<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ritchie Blackmore claims that there are two or three of him. \u00a0He even has a hospital surveillance video to prove it. The police visited him recently and asked if he was the man pictured in the video and if he was, was he feeling okay? \u00a0Noting that perhaps having people impersonate you is \u2018one price of fame\u2019, Blackmore assured them that it wasn\u2019t him. Having followed Blackmore\u2019s career since the days of the Mark II Deep Purple lineup that brought us classic albums like 1972\u2019s <\/span>Machine Head<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Made in Japan<\/span><\/i>, I suggest that a lot of people might think there maybe more than one Ritchie Blackmore. \u00a0Depending which sources one read over the years, he has more personalities than poor Sybil. \u00a0\u00a0Even the editor of <\/span>Guitar World <\/span><\/i>magazine had this to say when setting up the feature article they ran on Blackmore in their June 2018 issue: \u00a0\u201c(Blackmore) has something of a reputation in our industry, a reputation for being at times difficult, short-tempered, maybe even downright irascible, particularly when dealing with the press (as well as some former bandmates, if you were to ask them). \u00a0Having said that, the truth is that <\/span>Guitar World\u2019s <\/span><\/i>relationship with Ritchie over the years has been nothing short of pleasant . . . Still, I went into this (interview) with a large degree of trepidation – nervous that it would all fall apart before the interview took place – nervous that he would take offense at something that was asked or said . . . but our chat lasted nearly two hours and covered various facets of Ritchie\u2019s career . . . Ritchie\u2019s reputation may precede him, but he\u2019s always been a prince with us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fair enough. \u00a0At age 71, Ritchie Blackmore doesn\u2019t seem to waste much energy on what other people think about him. \u00a0He fully acknowledges that he has not always been the easiest musician to work with: \u201cI\u2019m quite domineering. \u00a0I like to steer the bus\u201d is how he phrased it for <\/span>Guitar World.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0His comments on working with singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Cozy Powell in the first version of his post Deep Purple band Rainbow shine a little bit of light on where the reputation for being difficult may come from. \u00a0The line about being domineering came up as he discussed the first incarnation of Rainbow: \u201cWith Ronnie James Dio, in the beginning of Rainbow, everything was fine. He was a great singer. But, he didn\u2019t have a lot of patience. \u00a0So we kind of got on each other\u2019s nerves after two or three years. And with (drummer) Cozy Powell, he was a pretty uptight guy, too. So after a few years, we were arguing too much and weren\u2019t as creative. That\u2019s when the first lineup folded.\u201d \u00a0What was reported at the time came out more like, \u201cThe mercurial Ritchie Blackmore folded Rainbow\u201d without regard to the reasons why the band went under. Blackmore further explained, \u201cFollowing that, I wanted to be more accessible and on radio. So that\u2019s when we started recording stuff like the ballads I wrote with Joe Lynn Turner. \u00a0He had more of a commercial voice.\u201d I do believe that it was the Joe Lynn Turner fronted band that was scheduled to perform in Marquette with Blue Oyster Cult back in the late 1970s. Rainbow canceled, forcing BOC to play a two set show (which was terrific, I might add), but again, \u201cBlackmore pulls out of Marquette show\u201d was the only explanation given.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blackmore spent a number of years divorced from rock and roll touring when he and his wife, Candice Night, formed Blackmore\u2019s Night. \u00a0Performing Renaissance music may seem to be a major shift in direction for Blackmore, but he claims that he has had an interest since the first time he heard <\/span>Greensleeves <\/span><\/i>at age ten. \u00a0Unlike Medieval or Baroque music, he likes the organic quality of Renaissance music, particularly when played with woodwind and brass instruments like schwams, sackbuts, and crumhorns. \u00a0He favors guitar, hurdy gurdys, and mandolas when trying to recreate his version of music from that period. Blackmore finds that some dismiss what he plays with Blackmore\u2019s Night (people he calls \u2018purists\u2019) saying, \u201c\u2018That\u2019s not Renaissance music\u2019, but no one actually knows what Renaissance music is actually like \u2018cause they weren\u2019t there.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blackmore\u2019s wife discovered current Rainbow vocalist Ronnie Romero on YouTube. \u00a0The Chilean-born singer was asked to come and visit them in Germany. After running through a few Rainbow tunes acoustically, Blackmore thought, \u201cYou know, it might be interesting to do a few shows, just for old time\u2019s sake, \u00a0Basically nostalgia.\u201d The live performances they recorded in 2017 are being released as a CD\/DVD package called <\/span>Ritchie Blackmore\u2019s Rainbow: \u00a0Memories in Rock II. <\/span><\/i>Blackmore doesn\u2019t see this lineup recording any new music, but having a band that can do a handful of shows every once in a while pleases him after concentrating on Blackmore\u2019s Night for the past twenty years: \u00a0\u201cI think this new incarnation also has the capability of being quite commercial, if we want to be, with Ronnie Romero\u2019s voice. But at the same time, we can try all the good songs that Rainbow has done in the past . . . just going out and having fun playing all the old songs to the fans who would normally not hear it.\u201d \u00a0He also professes to not be tired of playing <\/span>Smoke on the Water<\/span><\/i> due to a couple of factors: \u00a0\u201cMaybe because I haven\u2019t played it probably for 20 years, because I\u2019ve been focused on Blackmore\u2019s Night. \u00a0I mean I\u2019ve played it off and on, but I haven\u2019t been in a band that\u2019s playing it every night on tour.\u201d Secondly, when they do play <\/span>Smoke<\/span><\/i>, they begin with the verse and chorus instead of the iconic guitar intro: \u00a0\u201cI do prefer playing it with the verse first and coming in with the impact of the riff later. . . although it is funny, because sometimes people in the audience don\u2019t know what we\u2019re playing when we start out with the verse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The classic Blackmore stage set up was a Fender Stratocaster and a Marshall stack, but interestingly enough, he started out playing a Gibson 335 guitar through a Vox amplifier. \u00a0He switched to a Stratocaster because he liked the way it looked after seeing Jimi Hendrix play one. One of Eric Clapton\u2019s roadies sold him a Strat that Clapton had given him and he has been a Strat man ever since. \u00a0He frequented Jim Marshall\u2019s music store and mentioned that future Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell was working behind the counter there when Blackmore bought his Gibson 335 guitar. Blackmore also visited the Marshall factory frequently to act as a sounding board for their technicians as they tried to build an amp that sounded like the Vox units he was using. \u00a0Blackmore\u2019s test sessions were so loud that the factory workers would often leave, that is until they built a sound proof test room for him to to use when trying out the amps. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to Blackmore, \u201cOne of the secrets that they will deny to this day – \u2018cause they told me they would – was that they could not come up with the sound that I wanted. \u00a0I wanted this Vox sound which was very distorted and very cutting, but seemed to have a bass resonance. And they just couldn\u2019t get that. So in the end they said, \u2018What we\u2019re going to do is get one of our combo amps and we\u2019ll take out the innards and put in the Vox innards. \u00a0So you\u2019ll actually be playing a Vox, but it\u2019ll say Marshall.\u2019 That was the big secret of the day.\u201d Eventually they got it right by hot-rodding a 200-watt amp into a fatter sounding 280-watt amp. \u201cFor the first probably five years of Deep Purple – \u201870 to \u201875 – I did have the loudest amp in the world,\u201d says Blackmore.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blackmore has at times performed with orchestras going back to Purple organist Jon Lord\u2019s <\/span>Concerto for Group and Orchestra <\/span><\/i>(1969), but as he remembered the experience: \u00a0\u201cI was set next to the violinists, and you could see that they hated every note I played. \u00a0\u2018Cause it was just too loud. I didn\u2019t do too many of those after that, because I just found it very awkward – to have to play so quietly. \u00a0And I am not a schooled reader.\u201d As the discussion segued into reading music, and the <\/span>Guitar World<\/span><\/i> writer mentioned that (Ricky Nelson\u2019s guitar player) James Burton claimed that he could read music, but \u201cNot to where it hurts my playing.\u201d \u00a0Blackmore mentioned that the main riff in the Deep Purple song <\/span>Black Night<\/span><\/i> actually was written around Nelson and Burton\u2019s version of their 1962 song <\/span>Summertime. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>The writer pointed out the riff also appears in the Blues Magoos song <\/span>We Ain\u2019t Got Nothing Yet<\/span><\/i> (a band Blackmore wasn\u2019t familiar with) and Blackmore countered that the introduction of Hendrix\u2019s rendition of <\/span>Hey Joe<\/span><\/i> was also straight out of the Nelson\/Burton catalog. \u00a0Blackmore might be revered as a rock guitar innovator, but he is humble enough to give credit to those who came before. \u00a0What he laments, however, is how much easier it is now for new guitarists to learn from their elders.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In their discussion about players needing to know their rock history, Blackmore commented, \u201cI think back to when I was starting out and I\u2019d listen to a solo by Cliff Gallup from Gene Vincent\u2019s band and try to figure out the notes. \u00a0Whereas now, not only are you told the notes, you get the video of how to play it on YouTube. It takes all the secrets away. All the things that you had to work so hard for are much easier to obtain. I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s a good thing.\u201d \u00a0Even the availability of good guitars at an affordable price has removed some of the hardship that Blackmore feels he needed to fuel his development as a guitar player: \u201cWhen I was starting with an acoustic guitar, I\u2019d put a pickup on it by the time I was 11. \u00a0By the time I was 13, I had two pickups on it, My own wiring and everything . . . I think they\u2019re missing out on the hardship.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ritchie Blackmore may have had his share of dust-ups with various bandmates over the years, but he hasn\u2019t let any of it sour his love for playing music. \u00a0He won\u2019t do long tours anymore because he doesn\u2019t have to. Touring the current line up of Rainbow is done with an eye toward smelling the roses, not pushing album sales: \u00a0\u201cI want to go play in places that I\u2019d like to visit, have a look around, stay in a few castles and have a good time.\u201d As for keeping up with who\u2019s who in the guitar universe? \u00a0\u201cI always read the guitar magazines when I travel. And I always get a bit nervous because I read about so many brilliant guitar players.\u201d The reviewer reminded him, \u201c\u2018There\u2019s only one Ritchie Blackmore,\u201d prompting Blackmore to reply, \u201cActually, I\u2019ve heard that there\u2019s three,\u201d which we explained in this FTV\u2019s opening paragraphs.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The <\/span>Memories in Rock II<\/span><\/i> package was new information at the time this article was being researched. \u00a0Good money says it will be airing on WOAS-FM when the fall broadcast season rolls around.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Ritchie Blcxkmore’s Rainbow in 2018 from Memories In Rock