It always exasperrated Steve Morse who didn't become a real touring musician until he was in his forties (and joined DP, his first band that really toured internationally), but Purple have always been a touring engine. Even in the 70ies they played way more gigs than Led Zep (Zep just played to larger crowds, but less often). It's the only life they know since adolescence. At this point they have resigned themselves to the realization that one of them dying on stage or not waking up in a hotel room one morning is well a realistic possibility. But if that is how you wanna go, then that is how you should.
Touring life did in the end become both too much for Ritchie Blackmore (who only does mini tours with Blackmore's Night) and Jon Lord (who stopped touring with DP after the millenium because travel ate too much of his remaining time) as well as for Steve Morse (who had his wife to attend to, but had been moaning about the length and the density of DP's worldwide trecking for many years, he has a hay farm to take care of in Florida), but Paice, Gillan, Glover and Airey are cut from a different, more resilient gypsy cloth. And for McBride, who's in his mid-40ies, it's still a new and exciting thing.
