Ritchie Blackmore Livestream Interview, talking about joining Deep Purple on stage! Another Livestream Interview for the Social Media Channels were Candice Night reads out questions asked by fans, answered by Ritchie Blackmore. This time with the announcement of a special occassion So, okay. Hello everyone. We're actually going to keep this on a dark screen because neither of us are dressed for the occasion. [laughter] Speak for yourself. Okay. But Richie's here and... In spirit, I'm here. Yes, you are. So, if anyone wants to say hello or ask any questions... No abuse, please. So, they're saying Colombia loves you. You're getting a lot of hellos. Oh, great. I've never been to Colombia. It's probably the only place in the world I haven't been. Regards from Argentina. Now, I know you've been there. Argentina I like a lot. It's just a long way to go. What's the favorite song that you've ever written? That's a good question. I think I had the answer the other day and I was playing it, but I've since forgotten what the hell I was playing. Someone wants to know if you've ever been to Mexico. Yes, I've been to Cancun. And I saw a big tarantula on the wall of the restaurant when I was eating. And I said to the waiter, "Is there something you can do about that tarantula?" And he just looked at it and shrugged his shoulders and walked away. So I get the impression they're kind of comfortable with tarantulas. And, you know, they're almost like pets. They're very big. Someone just asked if you still have your snakeskin boots. Now, the funny thing is Ritchie threw his snakeskin boots out. Did I? But I took them out of the [laughter] garbage. So I have them. Yes, they are in the house. We have them. But I mean, my feet are twice the size. [laughter] Owing to my malady of gout. And I can't wear any of that stuff anymore. So what made you switch from an ES335 to a Strat? Punishment [laughter]. I really like the sound that Hendrix was getting. His sound cut when he was recording. And I found with the Gibson, it was more muted. I like both sounds. And, I don't have a Gibson anymore. I have a few other guitars, but that guitar I left behind in England and it was one of my favorite guitars. It was a great looking guitar, red one, an ES335. And the I bought that guitar in Ealing at Jim Marshall's, the famous amplifier man who was actually a drum teacher. He was in the shop when I bought it. And so was Mitch Mitchell. He was serving behind the bar. That was his job before he was with Jimmy Hendrix on drums. And so in a way, it's Mitch Mitchell's fault for selling me the ES335. I went in with the intent of buying a Gretch Duo Jet because I love the the sound that the guitarist got with Jean Vincent, Cliff Gallup, who now hear drives a taxi, which is shameful. He was fantastic. And he had a Duo Jet and I wanted one of those. And they talked me out of that. And I ended up with a 335 Gibson. They said, "This is more of a guitar." And so funny enough that was basically Mitch Mitchell, who was the salesperson in the Jim Marshall's drum and music shop and I was good friends with Jim Marshall. I used to go to the factory and start playing in their soundproofed room which was not quite soundproofed. So all the women assemblers would stand up and walk out whenever I started playing and practicing the sounds that I wanted cuz Ken Fleg and Ken Bran were the electricians that made the Marshall amplification. I was very friendly with them and they built me an extra output stage on my Marshall of which they said, "If you tell anybody we're doing this, we'll say you're lying." And of course, it made the amplifier louder, which I didn't want. I wanted more of a sound like the Vox. So, I used to take my Vox in and play them the sound of the Vox amplifier AC30. I said, I want my sound more like this. I'm finding that the Marshall amplification is more muted whereas the Vox was much more shrill. However, when you play, for me, if you play a Strat through a Vox, it's a little bit too shrill. And a Marshall is more suited to a Strat sound and vice versa. A Gibson is sounds better through a box in my opinion. Why did you stop using a treble booster in the mid 70s and switched to an Aiwa tape recorder? I found the Aiwa tape recorder was around the house doing nothing and I'd think it cost me about £100 on Oxford Street and I thought I've got to use this for something. So, I set it up as a preamp and it gave me a little bit more distortion than the Hornby Skews treble booster. And so I still now use it. It gives me a fatter sound. I don't know quite why, nobody does. But I'm being bombarded with Aiwa tape recorders from a friend of mine who collects them and then he sends them to me and I have to put them in the garage to store them. But it certainly works. There is definitely a difference between any effect and what I get with the Aiwa tape recorder. Seems to be more of a clean distortion, more of a sustain than a fuzzy sound. Although I can make it fuzzy by overloading the input. However, I think it's become more of a conversation piece. I like to lug it around to give the the roadies more work to do cuz it's heavy. Oh, so for people who are asking why there's a black screen, we explained at the beginning, but it's because Richie and I are not dressed appropriately for the occasion. I am. Yes, he's wearing his shorts and a ripped t-shirt. And I've got a hole in my sock. [laughter] Not a hole in the shoe, but I've got a hole in a sock. So, to keep the man of mystery mysterious and he's not... Instead of in his clothing that he wears around the home, we're doing it on just a black screen. So, but you guys feel free to write in or ask whatever you want because he's definitely here. You know, there was something we wanted to mention about tomorrow night. Oh, there is something. I thought it was a secret, but I guess.... Well, it is a secret and I don't want anybody to know, but I'm probably get up and do an encore with the band Deep Purple, but you can't tell anybody. And I know that this is going to be kept a secret. And will it? I suppose so. I guess. I actually called up... I didn't call him up. I sent my AI pigeon to Ian Gillan in Portugal where he lives at the moment. And I said, "How would you feel about if I got up just for an encore, you know, just one of the songs? Don't want to intrude." And I said, "No pressure, just kind of old times sake, you know. I'm 81 now." And he seemed to love the the idea, put it to the band, got a thumbs up, and it looks like we might be doing that. You're going to go on the stage with Deep Purple? I wish I was there. I have my roadie there kind of now, you know, setting up my amplifier, but I'll be using a small amplifier, but it's very loud. It's what I use when I record. I hope I can compete with the guitar player because I can see that he has very big amplifiers behind him. So, it probably just be the one number as it's been a while. I changed the strings on my guitar, which I haven't done in over 25 years. So, I did that. I use... what are the strings I use? We've got that from Long Island. Is it Picato? Is it D'Addario? It's D'Addario. They're on Long Island and they're very good to me. They always supply me with strings and I find they're the best strings to use. I used to start with Clifford Essex and I went to Picato because of Eric Clapton, I asked him what he used and he used Picato and Clifford Essex. But now I use the Long Island strings. You're saying a small 50,000 watt amp? Yes, that's right. A 50 watt. It'll be a 50 watt. I hope the guy out the front can turn me up, you know. I've got my roadie there for a sound check. It's not going to be Highway Star... I think they're opening with Highway Star. And the guitar player is a very good guitar player. As was and is Steve Morse was a great guitar player. So I think Ritchie was talking about coming on for Smoke on the Water. Oh, somebody's going to drive seven hours to go see it. [laughter] Oh, that's not worth that. But, I did have my injection in my lumbar area yesterday. It's a special injection I have that enables me to stand in one spot because if I'm playing a Strat on stage, I have a hard time with the shoulders and the lumbar area. I've got four herniated discs... if anybody wants them. And I had my injection yesterday of a steroid which helps me get through standing up on stage. But I do have a kind of a stool there just in case I start toppling over or something. But I know that Ian Gillan has his maladies too with his eyesight I think. And so as you get older you collect all these... I've had many chiropractors working on it and fusions is out of the question. That's too big a job. But this stem cell stuff looks interesting. So, I'm kind of recovering from that at the moment. I'm on steroid and that kind of... it's very hard to sleep when you're on steroids, but I'm on one steroid. And thanks to the doctors at Stonybrook, they were excellent. I didn't feel hardly any pain. But I think we've all got something to complain about. I just have more things to complain about than usual. And if I don't complain, I'll find something. There you go. Duct tape will help him. So, we'll just tape you up with some duct tape. Okay. Maybe to a pole or something. That'll keep you up. Right. So that's going to be interesting. I have not played rock music in 25 years. You haven't been on stage with this band since 93. No, that's right. Was it 93? How do you know that? I was there. I remember.Right on the side. Right. Well, that's going to be interesting. Depends what I'm drinking, though. so I hope people enjoy it. I'm sure they will. It's going to be the riff herd round the world because I guarantee people will who aren't on this and don't know are going to be very surprised. And hopefully when for the people that aren't there, there will be lots of people taking videos that will be floating around the internet. It would be good to see the old guys again, you know. I think we're all beyond, you know, crutches and wheelchairs and things. Although I think the rest of them are okay. but it's kind of frightening. I haven't played rock in 25 years. He's a little nervous. You guys think he's going to do well though, right? I know who's going to be cheering for you. Yes, I've been playing acoustic guitar for 25 years and at first I was very uncomfortable playing it, but I got used to it. And now I'm used to playing the acoustic more so than the electric. At home I have all these acoustic guitars and I have I think three, four, five. I have three Strats, two Gretches. One Gretch was given to me by my all-time favorite when I was 11, 12 years old was Dwayne Eddie. He actually sent me a Dwayne Eddie Gretchen style. I was very honored to get that. I think he felt sorry for me because I cycled at the age of 11. I went everywhere where he was playing in England where I could cycle to. And for some reason, there was always a reason I couldn't actually catch up with him. For instance, 'Because They're Young' was a film that was put out. He played the main theme. So, I naturally cycled miles to the cinema where they were playing it. And I said to the cashier, I said, "What time is Dwayne Eddie going to appear in the film?" She said, "He's not in the film." I went, "What do you mean?" He said, "He just plays the the theme tune." So again, I was thwarted. And I cycled home miserable. And I told these stories to Dwayne Eddie and sent him a letter. And of course, he sent a letter back and I couldn't believe it. He sent a guitar saying, "Hey, I hopefully I'm making up for you not seeing me." But that was an honor. He was the first guitar player that really thrilled me, you know, and I was 11, 12 years old. 'Rebel Rouser', 'Because They're Young'. My favorite was 'The Lonely One', always has been. There was something about that. It was something very haunting about his melody on that gym. And they used to play it on the Deca show 10:00 at night and I would be my father would put me to bed at 9 and come up at 10 to make sure I was asleep, but I was actually under the bed covers listening on my little radio to 'The Lonely One' being played by Dwayne Eddie. So, I'm sure you've all fallen asleep at this point. You know what? We used to play in a studio with our initial music and Deep Purple In Rock and stuff like that. And I remember going to one of the cupboards and there was like brooms and washcloths from the cleaners there. And in the corner was a guitar propped up, a white strat. And I took it out and and I said to the producer who was there, De Lane Lea Studios, Holborn in England, he said, "Oh, that's Jeff's guitar." And it was just I couldn't get over the fact that Jeff just left his guitar in the broom cupboard. and he's one of my favorite guitar players. He would play such brilliant kind of ideas would come into his head that were not of the norm normal kind of exercises that guitar players learn. I did a session with him once and Jimmy Page was producing. Jimmy Page wasn't playing guitar and Cliff Barton was on bass and a few others notables. I think Nicky Hopkins was playing and we were playing this one song and Jeff goes to take the solo and Jeff didn't read chord structures at the time. So he was watching my hand to see what I was playing and he was just following where my hands were going, the chords, and he played this amazing solo. And everybody was going, "Jeff, what a great solo. What a great solo." And then he said to me on the choir, he said, "I didn't even know what key I was in." And that always that always stuck with me as being well that's an interesting comment. He didn't know what key he was in yet he came out with this brilliant solo. But that was Jeff. Jeff was so different from all the guitar players. He just pulled notes as I once said. He pulled notes out of the air and just made magic with very unorthodox style. And yet every time I would see Jeff, I'd say, "How's your new record doing?" He goes, "Well, it's a load of rubbish." And he I think he was the only person in the business that would always say that his latest record was a load of rubbish. I think that's maybe why he didn't do too many interviews. I think the record company was nervous that he would say that it's a terrible record and nobody should buy it. Typical Jeff. He always put himself down. Is Brian May in fact a bit too tall? Yes, Brian is a bit too tall. Great guitar player. He is another great guitar player that has has amazing exercises that he plays on the guitar. The whole band, you know, that film. I saw the film twice and I love the film about Queen and that moved me, especially his version of Who Wants to Live Forever. It's one of my favorite tunes and it's so poignant and it's something that a guitarist would never come up with. Some of the chords are very different from a guitar's point of view. Anyway, I think I'm rambling and digressing, but I tend to do that. What are your thoughts? Are you a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo? Absolutely. Absolutely. And Ian now lives in Portugal. Ian Gillan has a boat by the water or something. But my favorite oldtime drummer... I drummer, my favorite oldtime soccer player, I can't even pronounce his name. He's Swedish. And what do you call him? Ibra Bramovich (Ibrahimovic). Somebody said Messi. [laughter] No, some of the goals he scored was unreal. Unreal. And he's 41 now, so he's retired. And I think his knee bothers him. But what of I recommend anybody to see some of the videos of him scoring goals. Maradonna or Pele? I would say Pele. Maradonna was obviously very good, excellent, but Pele was the first one with that style of playing. But again, I knew the German team, the 1970, 80, 90 team, I was always on their side. And I used to upset my English friends when they said, "Who are you backing, England or Germany?" Okay. Germany because France Beckham, my all-time favorite, was playing. I love the way he danced around the ball. And he never made physical contact with anybody. He was about beating the other team, not killing the other team. George Best. Fantastic. I met him in Manchester. We were doing a TV way back. had a very high voice actually and I was surprised his voice. Very nice guy, but he could dribble all the way down the field and score a goal obviously. I loved Mark Hughes. Not because he's Welsh. I'm half Welsh. My dad's Welsh. I'm from Western Super Mayor. I'm from the... what's his name? What you did for me? You can tell me. Oh, John Cleese Well, Candice, for my birthday once, she had John Cleese wish me a happy birthday and tell me a few stories on a video. And that was probably my best present I ever had. And he went to similar college that my dad went to. And he was born in Western Supermare. So Weston has some fame at last as well as a lot of mud on the beach. I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail today." But he likes Fawlty Towers. Fawlty Towers was my all-time favorite. I mean, I just thought that was so damn funny. I mean, in America, you've got obviously Seinfeld's very funny. He picks on things that normally aren't funny. He can make them funny. What's your hardest song to play? Hardest song to play is... Actually, it's one I put on the last record. It's very difficult to play. It was written by George from Des Geyers. The guy is in a German band and it's a Welsh song but it's very difficult to play for me because you have to jump from one string to another and it's very odd to play but I love trying to play it because I usually mess it up when I play it and I'm backed up by the violinist, sometimes I just look at her and go, "You play it." Cuz I have a hard time with that one. But most of the stuff that I write myself, I write so it's kind of easy for me to play. But this was written by somebody else. And when somebody else writes a piece of music, I usually have a harder time learning it than when it's my own. So that's the most difficult one. And I don't even know the title because it's in Welsh, Yes, and that's extremely difficult language to say. I just wanted to go back to your secret in case people are now tuning in. And Ritchie had the idea to do this live stream because he wanted to share his secret with you guys, which he announced earlier on in this live stream, but just in case other people are tuning in now, we got in contact with some of the members of Purple and Ritchie tomorrow will be playing one of the songs on stage with the guys that he hasn't seen since 1993 out here at our local venue in Jones Beach. So, hopefully people will be able to video that and you guys will see it if you're not local. But I know he wanted to share that with you guys. I wanted to warn the people living in Romania. So they could fly over, but... not really. I just thought it might be an idea to let a few people know because I think a lot of people would like to see that. And so hopefully my guitar stays in tune and I can play whatever song is going to be played. It's just the one song I think. So everybody keep your fingers crossed for him. He hasn't played this stuff in a long time and hasn't seen the guys in a long time. So hopefully everything will go well. I'm sure it will. I'm excited for you. So there you have it and we wish you a good night or good day depending where you are. All right everyone, that's the news. All the best. Speak to you soon. Good night. Bye. © Igor's Rock Universe, YouTube - August 12, 2026