Guitar god Ritchie Blackmore is often described as "withdrawn, temperamental, and intense". His track record speaks for itself.
Very telling interview about Blackmore's fraught relationship with Deep Purple Mark II's lead singer, Ian Gillan. What stands out to me is that Ritchie tells a story about how Ian would say, "You're my hero", and beg Blackmore to tell him what he wanted Gillan to do, singing-wise. Blackmore's response to Gillan is "I'm edging more towards a blues singer. You're more of an operatic singer", essentially telling Gillan there's nothing he can do to please Blackmore. This is brutal, as Ian Gillan's job was to sing. That's what he's there for (that, and to shake a tambourine a little). Please note that Blackmore picked out Ian Gillan to be the lead singer of Deep Purple, so if Gillan isn't the kind of singer Ritchie wanted, then that's Ritchie's fault and not Gillan's.
Fun little interview with Ritchie Blackmore in which he seems to be having a grand old time making jokes about having gay sex with all his bandmates, knowing full well that the foreign interviewer doesn't seem to get at what he's talking about.
Taking Ritchie Blackmore's history into account, I perceive him as a control freak -- but unlike the type who needs law and order and will do anything to obtain it, Ritchie seems to get off on creating bands and then destroying them in the most spectacular fashion possible. His Deep Purple bandmates have said on several occasions that every time Ritchie quit, he always expected Deep Purple to collapse without him and took it as a personal insult that they would find a new guitar player and go on without him.
- After he quit Deep Purple, he hired the band Elf (featuring a then-unknown singer named Ronnie James Dio) to be his backing band. Blackmore then fired the entire band other than Dio and himself.
- Fired or drove off several members of Deep Purple. His bandmates Jon Lord and Ian Paice have admitted they would go along with Ritchie when it came to firing people, purely to keep the peace.
- Blackmore on firing his bandmates Rod Evans and Nick Simper: "[I made up my mind to fire them in] some dirty, rotten hotel. It was right about the same time the record company went bankrupt. We didn't tell 'em there. We didn't tell 'em until we got home. We had another two weeks of gigs and they probably would've quit. When we got home, we all disappeared and let the managers tell them."
- Unusually for a 70s rocker, not known for doing drugs (bandmate Glenn Hughes claims in his book that Blackmore never even smoked weed, although he did like alcohol and had the usual rock star liking for groupies).
- Married four times, divorced three times.
- Banned from his own Rock N Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony (the rest of Deep Purple disputes this).
- Put an axe through bandmate Roger Glover's door because Glover wouldn't lend him a crucifix that Blackmore needed for a seance.
- Fascinated with seances and "white magic", as well as the medieval period and other arcane things in general.
- Notorious prankster. Blackmore loved doing things like hiding tape recorders under his bandmates' beds to convince them their rooms were haunted. He also stripped Roger Glover naked and left him on the side of the road on one occasion.
- Got into an actual fist-fight with former bandmate David Coverdale after Coverdale crashed a Rainbow show and Blackmore caught him backstage.
- Quote: "Jon [Lord] is a diplomat and in the end they'll think he must be the leader of the group. People say "Do you want to do an interview?" I'll say "No" straightaway. I don't want to get involved with anybody unless I know exactly what is going on. If someone says hello to me on the street, I'll look the other way because I don't want to get involved. If some bloke comes up and says "Hey, Man!" I'll just walk away. It's the same thing when someone gives me a piece of paper. I'll tear it up. I have the phone off the hook all the time. I don't usually read letters. All my letters go to a road manager who just throws them away. I don't want to get involved with people, and consequently, I have a very small core of really good friends, but no hangers on. I've got no people who are boring. I find a lot of people very boring 'cause they talk too much. I just like to think all the time. Think, play music, sex, and drinking. So it's wine, women and song for me."
Very telling interview about Blackmore's fraught relationship with Deep Purple Mark II's lead singer, Ian Gillan. What stands out to me is that Ritchie tells a story about how Ian would say, "You're my hero", and beg Blackmore to tell him what he wanted Gillan to do, singing-wise. Blackmore's response to Gillan is "I'm edging more towards a blues singer. You're more of an operatic singer", essentially telling Gillan there's nothing he can do to please Blackmore. This is brutal, as Ian Gillan's job was to sing. That's what he's there for (that, and to shake a tambourine a little). Please note that Blackmore picked out Ian Gillan to be the lead singer of Deep Purple, so if Gillan isn't the kind of singer Ritchie wanted, then that's Ritchie's fault and not Gillan's.
Fun little interview with Ritchie Blackmore in which he seems to be having a grand old time making jokes about having gay sex with all his bandmates, knowing full well that the foreign interviewer doesn't seem to get at what he's talking about.
Taking Ritchie Blackmore's history into account, I perceive him as a control freak -- but unlike the type who needs law and order and will do anything to obtain it, Ritchie seems to get off on creating bands and then destroying them in the most spectacular fashion possible. His Deep Purple bandmates have said on several occasions that every time Ritchie quit, he always expected Deep Purple to collapse without him and took it as a personal insult that they would find a new guitar player and go on without him.
