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Blackmore in the Guardian
Ritchie Blackmore: ‘I’m not a guy who likes jamming and having fun. Music is very serious’
The Guardian newspaper in the Uk has published a new interview with Ritchie Blackmore in advance of the new Rainbow shows this coming June.
Blackmore is one of English rock’s great eccentrics. Not in a cuddly, tea-party sort of way, but in a faintly malevolent, unpredictable and quick-to-anger sort of way. In both Deep Purple and Rainbow, a lineup of which he has convened for a summer amble around the UK’s arenas, he developed a reputation for volatility, and that volatility was accepted because he also had a reputation as one of hard rock’s most electrifying guitarists – he was, after all, the man who wrote rock’s most recognisable riff, Smoke on the Water.
Then, in 1997, he cast rock behind him and, with his wife Candice Night, started playing medieval and Renaissance music – in some version of period costume – under the name Blackmore’s Night. What he wanted, he says, was “to be a wandering minstrel and play to 10 people a night”, and to be able to stay in castles when he toured. And that’s precisely what he did for the next 20 years or so, until the Rainbow name was revived last summer.
Three things are certain in heavy rock: death, taxes, and that you will part ways with Ritchie Blackmore. In Rainbow alone, he has been through 26 musicians. Why?
“I’ve been told it’s because I don’t pay anybody. I don’t see why that should make a difference. If you’re into music, you should do it for nothing. In fact, that’s the way the music business is going, isn’t it? I thought artists were expected to play for nothing.”
That really doesn’t make being a globe-straddling, internationally successful band sound like much fun.
“I try not to have fun. I work very hard at not having fun.”
More here
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Fun, fun, fun ’til daddy takes the castle away!
May 25th, 2017 at 22:19& yet, we know that behind that world weary exterior, he’s smiling like blue sky & sunshine!. So that’s why we love him…. Lol. As I’ve said before, giving interviews is like feeding the chickens….
May 25th, 2017 at 23:33Smiles to ya!.
Hahaa. Quite funny. This is good old Ritchie again. Saying what he is not supposed to to be saying. I can imagine the situation with the interviewer. Very seriously tongue in cheek.
May 26th, 2017 at 06:22No one knows if that guys is serious or joking in his interviews hence that guy is either very clever or very stupid doing interviews. As for his guitar playing everyone agrees that he is a genius.
May 26th, 2017 at 10:19It’s really nice to read an interview prior to shows of Rainbow!!Ritchie still knows how to do it.Nice to have Blackmore rocking again!!And the crowd yelds Ritchie Ritchie Ritchie Ritchie Ritchie Ritchie Ritchie Ritchie Ritchie Ritchie…..
May 26th, 2017 at 13:28Yeah thats our Ritchie, we all love so much … :
“Not to be predictable, but predidctable unpredictable” as he had said about himself
LLRitchie
LLRainbow
LLRnR
kraatzy
May 26th, 2017 at 13:53Brilliant, we should cherish Ritchie, his playing and his sense of humour. I’ve said before in these forums, they’re not making any more like him!
May 26th, 2017 at 14:00Classic Blackmore indeed! Enjoyed it thoroughly! Cheers.
May 26th, 2017 at 22:53So – that will be DP without the two Ians then!???
May 27th, 2017 at 01:40Love to hear a studio album with the guys and RB. Vocals added on a different continent!????
It is very interesting to compare this to Ian Paice’s comments about not wanting to do anything that isn’t fun now. Also Don Airey made an offhand remark about how serious and dour his time in Rainbow was with Ritchie. Sure he likes to jerk around the media, but his track record of running off collaborators tells me there is more there than him joking around. Like the guy who has been divorced 6 times and can’t realize he might be the problem…
It all seems kind of sad to me. Ritchie has had a truly blessed life and still can’t imagine being happy.
May 27th, 2017 at 03:06Oh Ritchie, too much fancy drinks? 😉
His new instrumental “Land of Hope and Glory” is quite enjoyable, but that’s not Rainbow, it’s in the tradition of “Blackmore’s Night”.
Have a nice Drink!
May 27th, 2017 at 10:01Oh man,…. Greg Allman has passed away… Profound sadness….
May 28th, 2017 at 00:28The journalist doesn’t quite realise does he that RB is taking the p-ss here ,it’s actually quite funny , especially the bit about how all musicians should play for free, so everyone that knows him is in on the joke apart from the poor idiot who interviewed him
May 28th, 2017 at 12:10GET OFF MY LAWN!! ROTFLMAO!!
June 1st, 2017 at 18:34Weird article.
June 2nd, 2017 at 10:49Evidently the reporter did not do his homework very well otherwise he would not write such nonsense.
Great show by RB, haha. But there’s a real good serious interview with Ritchie here. Maybe you guys at THS can make a threat of it.
June 10th, 2017 at 11:54http://thequietus.com/articles/22586-ritchie-blackmore-rainbow-deep-purple-interview