Ritchie Blackmore Rocking Comeback In Sweden "When Ritchie decided to put the Stratocaster aside, it was like a big black hole opened up in front of me," laughs Swedish keyboardist Jens Johansson, recalling the work on Blackmore's Night's "Under A Violet Moon." Ritchie Blackmore laughs about the story, too. Ritchie: It would have been pointless to play the Stratocaster, because that album was acoustic. An electric guitar would have just destroyed it. But like him, people want me to play like that again. I'm 70 years old, and I want to do it one last time before I'm too old and it's too late. I'll do four or five shows in June, including Sweden. The first show will probably be in Helsinki, and then there will be shows in Germany and England. I don't take it too seriously, I just want to play the best Deep Purple and Rainbow songs one last time. I play rock for 20 minutes at every Blackmore's Night show. The difference is that now I'm going to play it for 90 minutes. It's been almost 20 years since I last did this, so I feel a little nostalgic. This is my last chance because my arthritis is getting worse. My back and fingers are getting numb. I'm a little nervous because I haven't done this for so long. Can I still do it? Who will be in the band? Ritchie: The lineup is changing day by day. I finally found a great singer. But I can't say his name yet. Candice: The new singer is phenomenal! I can see that Ritchie has a renewed interest and enthusiasm. It's been a long time since he was inspired by rock, but now he's really into it. Ritchie, what name will you perform under? Ritchie: Jimmy Page. No, most likely the band will be called Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Will you record an album with new hard rock songs? Ritchie: Probably not. We will record live CDs and DVDs on tour, if everything works out. But yeah, there's always a chance that something more will come out of it, especially when the singer is so damn good! Can you tell us about the new Blackmore's Night album "All Our Yesterdays"? Ritchie: I wanted to record the least popular album in the history of the band. I wanted to break the record for the lowest sales, sell one, maybe two copies. We recorded some nice old-fashioned songs for this one, because I knew that today's audiences wouldn't be interested in the album back then. You still have that great, typically British, Monty Python-esque humour! Ritchie: Yes, although no one gets it in America. Would you still be playing this kind of music if you hadn't met Candice? Ritchie: I don't know. It's a good question. In the 90s, I was really tired of the rock world. I felt like I was repeating myself and standing still. All I did was write heavy riffs, but I got bored of it. Who knows, maybe if I hadn't met Candice, I would have quit the music industry altogether and just played for myself... I just wanted to escape the clutches of the monster that was Deep Purple. I didn't know what to do, I just didn't want to tour and play the same songs all the time anymore. I was in chaos, wondering what to do next. I didn't know Candice could sing, but once she started singing, it all seemed natural. Roger Glover says that you like tension and problems in a band. But in Blackmore's Night, you're calm and relaxed. Ritchie: Roger Glover is wrong. He means the tension and problems between him and me. But don't generalize and talk about me like that in general. So you haven't changed? Ritchie: Oh yeah. Before, I just wanted to play really loud and make as much noise as possible. Over time, I developed a love for melody more and more. I don't see the point in playing a bunch of fast notes that don't say anything. Good melodies, on the other hand, always turn me on. When I hear them, I immediately have an insatiable desire to play them. I love Swedish music. We recorded One More Time's "Highland" and Nordman's "Journeyman". Do you know Nordman? Yes. Ritchie: It's amazing how many talented musicians there are in Sweden. I don't know if it's because you have long winters and nothing better to do than develop a sense of melody. Swedes have a particularly strong sense of melody, from ABBA to Max Martin. Your album "Under A Violet Moon" featured Swedish musicians Jens Johansson on keys and Peter Root on bass. They were both fans of Deep Purple and Rainbow since childhood, and were very nervous when they went into the studio. To their relief, you turned out to be a calm and pleasant person. Ritchie: I like to be pleasant to a person who is nervous, because it reminds me of my own insecurities. But I don't like people from the industry with uncontrollable egoism. I treat people the way they treat me. When people are polite, I treat them the same way. If I see that someone is an asshole, then I will behave like an asshole to them. Then you invited them to your house party for Christmas. Ritchie: Contrary to my reputation, I like to make people happy. They couldn't believe that they got to sit next to their hero, sing Christmas carols... Ritchie: I love Christmas. We invite friends, drink and sing together. Christmas is the best thing in the year for me. I love Christmas carols. They have good melodies, many of them were written in the 15th and 16th centuries. However, I am not religious. I believe in God, but I don't believe that everything is created by God. The Christmas tree and decorations remind me of how I celebrated Christmas as a child. Why didn't Ian Gillan take part in the film "Ritchie Blackmore Story?" Ritchie: I wonder if it was forgotten for some reason. But I wasn't involved in that film. I didn't even watch it. But did you approve its release? Ritchie: Of course. My manager told me the film was finished and asked if I wanted to see it. I said no and asked if it was any good. The manager said yes. Okay then, I said. But I heard a lot of musicians talking crap about me in it. David Coverdale said you were going to work together but it didn't work out. What were you going to do? Ritchie: We were going to re-record Purple songs. But David got tired of waiting and didn't like the fact that I wanted to do everything on my own terms. He didn't mind and re-recorded the Purple songs himself. I guess he did a good job. I haven't heard, though. Do you remember the first Swede you worked with, singer Jerry Williams, with whom you played guitar in 1965? Ritchie: Hmm... Joe Meek was the producer? I don't remember his name specifically. I worked in the studio a lot. In The Outlaws we often didn't even know who we were backing. We'd record the tracks and go home. Jerry Williams said you were scared to death of Joe Meek. Ritchie: I was! He had a temper. Sometimes he was very sweet, but we were always afraid of what was going to happen next. When Joe Meek would come into the studio to record, he'd either say, "Great record, guys, here's your money," or he'd explode and throw the tape at us. You were playing on banjo strings back then, which would go out of tune after every bend. I guess Joe Meek wasn't too keen on that? Ritchie: Well, it wasn't that scary. I found out that James Burton, the guitarist for Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson, used banjo strings, and that it was easier to bend them. The problem was that the next chord wouldn't line up. So I decided to go back to regular strings. Jerry Williams said his songs were never released, and that Joe Meek never even gave him the tapes. Ritchie: Exactly. Joe Meek was a talented, but very sensitive person. It's his character. You first visited Sweden in 1966 with Lord Sutch. There you did a funny photo shoot in Roman legionary costumes. Ritchie: We were invited to play in Copenhagen and Malmö. We were told that there would be a lot of press about us, and that we should wear costumes for the photos. Roman clothes with togas and all that. But there were no journalists, no photographers, not a soul! Snow was falling, and we were shivering sadly under thin togas. Can you tell us anything else about Sweden? Ritchie: I even understand a little Swedish, because some words are similar to German, which I can speak. But I don't understand a word of bloody Danish. See you at the Sweden Rock Festival? Ritchie: Yeah, see you. It'll probably be fun. I hope the fans enjoy it. © Rock'n'Roll Magazine #6, Sweden - October 2015