Chasing Shadows: The Search for Rod Evans

How can an internationally recognized show business star simply disappear? It is hard to imagine, and yet, that is exactly what happened to Rod Evans, the original lead singer with rock megastars Deep Purple. Following an ill-advised and failed comeback in 1980, he dropped out of the public eye and his whereabouts have remained a mystery ever since. No-one, it seems, has any idea where he is or what he has been doing.

So, hardcore fan and experienced researcher, Adrian Jarvis, set himself a challenge: to find Rod Evans, or, at least, to fill in the nearly forty year gap in his biography and finally tell the whole story of his life. Jarvis’s relentless search for clues involved him seeking out the local bands in which so many old rockers are ending their careers, as well as talking to some of Evans’ former colleagues and connecting with Deep Purple’s huge fan base.

As he progressed, he began to realize that finding Rod Evans was not just about locating a missing person. It meant also asking ‘why?’ Why was it important to him–and potentially, to many thousands of others around the world? Only by examining his own motives and exploring what, in a more general sense, it means to be a fan could he answer that crucial question. In the end, a fateful journey to New York offered the best chance of bringing his investigation to a successful conclusion…

A book for anyone who has ever been a fan of a rock band, or, indeed, anything else, Chasing Shadows is part memoir, part history and part detective story. Sometimes funny, sometimes moving, always compelling, at its heart it is a puzzle that fascinates, frustrates, but, ultimately satisfies. The question remains: whatever happened to Rod Evans and where is he now?