Ritchie Blackmore Questions asked by the fans During the Fall of 1996, fans asked Ritchie Blackmore questions via old his website. Ritchie gave his verbal answers to those questions (that were read from paper to him by Carole Stevens) via a cassette tape, which was released on his old website. This set of answers are from that original tape and are transcribed here. Also can be found on You Tube video on Bolelaw's Deep Purple Family Fan Channel. What is the story behind the 'T' in your first name? T is for tea. Being an Englishman I like a lot of tea and I just thought it was appropriate at the time so that I could have a lot of tea. No, actually it's involved in numerology. If you noticed using the Arabic numerology system, the T adds another one to my number which then becomes nine instead of eight and that's why I tend to my name is with a C obviously but I put in the T only on record. Will there be another Rainbow album after the Stranger In Us All album? Yes, there will be. At the moment I'm not sure. I haven't done any work on it or any rehearsing but we should start working on that around about March whereas we have a lot of touring plans before that. Do you hate Ian Gillan and David Coverdale as much as the press makes it out to be? No, I actually hate the press more than Ian Gillan and David Coverdale. There are rumors about you doing an album of medieval music. Are the rumors true and when are we likely to see the album if they are true? Yes, at the moment I'm involved in doing a so-called medieval LP. It's not really medieval music it's more of a Renaissance period LP, which has strong overturns of certain melodies that we used in the 1500s it's you could set a new age folk, electric rock and consisting of a lot of acoustic work too. It draws heavily on the the 1500s but it's not strictly as a purist might think a renaissance or medieval LP but it's coming along very well. I'm very excited about it. It involves Candice Night and Pat Reagan who's Irish, but he can't help that. Do we get the opportunity to play soccer against you before a concert in Geneva or another city in Switzerland? I'm not too sure about that. The Geneva people are very good soccer players and only if we work something out where I win... because I won't play soccer unless I win, but maybe I can pay him off before the match. Given the many line-ups you have had with Rainbow and Deep Purple, what line-up would you say you're most comfortable with? Comfortable is a word I'm not very familiar with. Being comfortable I find that it's very difficult for me so I'm not really comfortable with anything in this world so that really applies to the line-up of Rainbows. I'm not comfortable with any line-up. Some of them were better than others obviously and whoever's cheaper at the time.... Why was Barcelona not considered on your European tour? That's a good question. We wanted to do Spain and we want to do a lot of places. However I seem to get put right back into the same places I played nine months previous. Maybe you could take that up with the agent whose name is Neil Warnock and it's his fault. So over to you Neil. Do you think you'll be writing some guitar books? Maybe... I'm thinking about writing up a book, not so much about the guitar but if you're a guitarist or you're musician on the road one of the things that nobody's written a book about is how to sleep and actually get peace and quiet on the road which is very difficult. I've learned to come to terms of a few things that I would like to pass down in a book of how to sleep on the road. How do you feel about Yngwie Malmsteen? Do you feel that you ripped you off by using your image and style to make money from stuff? Not at all. As Monty Python used to say we'll keep the welcome in the hill size and the welcome in the gland that's an old Welsh thing but Yngwie is a brilliant player. Tthe good thing about Yngwie is I actually get a commission when he goes out so I get a kind of kickback from his stuff. So he makes me a lot of money but no I think Yngwie has a lot to say for himself as a musician and as a person I like him. Will you ever do an instructional video for us RB wannabees? No but thanks for asking. I really don't know the guitar myself enough to teach it to somebody else and I would hate to be a teacher... to teach some or something I'm not really sure of myself unlike most of the teachers of today's schools. In what direction do you see the music develop as we approach another century apart from classical music? I see our direction going north towards Norway. What does this symbol mean that you make with one hand holding the other hand? That's an old medieval handshake that they used in the 14-1500s up in the north of Holland. It's Flemish... It's actually it's like an Indian sign it's a handshake of goodwill. Do you feel a certain spirituality to keep you saved at times when you feel your music is going too deep into your soul? It never goes too deep into soul. The spirituality to me is very important and that's with me at all times although I do need to be grounded from time to time to be more focused and spirituality does that for me. In the Bent Out Of Shape tourbook you identified your favorite drink as a 'Chimp In Orbit', a Hawaiian drink. How does one make a 'Chimp In Orbit'? You have to go to Hawaiian to find out. When will you come back in Deep Purple? Never! I've done enough. I've inflicted enough self-punishment to myself and that's over, but thanks for asking and they're a good band and I'm sure they will go on to other things and so. Do you want to play with Nick Simper again? Of course. Nick was one of my favourite friends in the beginning of Deep Purple. Nick Simper is a really good bassplayer and a fine person and it's a shame that we had to go different ways. Are you ever going to do a solo album? I really haven't spoke to myself about it one of these days when I'm alone nobody will play with me anymore and I had everybody in Rainbow... Maybe I might do one, but I'm probably too paranoid to do something on my own because I tend to look over my shoulder and expect someone else to be there to blame everything on. Do you have any plans to play in Spain? Yes, again, we would like to play in Spain but if you could talk to Neil Warnock from London who will not seem to book us anywhere than Germany which is one of my favorite places but if you take it up with him I think you will have some answers What is your favorite Rainbow album? 'Stranger In Us All' is obviously my favorite... 'Difficult To Cure' was very good too, 'Rainbow Rising' was a very good one.... I can't remember the rest... 'Bent Out Of Shape' too. I like "Street of Dreams". I thought that was very good and 'Strangers' basically. Is it true that you were contacted by The Glenn Hughes camp in 1993 while in Sweden about the possibility of having you play on the remake of "Burn" that they were recording for inclusion as a bonus track of the Japanese release of Glenn's album 'From Now On'? Yes, I was asked to do it but I've played "Burn" once and I'm a little bit burnt out on that song. Glenn is obviously a really nice guy, very good musician, but I didn't have the time to do that. Is there any chance to get more Oriental scales introduced into your music? I have to ask my manager first. How did you get, what is in my opinion, one of the finest guitar tones I've ever heard? I'm talking specifically about what you were using for your distortion around 1971-1973 on Made in Japan before you started using the real to real tape recorder. I had a travel booster made by Hornby Skewes and that's all I used which overloaded the amplifier by about 5 watts on the input stage but it was enough to give me distortion. When did you start scalloping your frets and do you do all the frets? Yes, I do all the frets but obviously I increase the actual intensity of the concave part as from the third fret on to about the 15th fret. The first couple of frets don't need it and I start started that when I was 14-15. When will the full tour itinerary be available? Best thing is to follow the internet page through the management. What are your future recording and touring plans and are you settled for a final lineup with Rainbow? Yes, for the moment this week it will be the same band. It looks like we might be going out in January and February in America and then we'll be off to the Eastern block... Poland, Hungary in March and April. Do you like Rising Force? Do you know Yngwie? Yes, I know Yngwie. I haven't heard Rising Force but he's a very good player. Did you use standard Fender pickups for your Stratocasters during the 70s or did you replace them already back then and if you did what brand of pickups did you use in those days? I used to use Seymour Duncan and Lawrence pickups. The concert in November of 95 at Forest National was great but where was the girl who sang 'Ariel'? She had a cold actually. She came down with a flu that night unfortunately. She's my fiance and she could not attend so she was back at the hotel. When can we see you in San Francisco Bay Area? It's nice to be seen in any area at this point in America. It seems to be very difficult to get a proper tour put together but as I said January, February we should be doing, February probably will be the West Coast. Is there any chance of hearing either of 'Light in the Black' or 'Stargazer' in future Rainbow performances? Yes, if you'd like to play it yourself. We don't usually do those numbers on stage but it's a possibility. It's also a possibility of working with Ronnie James Dio as maybe he'll come out and he'll sing it as well. Any particular reasons why Stormbringer never made in on CD in the States? I have absolutely no idea. I didn't know that it wasn't on CD but then I wouldn't known. That's more for the hierarchy of the privileged... the record company people. I'm just a mere pion doing my work. I've read in a couple of articles that you wanted to have Paul Rodgers as performing as a vocalist on some of your albums. How do you feel this would have effect the sound of the music? Appently Paul is very good at karate. He is a black belt and I have a fetish of... I like to beat up my musicians occasionally and I think Paul would beat me up so it could have been a problem there. Paul.... obviously, if not, the best singer in the business. I think of him as a hero and it's not good to get together with a hero, even if he was interested. What do you think of Steve Morse filling your spot as Deep Purple's guitarist? Steve does an excellent job. I was a fan of Steve since about 1982 from the Dixie Dregs. He's a brilliant guitar player. I'm slightly being mused as to why he would take the job with Purple and I'm not demeaning that job, but he is always been far superior to that position. Can you shed some light on that never-ending task of songwriting? How do you approach this? Lyrics first or riff first? And how do you connect the two? We start with a riff in a chord progression and a vague idea of what the top line is... that's how I write a melody. What happened to Graham Bonnet? Graham's hair caught on fire I think.... Graham left the band in, I think 1980, 1981. Graham is not really into heavy rock, he is more of a ballad singer I think. There were rumors that you were going out on tour together with Ronnie James Dio. There was a rumor but I think it was an agent that put forth the idea of touring with Ronnie but I thought it wasn't a great idea because we would be doing the same act twice. He does a lot of songs I still do. So until we get together and do them together it will be very strange to have two bands on the same bill playing very similar numbers. What's your all-time favorite classical song? Probably 'Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring' of J.S Bach. Why do you prefer to live in the U.S. rather than in the U.K? Freedom. Your solos on "The Battle Rages on" seems to have a shorter duration from the norm. Was this your decision? Is it something that you wanted to play at the time? No, I want you to do much longer solos but the management wouldn't let me at the time, that's Bruce Payne. I own several Strats but my collection will not be complete until I own one of the new Blackmore signature Strats. Where did I get one? You could get one at the Normandy Inn in Long Island at the moment or through any Fender dealer within the next couple of months. In fact the 70s version is out at the moment but there is another one that I put together which has two pickups in the solid body and solid neck all in one piece of wood. I would be inclined to go for that one personally as I think as much better guitar. Do you have any regrets on leaving Deep Purple? Yes, I wish that I've left them before. How can I learn more techniques when no regular guitar teacher will teach me any new tricks, do you have any suggestions, certain videos or books? No, I would forget the tricks and get a lawyer. Out of curiousity of my own experience in the supernatural and knowing your interest in girls grunting what was your closest encounter with such phenomenon? With sex phenomenon? Oh, such phenomenal.... it's been too numerous to mention there are so many encounters I've had with ghosts and entities and it is a passion of mine other than music that I do pursue on the side. Would you like to play in the UK as I've haven't seen you there in years? I'd love to be in the UK, that's my home. I would like to be back there but please speak to the agent and tell him to look at this. I get the impression there's not too much interest in the UK for our type of music at the moment, hopefully that will change. How you keep the guitar into tune? One tip would be fine. How I keep the guitar in tune?.... I tend not to use the tremolo arm too much, at the risk of as soon as I do it will go out of tune. So if I use the tremolo arm it is usually at the end of the performance or if I can go backstage and then we tune. How tall are you? Five ten and a half. What year is your main Cream Stratocaster and what pickups do you use? They are Seymour Duncan, sometimes Fender and it's a '72. Are you going to record an acoustic album with Candice? Yes, I'm in the middle of doing it now and it's coming out incredibly well. Are you're going to do is solely instrumental album? Probably not. I'm not that self-indulgent yet but after a few glasses of wine I might do that. What do you do in your spare time when you're not on tour. Seances, play soccer, go for walks and I eat fruit in the garden. Do you have any news of Ian Broad? Ian Broad is now living in Florida the last I heard. He is a very good old friend. Do you have any plans of Joe Lynn Turner bringing back in Rainbow? Probably.... Joe is a good friend and a good singer. When will your guitar come out? That will come out within three months. Why was there such a long delay in the US release of 'Stranger'? I purchased the Japanese version. That's a good question. Basically it lies with Heinz Henn from BMG who decided that his cousin label, which would be RCA, didn't particularly want to put the LP out so he wanted to find a different record label and that's why it took one year to come out over here. In the latest Deep Purple live video you got a new mike which looks like new Fender rates type. Why is that and are you still using that? A new what? Mike... mic... A new mic.... a new mike.... I don't understand it... Why did you change the guitar mike... mic that was right before you release Down to Earth A guitar mike...? I have no idea what that is. Who would you consider to be the greatest composer of the 20th century? 20th? I think Lennon-McCartney and the two guys in ABBA and a guy in 'One More Time'. They're very good composers. Would it be possible to invite you for a private medieval concert in Belgium? Oh yes of course. We will probably at one point starting I would say around April May next year, Candice and I and our other fellow Minstrels will probably do some select shows that anybody who's interested in listing in various castles, smaller places, maybe 200 seaters. Just for the hell of it. We'll be very drunk and have a good time. I noticed that on an old track of 'Child in Time' from the "Live in Japan" album it sounds more bluesy and has a lower spectrum. Do you still prefer Christmas sounds with a higher spectrum? Do you still have the same set up on your guitar, floating tremolobar, heavy bottom light top strings set, carved fretboard? No, I don't. You're probably thinking of Jeff Beck. I had normal strings they go down to a 46 on the bottom and they start at a 10 on the light E. So they're not really heavy on the bottom and I played the same setup for the last 25 years but now I've changed in the last year and I use an Engl amplifier which I prefer to the Marshall. There's more character and a little bit more depth and range, a little bit more fiber and fibers good for all us if you want to be regular. About five years back I interviewed Ronnie James Dio for an UK fanzine and asking how you guys got on since he left Rainbow. He replied that you both have not really had any contact and he was pretty sad about that. He's lying. I've been knocking on his door every night and he keeps telling me to go away. I would love a guitar pick of yours. What have I do to get that? If you could do a scissor cut, a kick and score a goal in Bayern Munich vs. Stuttgart game, then you'll get a plectrum. Do you plan to visit Russia during your tour? Yes! Good question we've been dying to get to Russia and the Eastern sector. Hungary, Poland, Russia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania... all these places I've been dying to get to. But for some reason my agent seem to want me to play somewhere else, so we've had a few Russians with him... he'll warn up and I believe that he's booking it right now in March. What is your favorite place in Holland to play? I love Holland in general. It's a fantastic place. I love the low horizon and I'm into pictures in general. I love some of the paintings that were done by the Flemish masters in the 1800s and Holland is always a very nice place to be. One day I might go there for holiday on the canals or something. Why have you stopped playing 'Stargazer' and 'A Light in the Black'? No real reason... which is to have other songs to play but it's a thought... if enough people want to hear that we'll play them. Are there any songs that you have never played live that you would have liked to have done on the stage? What songs have you most enjoyed during your career? I really like playing 'Long Live Rock'n'Roll'. I like Beethoven's Ninth, that's a challenge because it's in 6/8, it's not the expected 4/4 thump thump thing and I really like playing 'Ariel'. That's quite a challenge because it's not that easy to play, especially after you've heard sixteen different edits. I basically play what I want to play but I'm always up for requests, especially if they're for the actual songs I'm playing at the time. How you get that Blackmore sound out of the Strat and the Marshall combo? I'm unable to get a thick enough sound out of the pair to perform with the marshal is 50 watts instead of 2,300 does this make a difference in the tone? No difference in the tone and it depends if you drink whisky. Whisky does change the sound. I'm not drinking so much whiskey these days. That's why I'm playing the Engl amplifiers which to me get a better sound however the Marshalls did get a good sound. Are there any plans for remastering some of the early Rainbow albums? That's really just a con job by the record label to get more money out of you people which I'm opposed to. If I was you I'd just stick to what you have. Were you ever tempted to use a Les Paul or Strat-style guitar with Humbucker? Yes, I was back in nineteen... let me think... 1961 or 62. I always wanted the black Les Paul and nobody I knew had one, very expensive guitars, so I went into London, I was playing with a band called The Savages at the time, and I saw this guitar player. This guitarist was playing a black Les Paul and he was a brilliant guitar player, his name was Albert Lee and I thought that's the guitar for me. But unfortunately Jimmy Page took it up with Led Zeppelin a little bit later and that put me off of, not because Jimi played it, because it then became the fashionable guitar to play.... the Les Paul and I'm really not one to be in cahoots with fashion if I can help it. But they're very good guitars, it's very heavy and if you have a bad back like I do then they're not the guitar of choice. Who is your favorite keyboard player in Rainbow? I would say David Rosenthal. Very easy to get along with and he was pitch perfect. The man was absolutely amazing. I don't know if you remember Kate Bush. I played him a Kate Bush song on my cassette and he could work out the chords instantly and they're not simple. Kate Bush being one of my favorites back in those days, this is no mean task especially by ear without consulting an instrument, very talented man and he's doing very well and I might get together with Dave again. My favorite Rainbow song is 'Rainbow Eyes. Are there any chances we might here some more rare acoustic tracks, do you plan to use more strings on future recordings? No, I'm going to stick to the six strings but there will be a lot more acoustic stuff than that we're working on it right now and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you hear it which will be out probably in February, January around there. What do you think about shows in Buenos-Aires? We had a great time. I was very pleasantly surprised with being down there and we'll come back any time. The promoters are fantastic and everything went very well and I had a great time. Good soccer place too. Are you going to do an extended UK tour and are there any plans to do a next Rainbow album with Doogie White on the vocals? Yes, it looks like Doogie will be on the next LP although I haven't put it together yet and I'd love to do the UK. Some of my favorite places in the UK are alike Glasgow, Edinburgh, York. York is like one of the oldest towns in England and the most haunted so that's always a great place to play. We always seem to get put into London which is good but there's I don't understand why it's always London. I prefer to play in the middle of England, probably York and then York again. York is a good place. What's the effect you use in 'Difficult to Cure' to create the pitch shift? It's just an octave divider. It's just an octave down if I remember correctly. I use that sometimes on stage, most the time with my synthesizer. I really don't use it very much on stage, I use it more at home for certain effects like strings but on stage I'll use it just for that number to give me an octave down. What are your plans for playing in the future? My plans for playing in the future? How long are you planning to play? Hopefully as long as I can play. We got a lot of very wonderful comments from Canada. Canada is a great place. I like to play in Canada, especially Montreal and Toronto, not forgetting Calgary and Vancouver. Do you remember triple canary with the penis rising as your response to a question regarding your astrology from an interview were aligned CHOM FM in Montreal? I heard about this but I think that was the Ian Paice at the time... that's funny. Any possibility of recording again in Stove Vermont and what were your opinion of your state in Vermont? We had a great times as we used an English pub. That was a fantastic retreat for us and we recorded the two LPs of the Horizons which is now I think owned by private residence. So we probably won't be going back to Stove, but we had a very good time there and I don't ski. When will you play in Greece? I had a great time in Greece when I play there with Deep Purple. I think it was about seven years ago and very interesting place. My cousin was Greek, her name was eh.... can't remember... it was a began with M strange name... my cousin's name in Greece was Marika, it's come back to me. Marika wonderful woman, unfortunately passed away about three years ago. What inspired "The Eyes of the World"? What was us was the "Mars Suite" by Gustav Holst. I think the way you use the wah wah pedals so prominently on "Stranger in us All". What was your motivation for including the wah pedal on "Hall of the Mountain King" and "Hunting Humans"? I don't think I used that on "Hall of the Mountain King" or "Hunting Humans" but I used to on another track. I like the wah wah sometimes. Mind you it can cover up for... it's very forgiving and you can play a lot of nonsense and it sounds good. I recall reading an interview you did a long time ago for Guitar Magazine where it was implied that Jimmy Page came in and did some studio work at an early Deep Purple recording. Absolute not. No, not at all. Is the "Definitive Black Horror Blues Album" project still on? Yes, but it won't be for a few years... Well in fact it might be done next year but I have to find the right singer for that blues project. Do you remember Memmingen? Absolutely! I've written a song about 'Memmingen'. I've just written a song called 'Memmingen Nights'. I thought that one could probably call it nights of 'Memmingen'. Very best nights we were having in years around the gypsy firelights. Are you and Joe Lynn Turner still friends? Yes, very good friends. Any plans to do an unplugged session for TV or video released in the near future? Probably had it not become fashionable. now it looks a little bit doubtful. However the acoustic music I'm playing at the moment with Candice and my other fellow minstrels, we might do a television show with this music. "Stranger in us All" is I believe the best record you've been involved in since "Down To Earth". We want more of it if it has any influence on your tour program I could arrange a soccer game with knowledgeable and reasonably skillful players while you're in Helsinki. Yes, but only if I win..... Finland is always a good place, we like to come to Finland. I agree "Strangers in us All" is I think the best LP I put out in a very long time. Why was there no advertisement for the Rainbow show in Belgium? The reason there was no advertising was because I think the agent at the time had a conflict of interest and was booking Deep Purple out and was a little bit relaxed. What happened was I had various festivals I had to do in Europe and he threw in some very quick concerts at the last minute. So unfortunately for everybody concerned including the promoters who had to kind of jump around but they did very very good jobs. I must admit a pat on the back for these promoters. There was there was about three shows in Germany and I think one in Belgium, one in Holland and I think a couple in Denmark that were thrown together and they were given about two or three weeks notice which is not the way I like to do things. Of all the live albums of Deep Purple that you've been released over the years "Made in Japan", Made in Europe", "Nobody's Perfect", "Come Hell or High Water", which one are you most pleased with as a representation of a band and which live album do you feel that showcases you as a guitarist? Nobody's Perfect I thought was quite good. Have you ever thought of doing a full blues album? Yes, I'm working on it and I'd like to do a whole LP of blues playing because that's just part of it. I've heard that you're a great football fan. What is your most favorite football team? I don't really have to many favorite teams. I have favorite players. Lothar Matthäus being a friend that I met that I was very impressed with as a person and as a player so naturally I'm inclined to go for Bayern Munich. I know that they're here a big time kind of team. I also like Stuttgart very much and I like a lot of German individual players as opposed to teams. If it comes to an English team I would say Chelsea because Mark Hughes is one of my favorite players from the English side. Have you ever seen in Germany the castle Rheinfels? It's an old castle near the Loreley? Rheinfels no, I've been to several places near the Loreley and one will be Burg Schönberg, the other.... there's quite a few down the river there that I've stayed at and I tend to get lost every time that I come to the Rhein. I'd like to do a holiday on the Rhein at some point. What a good idea going on the Rhein on a boat playing medieval music come acoustic rock to whoever wants to get on board. That will be a great utopia for me. There are certainly albums that I considered timeless such as the first thing Rainbow album and in 20 years I can still listen to it time and time again and be moved by its musical and emotional content. Could you name two or three such albums and their artist that over the years have produced work that have had a similar effect on you? Yes, "A Hard Road" by John Mayall, "Blonde on Blonde" by Bob Dylan, Michael Oldfield with Maggie Reilly, "One More Time" ABBA. I also like The Rednecks version of 'Wish You Were Here'. As far as guitarists go Gordon Giltrap brilliant, Adrian Legg is brilliant, Procol Harum "Homburg" and their latest LP which is actually four years old, four or five years old. These are the type of songs that I play to myself apart from Renaissance music. Who are your favorite guitarists? Favorite guitar players would be... Jeff Beck's very good, just said Gordon Giltrap, Adrian Legg. Erik Johnson is very good. I love that instrumental he did which reminds me, it's interesting because... I don't know if Eric was consciously aware of it, but it's very similar to something that Les Paul did back in 1956 called 'Little Rock Get Away'. For you guitar fans if you buy that Les Paul Mary Ford you might hear a resemblance between Eric's big hit and 'Little Rock Get Away'. I'm not putting down Eric because he's a very good player. I'd like to see more of Shuggie Otis I haven't seen him playing of late. There are so many guitar players, they're so good. It's annoying. Would there be any new material coming out? Yes, I think we have a live LP coming out and we'd also like to be back in the UK, especially York. My style of your signature model is as follows; 72 to 74 shaped Stratocaster, tremelo, Rosewood scalloped fingerboard change, 3 screws as 4 between neck and body, thought heads back, bullet head, trim lock machine head, three Schecter pickups, white pickguard, black knobs, volume tone switch, color Olympic white. How about these specs? Yes, that's the one, definitely. You've got the right one there, but there is another one coming out three months which I think is very good although I designed it myself. It's very good. Are the fluctuations in the different albums something that you have left to producers and have they affected the recorded sound? Yes that's true, to a point I sometimes happen to be very lazy. I like music to be very simple. I like to get on with it, a habit time within 10 minutes I can't stand around editing and fiddling with the knobs and it has something to do with biorhythms. So yes, it's I don't have too much patience sometimes. I'll spend more time arranging something that I will actually play in the solo much to my consternation. We're actually thinking of New Hope in Pennsylvania. It is one of my favorite towns and we're thinking of... cause it's very haunted, we're thinking of mixing the new LP there in three weeks time. The Logan Inn in New Hope, very haunted. About your song "Still I'm Sad"... Why are you sad? I'm always sad. Wouldn't you be sad if you lived in this world? What's the use you give to the Roland MIDI pickup that you have installed in your guitar? It's usually for writing at home to get a string sound. I use strings on "In the Hall of the Mountain King" on the record that was a guitar synthesizer. It's a great toy especially when you get tired of the typical guitar sound, however it ruins any technique that you might have because you have to delay. It's like a legato way of playing, if you play too fast it won't track, so you have to play everything very slow but it's very nice effect. What's the best live album you ever recorded and why? Do you consider yourself a guitar God? Guitar God? Absolutely not. I'm still struggling like we all are. I think funny enough one of my favorites live LPs might be "Live On Stage" and "Nobody's Perfect". I know that a lot of people like "Made in Japan" but the songs are good, the playing is okay but it's nothing special. We would like Rainbow to come to Russia. Get in touch with Neil Warnock at the agency. Call up Neil Warnock and complain to him but we will be there very shortly and let's hope the optimism is not a liar. Now that some bands are starting to tour the US again, do you think that rock music may be poised for a comeback or will be alternative music influence continued its domination in the airways and concert tours No, I think the alternative has now become mainstream and I think the mainstream is dead, personally I've got nothing against this type of bands. I just don't like. I think hardrock hopefully will come back. I would love to see a reincarnation of Jethro Tull doing some 'Warchild' or Led Zeppelin back on the scene and a few other bands. There are some very good bands out there. Kings X is a great band, I think they're the best American band that you have now and they should be given much more publicity. But ofcourse being as good as they are that's probably a mark against them. Where are you making your solo project? We will make our solo project probably in the Schloss Waldeck. At the moment we're doing the solo project but Candice and I are in Schloss Waldeck in theory, however we will play Schloss Waldeck as we did last time along with a few other castles in Germany... Hegellock, Götzenburg and.... I have to think about all the other castles. Have you ever played on a Hagstrom guitar? Yes, once. That's a strange guitar, that's very different, I'm not sure what I think about a Hagstrom. I think I actually went to where they made Hagstrom guitars a long time ago, but haven't made my mind up about Hagstrom guitars. There are so many guitars to play and I'm still having problems with one I play at the moment. In 1973-1974 you were using a mapleneck Strat which did not have scalloped frets. By the time of "Straight Between The Eyes" running around "Live Between The Eyes" you were using a scalloped rosewood Strat. When did you change and what events or factors motivated this change? Interesting observation Sherlock. That was a breakup guitar that's always handed to me just to break up. I've been using rosewood concave frets since I was 15. Long time ago, since 1960. Why do you never play acoustic guitar on stage? Because I might be booed off. How was it touring with Jerry Lee Lewis in the 60's? Very entertaining, extremely enlightening. Jerry Lee is quite a personality and he taught me a lot. It's also very nice guy and he wanted me to go back to Memphis with him but I was only 18 at the time so I couldn't really go. There are some underlying riffs that you seem to throw into your solos from time to time like the solo in 'Sweet Child of Mine' in the Japanese version... 'Sweet Child of Mine'? All the time.... that's a Guns N'Roses song! Shall we stop and do that again? There are some underlying riffs that you seem to throw into your solos from time to time like the solo in 'Sweet Child in Time' in the Japanese version. These riffs have captivated me for years, I can never quite work them out. What the heck of the shape, it's become an obsession of mine to get them right. Don't bother, they're mistakes. What was it like working with Tony Ashton on the album "Green Bullfrog"? Tony is a incredible personality, I haven't seen Tony in years with a wonderful yellow Stout Yeoman as we English might say, hopefully we'll see Tony around. I think he works with John Lord a lot on some of his stuff excellent. He's a man from the Hamburg days and that I have good memories off. On the Deep Purple "Come Hell or High Water" video you threw some water during 'Highway Star'. Can you explain what happened? Yes, I can.... The reason I did that was because I told.... this is a very, very long story... I told Colin Hart, the roadmanager that I did not want to have a camera... I disagree with them videotaping that show because the reason they were taping that show was to promote these songs that we were doing and I thought we should have done that a month before. So at that point I turned around and said "Look, as far as I'm concerned, if they that long... and actually putting it down on videotape I'm not really interested in being in part of this show". And when it came to that part, they were on the stage and the video people have a bad habit of thinking that they are God and they tend to walk on the stage in front of the fans that paid. The most important people in that auditorium are the fans, then comes the musicians, not the videopeople. Now this guy had been told to stay off the stage. I came on the stage and I told him off as he was right were he was not ought to be. So I just ran across and grabbed some water and threw it on the cameraman and I knew that he couldn't use any longer that camera. Unfortunately it got onto a few other people and they thought it was some political thing, but it wasn't. I had no intention to throw it on Ian Gillan's wife or Roger Glover's wife. Unfortunately it landed on them as well as the camera but it did the job as stopping the cameraman taking a shot which is what I wanted because we had camera's out in the audience along with the record buying public. First things first. I felt very strongly about it. How did you discover and came up with the 'Smoke on the Water' riff? To take that back, way way back, there was a group the Graham Bond Organisation, he was a organist and he played a lot of things in forths and he'd written something called 'Spanish Fly' or something like that. And then I was in a band called The Savages and we used to play something in forths and so for the next couple of years I thought a lot in forths. And if you listen to the riff, it's in forths but it originally came from Graham Bond, not the notes, just the actually thought that it would be in forths. It was a very simple riff I had but then I played it in forths because then I was so obsessed with forths at the time. And G was my favorite key. We actually did about two or three tracks of that backingtrack. Then we were thrown out of that hall by the police of Switzerland. And then we went into the Grand Hotel I think to do the rest of the LP. That was just a very simple riff that first thing came to mind.... I can't think what musically inspired me but as I said the thought came from the Graham Bond Organisation. Will you authorize the release of old Rainbow videos and remasters of old Rainbow songs and albums Yes, I would, as long as the proper people get the right money, as long as the fans get a good deal and the people that do the work get paid. But unfortunately today you have a lot of crooked people that just rip people off... remaster things and they don't pay the right people the right money. And a lot of it has been rehashed. Personally if I was a collector wouldn't buy half the stuff they keep regursitating all the time. I mean every year it's something... I don't know. It's "In Rock", "Fireball"... I think it's "Fireball" at the moment and it goes on and on. They keep rereleasing the stuff. It was good at the time and for instance I would love to hear something by Mountain which is my favorite band which influenced us in Deep Purple in the early days. But I wouldn't go out and buy everything which is put out by them because that is purely for the sake of the musicindustry, the recordlabel basically. There's a Pennsylvania Fair. Do you know that? Yes, The Mount Hope. We didn't get there this year. We were going but it finished just before we could because we had our own Renaissance music here but we'll definitely go next year and we go very often to New Hope, Pennsylvania to the Login Inn which has six ghosts by the way. Why do you play a Fender Stratocaster now instead of your Gibson ES-335 like in the past? Good question. I prefer that metallic tone of a Strat, the ES-335 was a little bit more of a jazzy guitar and I changed over around about 1971, around there, or 70. The Gibson is this great guitar. The reason I used to play at Gibson ES-335 was because of Tony Harvey of Nero and The Gladiators, my all-time favorite band. I think he since died unfortunately, great loss, and I used to see him playing a 335 Gibson. Fine person but a long time ago, they used to play things like "In the Hall of the Mountain King" on Decca Records. Fantastic band. They used to dress up as gladiators. Nothing wrong with that. Is the band going to stop in Wichita during the upcoming North American tour? How are you get in touch about it? That varies from week to week. Call the management office and we'll set you in the right direction. The management office is Minstrel Hall Music Carol Stevens. We will definitely let you know who to contact as far as finding out with tours will be here and to request is coming to your area. Things do change unfortunately... in America I'm not sure whether we have that bit of following so things are up and down all the time. One minute the tour is on and then it's off. I postpone the tour at the moment because I'm doing this acoustic project with Candice and I wanted to wait till January so where everybody's caught in snowstorms and then go out and then nobody turn up and I don't have to play and then I can go home. No, not really, the tour was booked for October November December but unfortunately we were sidetracked again. How much input do you expect or want from other band members in the songwriting process? If they good songwriters a hundred percent, if they're bad songwriters nothing.... that might explain a lot of things. What Rainbow or Deep Purple song gave me the most trouble musically to record? Also what's your favorite beer? The first one will be 'Ariel'. That took quite a time because we suddenly realized that we had the whole song in the wrong key for Doogie, so we had to change it. That took about three weeks. My favorite beer would be Hacker-Pschorr, a German beer naturally, fun fast from the barrel... after few of those I don't care what I'm drinking, so I hope that answers your question. What's the black thingy we'd seen on the lower part of your strap in recent years? Oh the black thingy.... that is actually a synthesizer which I only use for Beethoven. It gives me an added depth, sometimes on stage I feel that I don't have enough bottom, although I am putting on weight these days, but it doesn't actually gives me more resonance in the lower octave area. It's a synthesized that which gives me all sorts of effects of which I use at home very much when I'm writing but if I was to use it on stage who knows what might happen because sometimes it's... its tracking is not what it should be but we're working on that. How could we obtain any Ritchie Blackmore souvenir? We are selling a few things through the fanclub on internet. We're getting to that because it would seem that the only people you can really trust to get anything done of the immediate people around you. Thanks to Carol Stevens, we're getting things done these days as opposed to put on the shelf and everybody's waiting and consequently. That's very frustrating. Have you heard Eric Johnson and if so what are your opinion of his music and playing? Eric Johnson is fantastic. Fantastic smooth player, excellent! I think he will outlast all the other guitar players around us at the moment. He has a natural flair to entertain and play, he's not just a very fast player. He plays with a great taste. Amazing yeah, but I don't know too much about him. With the advance in technology do you see the possibility of releasing a cd-rom of a Rainbow recording including music and video for PC users? Yes, we're working on that right now. That's a very good idea. I was very impressed with Michael Oldfield's last effort being a Michael Oldfield fan and we'd like to do something very similar to that. How close are the Signature Series Strats to the real item? Are there going to be a limited edition or will they be fairly easily obtained? I think they'll be given them away at the end of the year. No, I'm joking... I think they'll be given them away at the end of next year. They're very close to what I play but it's sometimes... you know, it's not the guitar, it's the hands, it's the head, whatever a person is thinking at the time but very good. What is your favorite Italian team? Inter Milan is my favorite Italian team because of Lothar Matthäus, Klinsmann and.... what's the full-backs name? Andre... the other German, what is his name... they were my favourite team about five years ago. I like Sampdoria too. The Italian I love the way that they're so passionate. The Italian fans are very passionate about the football. Very passionate about the music and really all the music came from Italy. The good music in the 1500s, the Renaissance period came from Italy through Germany into England and so I do favor Italy a lot. I have a natural likeness for Northern Italy. Do you prefer the late sixties and seventies Strats to be supposedly better modern ones? There's no such thing as the better modern ones or all the old ones. There's a lot of musical snobbery with Strats. I don't go for this "well, I have a Strat that has a serial number of three". I think that's nonsense it's all about what's in your head and what's in your hands. I'm sure someone like Jimi Hendrix could have picked up any Strat and just played it and made it move, made it work. Think more about practicing about the instrument that you're playing on, so that's my advice. Plus get a lawyer very quick. What is your all-time favorite Rainbow album? And what do you think about 'Gates of Babylon'? 'Gates of Babylon'.... I have not heard that song for probably 15 or 20 years. I thought it came together very quickly and I first wrote that on the cello with the help of Hughie McDowell from E.L.O. I was kinda pleased with solo I must admit, that didn't repulse me like most of my solos do. I didn't think I mean you can always do better but I when I heard that back in the studio I felt that I'd done something that was quite good for a change. So better than was an excellent song but we couldn't play it on stage. It didn't sound like I played on stage as I did it on record... and what's the other question? Best LP? That would be "Stranger In Us All" but I'm not forgetting "Rainbow Rising" and a few others... it's very difficult. I can say my least favorite was "Down To Earth" except for 'Since You Been Gone', which I liked. That was not our song, that was of Russ Ballard. How did you invent the very fine guitarsolo in 'Highway Star'? Did it just come up? Yes, it just came up. I worked on it for a few hours before, I was a triple of thing based upon the way that Bach and Mozart play their triplets and those early days. Will you release a live album of the "Stranger In Us All" tour? How do you feel about the "Stranger In Us All" tour? I thought it was very good. We had a good time and this is in Japan. By the time we got to Japan we had played the numbers a few times so I thought we were playing quite well. We did some good shows and it's a good idea. Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of bootlegs out so it's difficult to put something live out when there's so many bootlegs out... but it might be a good idea to put one out. I have a feeling that we did there will be political implications with BMG. How do you feel when you hear the greatest hits of Jimi Hendrix? I'm always inspired by Jimi Hendrix. The man just never gets old, his music is just as fresh today as it was then, way beyond its time. Who or what is your major inspiration in your song writing? A major inspiration is my fiancee Candice. She is not only is a brilliant singer, she is a wonderful person and so is her family not that you'd know them although if you're listening to this you might [laughs]. Note: Please do not contact Neil Warnock. Ritchie's current booking agent is Alec Leslie. His contact information can be found on Ritchie's website: http://www.blackmoresnight.com/contact Ritchie Blackmore Official Website 1996