QUOTES


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What are your favorite albums?

Ronnie James Dio: The first Rainbow album; not the second, the first. Absolutely, the first album, I thought, was head and shoulders above the second one. I really did. It was a different kind of album and all of the guys on that album, except for Ritchie, were the guys in Elf, so it was very special to me. That album contained "Man On The Silver Mountain," which has become my signature song in a lot of ways. I thought that it just had such wonderful songs on it. I thought that "Rainbow Rising," aside from the first side of it and perhaps some of "Stargazer," was an exercise in self indulgence by Ritchie and Cozy, especially "Light In The Black." I mean, I just don't understand things like that. "Who are we making this album for? The drum guys and the guitar guys? This is a band and that is what it is supposed to be." You will hear that on every Dio album, you will hear that it is a band, you don't hear me taking off on some stupendous aria somewhere so that I can say, "Oh, what a wonderful guy I am and screw the rest of the band." It doesn't work that way. So, that one as well, the first Rainbow album.

David L. Wilson, Open Up And Say 2000




I don’t imagine that you actually would spend much time on this but did you ever sit with Joe Lynn Turner and commiserate back and forth over your working with Mr. Blackmore?

Glenn Hughes: Not really probably because Joe and I have grown so much since that period. I think that those days were the “bad old days” for both Joe and I. It was when the Boeing 737’s that we were always in would last forever. In the seventies we thought that we would be playing the Cal Jam every year for the rest of our lives because when you are making that much money and you are so young you just don’t think straight, it is bizarre. The incidents with Ritchie Blackmore will be told in a book one day or something like that because the guy is…uh...a different type of guy.

David Lee Wilson, KNAC, 17 December 2001




Can you see yourself playing with Deep Purple?

Yngwie Malmsteen: You know, I don't like saying this, but they could do a lot better than what they have now. Steve Morse is a very good guitar player, but he's American and he's using humbucker pickups. If you ask me, those two are not good. I don't want to say it like this, but if they (Deep Purple) could have got me in that band they would have a performance that would blow people's head off. Even now I can play from the beginning of "Made in Japan" to the end. I can do it right now without missing a note. Even now, I like the Deep Purple era from 1971/72. I don't like after that very much. I think I could do a good job as the guitarist of Deep Purple, but I'm against the idea personally. For me, Deep Purple is Ritchie Blackmore, and to my disappointment, Ritchie doesn't want to do it anymore. He wants to play acoustic now and be with his wife, so good luck to him. Let him do what he wants.

BURRN! magazine, February 2002




All Deep Purple fans are probably only interested in Deep Purple with Ritchie Blackmore. Do you think we will ever see Ritchie Blackmore back with Deep Purple?

Ian Gillan No! I don't think so - Deep Purple have moved on, we have been together longer than any other incarnation of Deep Purple and still enjoying every minute. When Ritchie was with the band after the reunion in 1984 we were only playing to half full stadiums and arenas due to the fact that the fans were pissed of with the antics of the Banjo player. There is no doubt that Ritchie was the riff-master and that his playing was exquisite but this only meant that Ritchie was looking for the rest of Deep Purple to be his backing band and become another Rainbow. I wish Ritchie all the best but no I can not see him in any future Deep Purple Project!

Dad's Rock, Local Irish Radio Station, 28 January 2002




Tell us about the wildest party you ever had with "The Man In Black," Ritchie Blackmore.

Glenn Hughes: It was when we were in rehearsals for the BURN album at Clearwell Castle, which is 700 years old. Anyway, Ritchie, myself, and my roadie, Bas Marshall, were getting shitfaced down the pub in the Forest Of Dean when Ritchie decided he wanted to have a seance. So we all went back to the castle, and the three of us sat cross-legged in the great hall and began. Little did I know, but Ritchie had rigged some speakers inside one of the walls, and they played some eerie, ghost-like noises and footsteps. Shit began to happen - or so I thought - but Ritchie had also rigged the same sort of device in my quarters, so the same bloody fracas continued all night long! Of course, he sat up all night outside my door laughing like the deranged bloke he is. I was not amused!

Coast To Coast, December 1995




Who are the players you really admire now?

Eddie Van Halen: It's funny. There's two types of guitarists. Like Blackmore, I used to hate, because I met him once at the Rainbow with John Bonham when we were just playing clubs. You know, I grew up on him too, and I ran over and said hello, and they both just looked at me and said, "Who are you? Fuck off." And it pissed me off. And to this day I remember that. And then just recently Rainbow played at Long Beach Arena. This is right after I won Best Guitarist [in the Guitar Player Reader's Poll], which I'm real honoured - makes me feel good. I went down there, in a way, with a vengeance, you know. I just felt like saying, "Hey, motherfucker, remember me? About three years ago, when you treated me like shit?" But I didn't. I just said hello, and he knew me just through records and radio, and he complimented me.

Guitar Player 1979




Ritchie Blackmore made plans to form a new band called "Baby Face" with Paul Rodgers as vocalist, Phil Lynott on bass and Ian Paice on drums. Paul Rodgers decided to quit the project before it began and Phil Lynott took over as vocalist

Ritchie Blackmore: I said that the only way I would stay in Deep Purple was if we completely changed the band. 'Get a new bass player and I'll stay'. Ian and Jon said OK. Glenn (Hughes from Trapeze) came in, so I stayed. Ian and I were gonna form another band with Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy, actually. It was like Hendrix number two. Phil looked like Hendrix, sounded like Hendrix. He was just singing, Roger was playing because he was a better bass player then. (More than a little odd to ask Glover along considering Blackmore insisted on throwing him out of Purple...)

Trouser Press Magazine 1978




The song 'Prisoner' was co-written with [Kelly] and Ritchie Blackmore. What's the story behind how this song came about, and has Ritchie had the chance to to hear it?

Stuart Smith: This was a song I'd written a couple of years before Ritchie heard it. I was playing a show in Long Island with "Mirage" back in 1983 and Ritchie was going to get up on stage with us. We were sat in his kitchen deciding what we were going to play that night and he asked me to show him "Prisoner". When it came to the bridge which I originally had he said, "It doesn't really work, does it?" and just came up with the way it is now off the top of his head. I thought it was better for the song so I used it. He hasn't heard the new version yet as I'm still waiting for enough copies to send out to everyone.

Kevin J. Julie, Universal Wheels, December 2000




Is there anything you think should be said on behalf of the Ritchie Blackmore issue?

Steve Morse: I was expecting a little bit more of a problem of being the guy that's taking Ritchie's place on stage, you know? And we really haven't had a problem with that at all. I think he came up with a bunch of great stuff. In fact, he was one of the people who influenced me with the idea of having a very strong, noticeable and powerfully fast vibrato–that's something that I always liked about him. Plus he's very free and expressive.

Guitar for the Practicing Musician, December 1996





What is your opinion regarding Bruce Payne and the 1984 Deep Purple reunion.

Joe Lynn Turner: What bothers me is the way the manager, Bruce Payne, manipulated Rainbow's breakup, because he told Ritchie one thing and me another. He separated us to divide and conquer... Bruce told me that Ritchie wanted to this Deep Purple thing, and I was very energetic and enthusiastic about helping Deep Purple, one of the greatest bands in the world in my opinion, to get back together, and that I would have had something to do with it... I felt like I'm helping Deep Purple together by stepping back and doing a Joe Lynn Turner solo deal. Meanwhile he turns around and tells Ritchie 'Joe doesn't want to do another Rainbow album, and he thinks he is a big shot now, and he's got this big money deal with Elektra Records, and that's that.' I heard Ritchie was very disappointed by this, and this is something we never talked about.
I never knew this until this March of 1998, while I was out in LA visiting a friend of Ritchie's who is also a very good friend of mine, who told me how Ritchie had felt. The story started to come together in my mind after years of thinking about it, and it made sense, what Bruce Payne did to divide us, he told me lies, he told Ritchie lies.

Hard RoxX magazine, December 1998