Ritchie Blackmore has played with some of rock’s biggest names, but jamming with George Harrison was something else entirely.
“It was very overwhelming to play with a Beatle,” the Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist recalls.
Blackmore was in Australia with Deep Purple in 1984 when Harrison came to see the band. As Blackmore recalls in an installment of his YouTube series, Tales From the Tavern, he politely asked if he could join them onstage.
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“He was friends with Jon Lord and Ian Paice. He lived just down the road,” Blackmore says, sitting with a classical acoustic guitar on his lap. “He was over in Australia when we were there as Deep Purple, and he said to me very politely, ‘Can I get up onstage with you and use your guitar?’ I said, ‘Of course.’ I was flattered.
“Sure enough, we all got up onstage and we did the old rock and roll number ‘Lucille,’ by Little Richard.”
Footage of the performance shows Harrison and Blackmore trading solos as the band tears through the song.
“We had a good time,” Blackmore continues. “He was a very nice man, very serious, and very complimentary. It was very overwhelming to play with a Beatle. I mean, there’ll never be another band like the Beatles.”
Harrison had largely stepped away from music two years earlier, following the release of his 10th solo album, Gone Troppo. He would later describe himself as “peaceseeker, gardener and ex-celeb,” which made his appearance with Deep Purple all the more unexpected.
Blackmore has discussed the jam before, admitting, “I was playing the wrong key and everything, but it didn’t seem to matter.”
In the Tales From the Tavern video, he also recalls how much he loved the Beatles’ early material, singling out “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “From Me to You” for their “fantastic… simple melodies.”
“George was very modest,” Blackmore says. “A very quiet man. I noticed onstage that he had big feet, because he was tapping out the rhythm. I looked down at one point and thought, My god, he has big feet! George was great.”
