Ian Paice 1966 Paice joined The MI5, which soon changed its name to The Maze. Primarily a club band, The Maze produced a number of singles, recorded mainly in Italy and France. The Maze featured vocalist Rod Evans, who alongside Paice was to form the original line-up of Deep Purple in March 1968. Evans had responded to an ad for a lead singer published by Deep Purple management, and showed up for his audition with Ian Paice in tow. Given that Deep Purple's first choice for a drummer, Bobby Woodman, had expressed dislike for the band's musical direction, the group hastily arranged
Ian Paice Royal Albert Hall, performing alongside guitarist Brian May of Queen, bassist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and vocalists Bruce Dickinson and Alice Cooper. Paice is married and has three children: James, Emmy and Calli. His wife, Jacky, is the twin sister of the departed Jon Lord's wife, Vicky. It had been rumoured (and even mentioned by former Gillan guitarist Bernie Torme in an interview) that Paice has only one lung. In reality, he is only missing a portion of the lower lobe in his left lung, due to contracting a case of pneumonia when he was 6 years old