![Ritchie Blackmore Discusses His Time with Deep Purple and Rainbow]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Ritchie-Blackmore-Discusses-His-Time-with-Deep-Purple-and-Rainbow-758x426.jpg "Ritchie Blackmore Discusses His Time with Deep Purple and Rainbow] 1")
The last time we heard from Ritchie Blackmore, in November 2025, he was headed out for a brief tour with his band, Blackmore’s Night. The road show ended abruptly after two nights “due to medical reasons,” and Blackmore returned home to Long Island.
Which is where Guitar Player found him recently.
“At the moment I’m taking a bit of a rest and seeing a lot of doctors about various ailments,” the 80-year-old guitarist tells us. “I had a nasty vertigo attack on our last small tour that we did, and I had to cancel.”
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Blackmore does, however, have something new to discuss: Rainbow — The Temple of the King 1975–1976, a nine-disc collection of music from his post–Deep Purple group, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. The set features the band’s debut and its follow-up, Rising, along with alternative mixes and edits and recordings of three September 1976 concerts in Germany that capture the fan-favorite Rainbow Mk. II at its peak.
More than 65 years after he became a session player for Joe Meek and joined the band the Outlaws in England, Ritchie Blackmore exists in a kind of demilitarized zone between legend and enigma.
There’s no question he is one of rock’s great electric guitarists, part of the ’60s British corps that included the likes of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and others who were part of the wave. Blackmore — now 80 — made his name with Deep Purple, then in his own Rainbow and back and forth between the two.
And he’s exercised his passion for Renaissance sounds with his wife Candice Night in their band Blackmore’s Night.
For all that accomplishment, however, he’s been largely inaccessible, a man in black who’s never shied away from expressing an opinion or maintaining a feud, or — as at the California Jam in 1974 — attacking an ABC camera with his Stratocaster.
“I have a bad reputation, but I don’t mind,” Blackmore told The Guardian in 1978.
He acknowledged “being very moody, being very sincere, telling people to fuck off when I shouldn’t have done. But I don’t care, not at all. I quite like it.”
That may, of course, be part of why we like Blackmore so much — in addition to the playing, of course. It’s fluid, dynamic and inventive, blending the jazz that first captured him with the blues and rock he discovered subsequently.
In that way he created a wealth of rock classics. Among them are “Black Night,” “Speed King,” “Strange Kind of Woman,” “Smoke on the Water,” “Highway Star,” “Burn,” “Man on the Silver Mountain,” and “Stargazer.”
He’s had a few actual hits — “Hush” with Deep Purple, “Since You’ve Been Gone,” “Stone Cold” and “Street of Dreams” with Rainbow — but he is more than anything a player’s player, iconic or under-celebrated, which has seemed to be his preference.
No point of Blackmore’s career was more dramatic than his 1974 decision to leave Deep Purple, then in its third lineup, and start a new band, Rainbow.
With a pre-fame Ronnie James Dio and his band Elf alongside, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow was the first step of a band that the guitarist would maintain, intermittently, through 2019.
Over that time, Rainbow released eight studio albums and an assortment of live sets and compilations, with more than 30 musicians passing through its ranks.
Blackmore has kept a low profile recently due to health issues, including a heart attack during 2024. But for The Temple of the King he surfaced to talk with us about that pivotal point in his career and life, and shed a bit of light on some of the legends and myths he’s accumulated along the way.
At what point did you start thinking about leaving Deep Purple and starting a new band, and why?
The first time was when I thought about doing a song and a band member said, “If we didn’t write it there’s no point in doing it because we won’t get writing credits.” I was really disappointed in that statement.
John Cleese once said of Monty Python that there were far too many committee meetings about nothing. We had the same in Purple.”
— Ritchie Blackmore
It was also a time when our management was starting to put together a tour and everybody in the band was busy doing something else — a holiday, producing something, getting married. In my mind this showed that it wasn’t a band anymore. It was just a group of people with high-finance interests, business ventures and personal bookings taking place instead of the band touring.
That’s when I started thinking about leaving. Then, when I did a session with Ronnie Dio in the studio, I started seeing things in a different light. I started having fun again and music started being important again.
John Cleese once said of Monty Python that there were far too many committee meetings about nothing. We had the same in Purple.
Ronnie and Elf were, of course, key to the first album. Talk about what led you to them and into the way you and Ronnie collaborated?
We both lived near each other in Los Angeles. He would come over the house I was staying at and we would run through a few ideas.
Ironically, the ideas we came up with were extremely Renaissance-sounding. Ronnie Dio had two types of vocal: He could sing heavy rock, but he could also sing the way they did in the 1500s.
So our first few ideas, which have been lost somewhere, were based on Renaissance tunes, because he could adapt to that way of thinking and singing, as well as the heavy rock voice he could do. He knew his harmonies for Renaissance songs so well.
You introduced those baroque and medieval elements on that first album and afterward. Where did those fit for you at the time, and what was the allure for mixing those with the heavy rock you were playing?
I was inspired by Dio’s other voice — the very unique high voice that sounded like he was singing back in the 1500s, and the harmonies from that time that he was singing. But we never really followed up on that side of it; we got caught up in the band side — the heavy interpretations of the songs.
There are covers of Yardbirds and Quartermass songs on that first album [“Still I’m Sad” and “Black Sheep of the Family,” respectively]. Why did you decide to do those songs?
I loved the song “Still I’m Sad” by the Yardbirds, and I was always a fan of Jeff Beck.
And Mick Underwood, the Quartermass songwriter, was a friend of mine. I more or less went to school with Mick, and he lived around the corner from me. And, incidentally, he was in a group with Ian Gillan. When I asked Mick if he knew any good singers he said, “Yes. Our singer.” I said, “But surely you need him?” Mick said, “No, we’re breaking up.”
So I went to see Gillan and he was great. That’s how Ian Gillan joined Deep Purple.
‘Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow’ was like me dipping my foot in to see how the water was. By ‘Rising,’ we jumped in.”
— Ritchie Blackmore
Things changed between Rainbow’s first two albums, of course. Was the collaboration with Ronnie different on Rising than on the first album?
There was a bit more continuity, as by then we knew how we clicked as musicians and we knew each other’s good and bad points. Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow was like me dipping my foot in to see how the water was. By Rising we jumped in. Cozy [Powell] was a heavy player, one of John Bonham’s favorite drummers, so the sound of the band was very heavy.
I kept Cozy in the band because he would bring stacks and stacks of English chocolates; we were both chocoholics with Mars Bars, Maltesers, Flakes and Crunchies. If we were getting along he would allow me in his room to see his display of chocolates. He literally would have a wardrobe full of chocolates, and different drawers would be full of different chocolates.
Dio said in a 1981 interview, “Ritchie was the boss of the band… His opinions and his judgment had to be respected. I did respect Ritchie’s opinions and judgment, but it was not a very democratic situation at all.” Do you feel that’s a fair assessment?
Yes, that is a fair assessment. When I have an idea I can’t help but be very pushy about who should play what and how it should be played. Whereas, conversely, when I used to play on certain people’s sessions in the studio, because it was someone else’s music I didn’t have a clue how to play. I have a problem with interpreting other people’s music.
Rainbow has been through a lot of lineups and players, of course, right up to 2019. Why was that?
I’ve never fired anyone from Rainbow who was doing a really good job. Let’s keep it at that.
I’ve never fired anyone from Rainbow who was doing a really good job. Let’s keep it at that.”
— Ritchie Blackmore
You were spending more time in America at the time you formed the band. Did that make any impact on the music, or your creative vision?
Yes and no. I was not happy being away from England, and I never took to being in L.A. I thought it was a bit phony — always 72 degrees. I felt a bit out of place. I like rain, snow, fog. I would often reminisce about being in England, but because of tax reasons I had to be in America.
Since I moved to the East Coast, met Candice and got married, this is more like home now. We’ve built our own Stonehenge in the garden. I do miss Somerset, where I was born, and York and Glastonbury were my favorite places. I hear rumors about London which aren’t too good, but I was never a big fan of London, anyway — too busy, too many people.
Some of the concerts included in this box set are legendary within the Blackmore/Rainbow fan camp. What makes them so special?
We were all excited to play those songs. Everything was new. Everyone was excited to play. Cozy was always a great motivator to kick our butts onstage. Ronnie would never lose his voice or sing out of tune, though sometimes he was paranoid about it. He once said to me, “It’s all right for you — when you wake up every day you just pick up the guitar, but I never know if I’ve lost my voice or not,” which I thought was a peculiar thing to say.
Strangely enough our music was never played on the radio, but when we played a show we would always pack the people in. So we were a grassroots, on-the-ground popular band.
If we were to ask for the definitive Rainbow song, or solo, what would you choose, and why?
I’ve forgotten most of what I’ve written and played, to be quite honest. I do like “Stargazer” and “Man on the Silver Mountain” and “Long Live Rock and Roll.” They’re the three that come to mind straight away.
I thought ‘Long live rock and roll’ would be too ordinary for him, but Dio said, “No, that sounds right.”
— Ritchie Blackmore
“Long Live Rock and Roll” — I remember when I wrote the backing track, it was rehearsed before we had words to it or anything, and Dio came up to me and said, “What are you hearing me sing on this? What kind of melody or approach are you hearing for me to sing?”
I hummed in his ear as we were playing and said, “This main part could be something like, ‘Long live rock and roll,’ but that might be a bit too corny. That’s what I sing in my head, but if you want to change that, it’s okay.” I thought it would be too ordinary for him, but Dio said, “No, that sounds right.”
So that’s how I wrote my first hook line in lyrics. I didn’t think it was anything he would want to sing, and I was surprised when he liked it. He did it in about two takes, as usual; he was not one for making mistakes. He sang it brilliantly.
What do you enjoy about Rainbow’s music that made you want to play it again in 2016?
I’d been away from it long enough to appreciate it again.
What plans do you have for music ahead, if any, with Blackmore’s Night, Rainbow or anything else?
Despite having heart and back problems, I have never had such a horrible experience as that vertigo attack on our tour. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy. It started off with a virus which apparently went to my ears and upset the balance of the small crystals in the ear canals.
I have come to the conclusion I hate traveling. I’ve hated it ever since I was a child. Every time we would leave in the coach I would throw up over the passenger in front of us.”
— Ritchie Blackmore
After this I have come to the conclusion I hate traveling. I’ve hated it ever since I was a child and I used to travel with my mother when we went to Bristol and Bath, where my relatives were. Every time we would leave in the coach I would throw up over the passenger in front of us. For some strange reason they didn’t like that. I have hated traveling ever since. I now seem to have a phobia about being confined in a car or a van or anything that travels.
Since we live on Long Island, I’m hoping we can put some shows together in small theaters where people can come and see us. That way, I wouldn’t have to travel more than an hour.
