to get some press and find themselves backing some notable classic rock acts. 

Ruff Ryders on the bill with The Greg Allman band and Atlanta Rhythm Section. 
(The Daily Times, Salisbury MD. 8^th April 1984) 

It seems that he cut ties with Steve Green’s agencies after BOA. However a further newspaper clip in 1984 also reveals that Randy played in another Advent Talent band but wasn’t listed in any newspaper articles during the time. It seems that Ruff was also involved in a Steppenwolf line up at some point. Steppenwolf were one of Green’s first attempted at licencing a name and the sheer amount of musicians who passed through their ranks, that seemingly changed on a week-to-week basis, formed the grounding of my ‘musicians pool’ theory.  

The Star-Democrat, Maryland April 6^th 1984.

Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The Grass Roots, Jan and Dean, Steppenwolf and Black Oak Arkansas. My educated guess would be that he played in a Steppenwolf line up around 1979 or 1980. . He was in The Grass Roots in 77 – 78, Jan and Dean in 1978 and Black Oak from 1980 until 1981. John Kay had reclaimed the Steppenwolf name by the summer of 1980 so 1979 into 1980 would fit.

The Steppenwolf line ups were almost certainly ones built around bass player Nick St Nicholas or guitarist Kent Henry as Goldy McJohn was a keyboard player like Ruff. Unless of course he was in a line-up completely unconnected to any original band members, which would of course be entirely possible. 

At least three of these acts featured Randy Ruff at some point (Billboard Magazine 10th September 1977)

Now Randy is an incredible keyboard player and vocalist so my theory may be bunk. He might have just been an in demand musician who so happened to get consistently hired by the acts who have the same agent. Or the agent may have been helpful in finding the musician work. Or he might have been part of a ‘preferred pool’ of performers who Green could rely on to play well, play along and get paid. Certainly anyone involved in any of the Steppenwolf bands would have to ask no questions about the legitimacy.

Previous comments about Green’s operations suggest that bands were booked like a production line operation. It would make sense for him to have his own group of performers.  

I’ve been trying to track Randy down for comment. I’d be interested in his thoughts and take on things. Even if my theory is wrong, I think anyone who played in all of those groups would be of great interest to talk to. If anyone knows of his whereabouts then please drop a comment below.

It seems he was a language teacher at a high school in Hawaii and would sometimes play for the students. There’s a lovely video of him on Youtube singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.