Ritchie Blackmore I'M THE BEST ... EXCEPT FOR ONE! Ritchie Blackmore left DEEP PURPLE 'because he no longer wanted to work with such a bunch of bunglers'. He already considered himself a brilliant guitarist ... "My self-esteem has always been decent, but it really grew through my time at Purple," said Blackmore. "That group was a bunch of irregularities, that it seemed like a breeze to achieve even more success with my own group. I left for Los Angeles with the intention of recruiting some musicians there. Only then did I realize how little good musicians actually walk around there. I could hardly find anyone suitable for the group I had in mind. The formation therefore took considerably longer than intended. I was looking for guys on the level of Jeff Beck, the only guitarist I really admire. Not that I'm as good as he is, but I'll get right after it, ha ha. Anyway, in the end I managed to get a good group together. Jeff Beck's former drummer COZY POWELL is there and Rainbow consists of RONNIE DIO, JIMMY BAIN and TONY CAREY. We have of course 'taken over' some of the Deep Purple fans, but luckily more and more new people are coming to our concerts. Just a few more months and we'll have more fans than Deep Purple used to have." © Hitkrant, Holland 1977 Thanks to Rene Veldhoen for the scan