Ritchie Blackmore has compared his surprise return to the Deep Purple stage to coming home from war.
The legendary guitarist reunited with his former bandmates for a performance of “Smoke on the Water” at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York, on August 12, 33 years after his departure from the band. And while the appearance lasted only a few minutes, Blackmore says the experience carried considerably more weight.
“I felt like I was one of the soldiers that had come back from the Western Front, and everybody thought I was dead,” Blackmore recalls. “And there I was — I was alive.”
Blackmore revisited the reunion in a new, 13-part interview series with Now Spinning magazine editor-in-chief Phil Aston, explaining that the idea came to him early one morning after he learned Deep Purple would be performing at Jones Beach, which he described as a “magnificent place.”
The electric-guitar legend had been thinking about contacting his former bandmates when the opportunity presented itself. The communication ultimately went through his wife and Blackmore’s Night co-leader, Candice Night, as Blackmore had only recently learned how to use modern phones and generally keeps his distance from technology.
“Now Candice sent the e-mail and Ian [Gillan] said, ‘Yes, of course. Welcome aboard. All the band is up for it. Come onstage for ‘Smoke’.’ I just wanted to do one song, and I thought that would be the song. It’s big over here [in the U.S.] — bigger here than it was in Europe.”
The appearance was publicized just enough to let fans know what was coming, and Blackmore says ticket sales subsequently increased.
The stakes became apparent once he actually stepped onstage. Blackmore says everyone around him was “incredibly nice” — almost to the point of “overkill” — and although he didn’t participate in a soundcheck, his roadie handled it and reported that everything sounded good.
Then came “Smoke on the Water.”
Blackmore admits that revisiting one of Deep Purple’s defining songs after more than three decades was “tricky.” Still, the response from the crowd was overwhelming.
“And I played my three or four minutes of ‘Smoke on the Water’, which seemed to go down like I just invented the cure for cancer,” he says. “The people went nuts, and half of them were sitting in water. For some reason, the venue kind of gets covered in water at certain points ’cause it is right on the water. So they’re now all sitting in the water, the front three or four rows.”
The performance also earned praise from Deep Purple’s current guitarist, Simon McBride, who described the night as “magical.” McBride acknowledged that Blackmore’s playing may not have been at the same level it was when “Smoke on the Water” appeared on 1972’s Machine Head, while adding that he would be more than happy to have the same level of ability when he reaches Blackmore’s age.
For Blackmore, though, the night was less about proving what he could still do onstage than reconnecting with people he had once shared the stage with.
“I felt very good about it because it was like playing with old friends,” he says. “Everybody was super nice and super efficient.”
That made the performance all the more meaningful — and all the more nerve-racking.
“And thank goodness it went off without a hitch, but it could have quite easily have fallen apart, and that would’ve been embarrassing,” Blackmore says.
In the end, he says the reception made him feel like a celebrity for the few minutes he was onstage, despite having little interest in celebrity himself.
“I just play the guitar — sometimes well, sometimes not so well,” he says. “But it was well worth doing.”
Blackmore says the idea had come to him almost spontaneously, and the possibility that it might be his final opportunity to share a stage with his former bandmates gave the reunion an added poignancy.
“It was a good idea that I had, and it came to me very early one morning when I was in bed. I just thought, ‘Why not?’ ’Cause we never know when we’re going to meet again, which is like a sad note in a way.”
The first part of the interview series is below.
