![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/paice2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey3.jpg)
Candice Night talks about her husband
Blabbermouth has several quotes from Candice Night’s apparently recent interview to a New Jersey radio station WRAT 95.9.
Honestly, from our perspective… You probably can read a lot of the interviews that Ritchie’s done in the past… since he hasn’t been with Purple anymore. It would be hard to find one where Ritchie doesn’t say something [positive] about Gillan; he just doesn’t talk about him in a negative context — he never does.
Every once in a while, we’ll be told by somebody or something will come up on a flash on the Internet where one of the guys over there [in the PURPLE camp] will say something [negative] about Ritchie, and we’re, like, ‘Why?’ Like, ‘Here it comes again. Why?’ I mean, it’s never coming from over here. He’s so far beyond it.
Ritchie’s always in the now; he’s in the present. He’s doing what he’s doing and he doesn’t have time for the B.S. of whatever else is going on — gossip and rumor and all that stuff. But at this point, I would say that things are cool with everybody — I would like to say that. As far as I know, they are.
I think Ritchie’s talked… For a few years, he’s said he would be willing to go on stage and do a couple of concerts with PURPLE; he said he would have no problem with doing that.
On Blackmore’s absence at the RnR Hall of Fame induction ceremony:
It was a very tenuous situation… I think there was a couple of things, building blocks that happened. One of them was that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame waited so long that Jon was no longer with us. That is just awful. And the fact that PURPLE… It’s not like they’re a new band; they’ve been around forever. They were one of the first ones to incorporate classical… I mean, listen to the classical riffs and progressions that he’s doing on ‘Highway Star’. They created their own genre; they were amazing. This is not a little band that you’re just discovering and going, ‘Oh, let’s bring some attention…’ These guys were a staple; they were a force to be reckoned with, and they’ve been around for decades. So to wait this amount of time and then for Jon to have gotten pancreatic cancer and died, so he wouldn’t even be able to enjoy that honor. I think that kind of got to Ritchie where he was, like, ‘You know what…’ Ritchie was a founding member with Jon — it was the two of them that started this whole band. So I think that really kind of was like a big knife in the heart for Ritchie to see [what happened] with Jon.
Thanks to Blabbermouth and Andres for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Candice is right, ritchie is a humble man. Loosing jon is difficult, the man in black, has a big heart, is very sensible so normal the way he’s been acting.
December 20th, 2017 at 21:02We must be honored to have been embrased by there music.
À combination of musicians that started à fire in every sensible person, and never will stop
Thanks to all the purple familly
The RRHOF is a load of horse shit. Forget about it.
December 20th, 2017 at 22:48Sure, it would be fun to have Ritchie over for a few songs, but I doubt Purple is willing to part ways with Steve, as is suggested here.
December 20th, 2017 at 23:20It’s so funny how she used our late beloved Jon Lord as an excuse for RB absence. I have read everything that has been written about this saga but the bottom line is DP current manager would not allow Richie to play with the current line up and I think Ian Gillan would never allowed it in a million years also. So by him turning up and standing just to accept the award and then watching the current line up playing his music is more like seeing your ex in bed with another. RIP Jon Lord and I am sure he is watching down on this saga and laughing out load in heaven thanking God he is not on plant Earth.
December 21st, 2017 at 11:29Candice is right about the RRHOF!!
December 21st, 2017 at 16:01Listen I have seen many interviews from ALL involved Mark 2 lineup especially back in 1992/93 when things fell apart. Jon Lord and I quote “Ritchie was sulking around like some little boy”. Other members saying the the rain stopped and the sun shined when Ritchie left the band. Ritchie and I quote “I’m a Alpha male and so is Ian Gillan so we just don’t get along”. Ritchie may be humble but he is probably a big pain in the butt to get along with (at least what I have seen in his interviews). No doubt it would be cool to see Ritchie do some final shows with Purple but there is just too much non-sense that goes on for that to ever happen. If anything, they are all in the early 70’s now and have probably reflected a little bit on how things got screwed up and now limit disparaging remarks towards one another but their egos especially Blackmore and Gillan will never allow for them to take the same stage together again.
December 21st, 2017 at 16:39Being accused of being humble and sensible is not something I am used to hearing about Ritchie. Steve is open to a one off show with Ritchie. But Ritchie really did burn the bridges with the Ian’s and Roger on the Come Hell or High Water tour. They all seen to be cordial off stage but listening to little Ian (and Don Airey…who has his own history with Blackers) they really don’t want the drama of trying to placate Ritchie, even for some one off shows. By all accounts he was difficult to work with and regardless of what you think of Steve…he is the polar opposite personality wise….
Zero ego and zero drama.
Ritchie seems a little desperate as his camp keeps floating this out every couple of months….
Look I’d love to see them all bury the hatchet and do a one off show…but I think it needs to be when the band is done as a unit….and I think they are toying with the idea of a follow up to infinite. And why not…it is a great recording. The last two Purple albums are way better than anything Blackers has done since he split in 93. As long as the band is a going concern for new recordings….a Ritchie one off show should not be a priority.
December 22nd, 2017 at 04:27Parallel universe? Has hell freezeth over? Haha
December 23rd, 2017 at 00:09The trouble with anybody from Purple being negative about Blackers is that they are frequently asked about him,especially Gillan. I think they try their best to positive but Like Paicey said, it’s nice not to have the hassle of a member whose mood can utterly ruin a gig. As for Ritchie doing a couple of gigs with Purple? Well, Ritchie isn’t playing that well, much of his dexterity seems to have deserted him and there’s very little fire in his solos, a little like he’s going through the motions at times. I think he needs to get back to practicing everyday, pushing himself. I imagine, that after nearly two decades with Blackmore’s Night it must have been quite a shock to him how hard he found it playing his old tunes. I just want him to get some desire back to push himself, but I fear that he can’t really be bothered. It might be nice for Ritchie to play a couple of songs with Purple at one of their gigs, great for the fans, and then poor Steve doesn’t get sidelined for an entire gig.
December 23rd, 2017 at 12:39Ritchie and Jon have never been out of Deep Purple, their spirit is always present in DP .
December 25th, 2017 at 11:28Happy Christmas and New Year .. Deep Purple family and all fans…
Ivaca, Great words!
December 25th, 2017 at 17:28Hope you all have had a fabulous Christmas & got everything you wanted! This year I gave 3/4 of my December pay packet to a poor young underprivileged family in the Philippines. It’s the best Christmas they’ve had in many years. They sent me photos & videos of their celebrations. It’s the happiest that I’ve felt for years!. 100% worth it. They’ve never even heard of Deep Purple!. Be happy…
December 25th, 2017 at 22:15All you have to hear is Ronnie James Dio describe Blackmore’ss behavior not only to band members but fans. Horrible. Blackmore is a great guitarist but nothing excuses his behavior to people which has been corroborated by many.
December 28th, 2017 at 17:52@ RB comment number “9”
Awe, come on man..seriously? Then how do you explain “Carry on Jon” which is one of the best electric instrumentals Blackmore’s ever done? It has almost a million plays on youtube. That is a lot for a guitar instrumental from a guy who’s “dexterity seems to have deserted him” and who has “very little fire in his solos”
” I think he needs to get back to practicing everyday, pushing himself” This guy rarely doesn’t have a guitar in his hands. Where are you getting this stuff from?
December 28th, 2017 at 23:04Listen to Cary on Jon, It’s very emotional instrumental that Ritchie wrote.
December 29th, 2017 at 07:06In my view its best instrumental by him in a decade.
I don’t think Steve would be offended if Ritchie joined the band for a few gigs.
Jon passed and God knows who is next, it would be nice to see Ian and Ritchie shake hands and the rest of the band do a gig, Steve with Ritchie on stage.
I would invite Nick as well, and David, Glenn, JLT etc.
I would love to see a one-off reunion with Blackmore or a couple of gigs and I’m sure he would be on his best behaviour (as would Ian Gillan) plus Steve Morse wouldn’t have an issue trading licks with Ritchie on a couple of tracks and vice versa, they are both grown men who know their own and the other’s worth.
The problem is getting there – cutting thru all the red tape.
You have to be deaf not to hear that Ritchie has lost dexterity as a guitarist IN A HARD ROCK SETTING. I’ve seen three reunion gigs (Glasgow was miles better than the two German gigs the year before, but still far from dexterity), he was sometimes downright awkward and even something like the Burn riff didn’t flow (and he used to be the only guitarist in the world who could play that riff properly and with authority). That is not knocking Ritchie, he has gained dexterity and dynamics as an acoustic guitarist – twenty years ago, at the outset of Blackmore’s Night his acoustic playing was (compared to today) still formative, he learned as he went along.
But what the Lord (no pun intended) giveth, he also taketh away. Ritchie lacks practice and training being the lead guitarist in a hard rock band. If you take someone like Status Quo’s Francis Rossi (similar age, lead guitarist role, certainly not in Ritchie’s league as a guitarist, but vastly underrated as a lead guitarist in his own right still), he has lost none of the energy and urgency in his playing, in fact his lead playing has more authority today than it used to have in the 70ies where he was sometimes a bit muddled and messy. Now why is that? Because he is on a continuous training and keeping in shape program with the myriad of Quo gigs he has done and continues to do. Blackmore has lacked that exercise – making yourself heard on a very loud stage, projecting something to large audiences – for two decades now and it shows, as it would with anyone.
December 30th, 2017 at 02:41@morsecode. This is the problem when people have no personal experiences to share and rely only on youtube clips. I met Blackmore twice and both times he could not have been any more attentive and polite. I’m sure I am not the only one on the planet with such an impression. Even if what you say is true then what does it matter? Isn’t it his musical capability what we are interested in?
Honestly I don’t even want him to play with Purple again. Purple are on “cruise control” and a bit boring to me now. I don’t thing the songs are very memorable any more and Gillan has moved the band towards his vehicle rather than the improvisational unit that they almost always were.
@uwe hornung “Ritchie lacks practice and training being the lead guitarist in a hard rock band.If you take someone like Status Quo’s Francis Rossi ”
What a bizarre comment and even more bizarre comparison.
Blackmore’s ability to be comfortable in a loud heavy rock setting may be a valid question but I think there is far more to be excited by in Blackmore ‘s potential on the instrument (even as a 70+ year old than there is in Francis Rossi! Good luck with that.
December 31st, 2017 at 15:24We have to be fair and take this all in context. The only member of Deep Purple I have ever met is David Coverdale, so I cannot talk about individual characters. (David was really polite btw). However the issue of performance is valid. I watched DP on a BBC concert a few weeks ago and they weren’t a shadow of who they were in the 1980s. We all get older, so the criticism of Ian’s about Ritchie’s playing in a snipe over Ritchie’s comments in 1993. That was 25 years ago, we’ve all moved on. However it shows more poignantly the a reunion wouldn’t work. Also without Jon there, I doubt the reality of a reunion would match the dream for Ritchie. It’s time to move forward, not keep hankering for the past. For those who love the current Purple, long may it continue and enjoy! As for Ritchie, Blackmore’s Night are a band many enjoy (as do I) and the idea of Rainbow developing into a full time band again sounds to me great! I think David’s ideas for a Blackmore/Coverdale album were great, and I hope Richie will reconsider this. Finally, on the subject of Francis Rossi, the points made are valid. I saw Quo in concert last month and they were stunning! Happy New Year to all and maybe 2018 will see new albums from Purple, Rainbow and Quo! xx
January 1st, 2018 at 11:42I have said it before and will repeat it now.
The music Blackmore made with DP and or Rainbow will still keep people exites in 50 years time.
What track exactly will be listened to from the Morse era, let alone get people exited?
A nice track here and there is not enough to cement your mark in history.
Yeah, ofcourse the usual whiddly whiddly guitarfreaks will still get orgasms but they have never been a large group of people.
With Blackmore and later on Lordy gone we had this outfit with an ever capable Glover but slowingdown Paice, an ever struggling Gillan and a guitarplayer you would trust your car to but always boring and out of place ever repeating sound and soli by Steve.
Oh yeah, Don tried to save the lot by being more Lord than lord sometimes was(remember those horrible synt years where the hammond should have ruled bigtime)but I had clocked out after 2006.
I do understand people saying the last 2 albums are not something to be ashamed of.
But hey, they will never be lsited in the list with the classic albums.
Come taste the band will on the other hand.
Why do you think that is?
I saw AEROSMITH at Donington 2014 on my telly last night.
Man, man, what an exitement.
Ofcourse hard to compare but still……
Tyler looks and sounds like his younger self of 40 years ago .
And he did do a lot of drugs!
Gillan on the other hand destroyed his voice by his bad habits.
Why did he never recover?
Why the fuck does he look so old?
There were more bands that are old and performed at a great level in the last 10 to 20 years :
Bad Company
Kansas
Foreigner
Robert Plant
Y and T
UFO
MSG
Uriah Heep
Santana
Journey
And so on.
Why do I have to be ashamed of saying, when people ask me, that I m (?) a Deep Purple fan?
It saddens me beyond belief.
January 1st, 2018 at 22:27@19, I’ve expressed the fact that opinions posted are like a-holes. Everybody has one. As much as I chuckle on the plethora of them, mostly ones like yours, If I laid out my experience with the Purple Family since 1971 through to today, you would most assuredly more than chuckle.
A magnificent band of many Marks still magnificent today….
Next?
Happy New Year To All and do best to catch a Dixie Dregs gig this year. With an open mind you’ll be blown away.
Peace,
January 5th, 2018 at 15:37Ted :>
@20 So, you are telling us you have all this experience with the band? Great, but what does that mean for what the band actually is now?
January 10th, 2018 at 15:18@19’s comments are not unreasonable. (or mean spirited) The band is a bit boring now. It’s no one’s fault but the mid tempo stuff is part of it and Gillan’s melodies are another. In a way, and as great as they are, they are too old. There needs to be some speed and intensity to remain vital and exciting. If not you chug along in mediocrity. They are too reliant on Ritchie-era material.
Ted
It does not impress me much when a Morse afficionado says my opinion is less than yours.
The Dregs are a niice combo but not to be compaired with the real great bands of the last 4 or 5 decades.
No matter how many snobistisc guitarwankersmagazines tell me differently.
January 15th, 2018 at 18:12Ritchie era is where the hits come from – the early 70ies were Purple’s heyday – when they were even something akin to “en vogue”. Name me another 70ies band that doesn’t relie on its hits from that era when they tour today.
That said, I wouldn’t shed a tear if the current Purple ditched all Blackmore material except perhaps SOTW (as a commercial necessity) and two or three other chestnuts (for the same reasons) and concentrated on Morse- and Airey-era material.
No Purple line-up has matched its predecessor’s sound – they all sound different and that is actually what makes Purple attractive to my ears. Every line-up had something – yes, that includes the JLT-one too – if you just listened and did away with your preconceptions. The current band – with just one original founder and two more members from the “classic” line-up – is heavily influenced by its main songwriters and soloists: Morse and Airey. And I don’t know why it should be any other way. I hate tributes and I don’t want to hear anybody aping Blackmore’s style, hell, I don’t even like Blackmore aping his own style from the 70ies, I believe in progression!
Appreciating Morse for what he does and what he brought to the band doesn’t diminish Blackmore’s contributions one bit. But the magic of DP’s sound (through the eras and different line-ups) is also more than just Mr Blackmore and four blokes who back him. The proof is in the pudding: For all his attempts to write and play accessible music, Blackers never attained even a semblance of DP’s original success and popularity be it with Rainbow or Blackmore’s Night (which doesn’t shun even crass commercialism, Steeleye Span, Renaissance or Pentangle they are certainly not). He could not replicate the ingredients that made Purple so special.
DP today is a bunch of elderly gentlemen playing statesmanlike classic rock (which has become more progish over time due to Morse’s and Airey’s prog backgrounds and Gillan’s penchant for less than obvious vocal hooks – name me another vocalist from the genre who would have come up with what he did on Clear Air Turbulence and Born Again) with still considerable finesse. For a band that has been around 50 years, that is quite ok in my book.
And they still have the best, most musical hard rock drummer in the world.
January 15th, 2018 at 18:38@21 Allan, Says who? Oh, you. Again, on opinions, to each his or her own.
No malice whatsoever. :>
Stay well….
Peace,
January 18th, 2018 at 16:08Ted
@23
I agree for the most part, except that I don’t think Steve gets that much creative freedom anymore. At least not since Jon retired. There are interviews where Morse states that he throws a bunch of ideas at the band and they pick what sounds the most “Purple-like”, whatever that means. I think that’s especially the case with InFinite: if you ever watched the making-of documentary, you’ll likely understand where I’m coming from.
It’s different from when Steve first joined, when everyone was eager to start a new era. His style is all over Purpendicular, and it’s probably why it still remains as the best Deep Purple album since Ritchie left (in my opinion, of course).
As for Don, I believe he usually doesn’t take much part in the core compositions; he seems to focus more on layering the tracks with differents synths and flavouring it up with some licks here and there.
January 20th, 2018 at 21:32so ritchie never says anything bad about gillan huh??? i encourage everyone to go on you tube and search this “ritchie blackmore I’m going to attack Ian Gillan in a back alley”
doesnt sound like friendship to me no matter how old the interview
lets face it they will not perform again and they absolutely hate each other and admittedly if blackmore was back id be the first one in line for a ticket having said that its been over 20 years and steve does a great job so LET IT GO ALREADY
September 14th, 2018 at 03:01@26
September 15th, 2024 at 11:48Hi Ed
Yeah I saw that interview but I’ve always thought RB to be joking 😅 I mean RB seems ok intelligent and it isn’t very clever to warn in advance if you’re really going to attack someone.
I can see this thread is from 2018, and the other day my sweetheart showed me IG commenting in a recent interview, from 2024, that RB and IG talks amiable together now and then.
Have a nice day 😊
Ritchie isn’t really the manly hero type, he tends to avoid physical confrontation. Messes up his fingers too. And Deep Purple weren’t UFO! 😂
September 15th, 2024 at 19:45@ 28
Oh he isn’t! Surprising! I thought he had this alternative life, as Clark Kent/Superman – at least that 😄
Sorry Uwe, what is: DP weren’t UFO 🤓
September 16th, 2024 at 06:00K
Karin, I agree – I always thought Ritchie was making fun of the media …just because they keep asking about that Gillan-thing. Being in Sweden he even said it would be some big swedish guys he’d hire to beat Gillan up … I mean … gimme a break. It was just his humour. He has been bullsh*tting them many a time. (Smoke on the Water was really just Beethoven played backwards and other stuff)
As for UFO – apparently they liked to get into physical arguments time and again. That may be the reason they came up with the idea for “Doctor Doctor” after all … 😉
September 16th, 2024 at 07:47Phil Mogg, UFO’s lead singer, had the unfortunate habit of sucker-punching band members into the abdomen he disagreed with. Tender souls like Michael Schenker would take that personally.
And then there is always Jane’s Addiction (and you guys think DP is rough!):
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KAeB7z8b0Tg
September 17th, 2024 at 00:41Max, hi 👋🏼
Yeah I do believe at the end of the day they’re all good friends and enjoy a beer, maybe a drink of homeopathic whiskey (what do I know, maybe they prefer lovely coffee 🥰) and all the quarrels are merely made up by the media 😄
Thanks for explaining the UFO 😊
September 17th, 2024 at 06:11K
@31
September 17th, 2024 at 11:58He did!??😳😳
Woah, not a nice guy to disagree with 🫣