Ronnie Romero Ritchie Blackmore’s inner circle What was it like being in the Ritchie Blackmore's inner circle compared to the outer circle? It is a huge difference. You're on a stage and you play songs and you are in the Rainbow band and that's great and there were another seven of eight singers who did the same thing before, counting the Rainbow and Deep Purple. There was a lot of singers working with. him. But as you mentioned it's like to be with him (inner circle), having a beer after dinner and talking about UFOs or whatever there was the topic that night until three in the morning. And sometimes he's taking the guitar and we're just singing whatever from the Beatles, Queen, Deep Purple Rainbow and whatever it comes to that moment. And that was probably the most enjoyable thing. It is great. Obviously all of this character that people know from Ritchie like he's a tough guy and he's a difficult person all that stuff, is how you see him outside the circle. And that's in my opinion there's a character and he behaved that way to keep the people away. Which is very understandable, in the way that there is a lot of people trying to get in the (inner) circle. But when you're in (inner circle) he is a very nice guy, he is very loyal, he is very cool, he treats you really well. I have nothing to say bad about Richie Blackmore during the five, six years we worked together or even with my family, they were all nice, all the people they were great they would treat me very good. Were you allowed to disagree with Ritchie? You can have disagreements with them but he remembers the next day (laughs). But it's cool, it's because he is very smart and very clever person. So it's very challenging to have a chat with him because all the time you need to be on the same level and I like that because I'm probably the same kind of person. He's joking all the time and sometimes he's telling jokes, very clever jokes. Because of my English especially at that time when I met Ritchie for the first time I didn't talk English at all. He was telling jokes and I was just like a question mark? And he was doing on (telling jokes) on purpose that I didn't understand (laughs). Jimmy Kay & Alan Dixon, The Metal Voice (Canada) - September 2023