Songfacts®:

• Ever find yourself enjoying a drink at a bar when someone you don't know decides to tell you their life story? That's was happened to Deep Purple lead singer Ian Gillan when he found himself in Stowe, Vermont in a watering hole called The Pub. This happened sometime in the '80s; Gillan had left his bandmates behind at another bar so he could work up song ideas over a pint.
  
  When the guy walked in and started talking, Gillan had his idea. Ian wrote down details of the guy's story on napkins, which he put in his idea book and then forgot about. Years later he discovered the napkins when he was moving, so he finally turned it into a song in 1995 when the band was working on their Purpendicular album. "I took a few snippets and then used my imagination," Gillan explained. "His name wasn't Ted, but it is now, and he wasn't a mechanic either."
• "Vavoom" isn't common in the British lexicon - Ian Gillan heard the word for the first time when a friend used it to describe a girl. He decided to incorporate it into the story of Ted.
• Like most Deep Purple songs, this one was composed by the entire band, which had recently added Steve Morse on guitar in place of Joe Satriani. Morse, who was chosen for his songwriting skills as well as his musical talent, was a founding member of The Dixie Dregs and played in the group Kansas in the late '80s.
  
  The song was the first new one the group performed with Morse - it made its debut at an Orlando concert on March 4, 1995, and quickly became a concert favorite.