Ritchie Blackmore, lead guitarist and co-founder of Deep Purple, was born in Weston-super-Mare, England. Emerging to fame in America in 1968 with the hit single "Hush" Deep Purple has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic at London's Albert Hall, faced fourthousand rioting fans in Stuttgart, and been smuggled out of a concert hall in Iceland in a paddy wagon. Blackmore's first guitar was a secondhand Spanish type which he since replaced with Stratocasters and Gibsons. Recently his solos have been pushed forward in Deep Purple's overall sound which has been recorded in the normal studio settings as well as less orthodox places such as when their album, Machine Head, was made in a hotel corridor in Montreux, Switzerland.
GP-How long have you been playing guitar?
RB-For about fourteen years.
GP-Did you ever have lessons?
RB-I had classical lessons for a year. That
helped, because I learned how to use my
little finger. A lot of blues guitarist
play with only three fingers, and so they
can't figure out certain runs that require
the use of their little fingers. Classical
training is good for that.
GP-Besides getting to use your little
finger, has classical training affected
your playing in any other way?
RB-I would say it shows up most in the music
I write. For example, the chord progression
in "Highway Star" solo Bm, to a Db, to a C,
to a G is a Bach progression. In other words
the classical influence is always there some-
what, but I don't intentionally use it that
much really. I play a lot of single notes,
and that's not classical.
GP-How do you rate Steve Howe (Yes), as far
as putting almost strict classical stylings
into a rock context?
RB-He's very good at it. I remember him from a
long time ago, and he's always been good.
But he's not the kind of guitarist I can
listen to. He's very good at runs, but I
don't like that type of playing much.
GP-When you were first starting out were
you influenced by anyone in particular?
RB-At the time everybody else was copying
Hank B. Marvin and the Shadows. In the
beginning Duane Eddy used to be my
favorite. I also got into James Burton
and Scotty Moore. Big Jim Sullivan was
a big influence. He plays with Tom Jones
now. He's very good, but he's kind of
wasted with Tom Jones. Big Jim used to
live practically next door to me. He'd
only been playing about two years, but
he was just about the best guitarist in
England, straight away. I thought I was
alright and learning pretty well, until
I saw him. I could'nt even understand
what he was doing. So used to kind of
sit on his doorstep and wait. When he'd
come out, I'd ask if I could come in. He
taught me guite a lot of tricks. I think
he used to get a bit fed-up with me
hanging around. But when you're around
someone that good, your own standards
are raised. It saves you a lot of trail
and error.
GP-Did you ever do much work in
record sessions?
RB-When I was about seventeen. Some of the
work was a drag, but some of it was
interesting. Session work makes you more
strict. You can't hit notes all over the
place. You've got to make each one really
count. When you're recording, if you're
not really clean in your playing,
it sounds like a mess. You may think you
sound fabulous on stage, but when you
hear yourself played back on record, it's
just disasterous most of the time.
If you can play well in the studio, you
can play well on stage.
GP-You use three Stratocasters on stage.
Are they mainly for break-downs?
RB-No. I use one of the brown ones mostly.
The black one just happens to have a bit
more of a distorted sound.
GP-Are they modified?
RB-Not much at all. I put the middle pickup
all the way down, because it gets in the
way of the pick. I only use the straight
bass and treble positions. It wouldn't
do me any good trying to use any of
the middle positions on the selector
switch, because the way I play I'd just
be knocking it out of position constantly.
As it is, that black plastic cover keeps
coming off, and I cut myself up all of
the time. I'm not into that Keith Richard
trip of having all those guitars in
different tunings. I never liked the
Rolling Stones much anyway. I guess their
popularity depends on something more than
just their music. I don't use foot pedals
and wah-wahs and fuzzes and whatnot.
I used to, but I found that I couldn't get
a good natural sound. It's impossible.
When a wah-wah pedal's turned off the sound
is very thin. You'd always find that with
Hendrix, for instance.
GP-When do you use your Gibson?
RB-The last time I used it was on the Deep Purple
In Rock album, I think. I prefer the Stratocaster
because it has a more "attacky" sound. At first I
couldn't get used to the Strat after the Gibson.
The necks are quite different. But now I can't get
used to the Gibson again. A Stratocaster is
harder to play than a Gibson, too. I don't
know why. I think it's because you can't race
across a Strat's fingerboard so fast. With a
Gibson you tend to run away with yourself.
It's so easy to zoom up an down, you end up just
playing physical shapes rather than really
working for an original sound.
GP-How did you come to use your tremelo bar
so much?
RB-I liked the way Hendrix used his tremelo, though
I don't think I use it the same way. A lot
of guitarist think that a tremelo arm is for
someone who can't play a hand vibrato. But the
tremelo arm gives a different vibrato all
together. It affects whole chords. I can do
the old hand vibrato just fine, but I like
attacking the strings and getting all those
sounds. You can get a lot of aggression out
with a tremelo arm. I've got a Bigsby on my
Gibson, and it's a wast, because it's got too
much leeway. You have to pull it back a half-an-
inch before it does a thing. But the vibrato
on the Strat reacts immediately. As soon as you
pull on it, the strings start going back.
GP-You do a lot of hammering-on, and
frequently put your pick in your mouth and
play with your fingers.
RB-I play with my feet, also [laughs]. I
use my fingers for different sounds and effects.
But I actually play very lightly.
GP-How did that light touch come about?
RB-Years ago when I was playing in a bit band,
I noticed all these guys with an banjostrings,
so I decided to try them. When I did a solo
they sounded fine, but when it was over I'd
find that the strings would be out of tune.
So I started playing lighter out of necessity.
Playing a Fender is an art itself anyway.
They're always going out of tune. But the way
I play, I've got it pretty well under control.
GP-How loud is your amp setting?
RB-Full up, I've always played every amp I've
ever had full up, because rock and roll
is supposed to be played loud. Also keeping
the amp up is how you get your sustain. I turn
down on the guitar for dynamics. I've also got
my amps boosted. I know Jim Marshall personally,
and he boosted them for me. It's pushing out about
500 watts. I guess that's maybe 1000 watts in
American ratings, but it's all distortion.
The people at Marshall said it's the loudest amp
they'd ever heard. I had an extra stage built onto
it, and a couple more valves. That's why every two
weeks things just to disintegrate. The speakers
really get pushed out. I usually go trough two,
sometimes more, every two weeks. I only use one
of my stacks. The other's just a spare in case
I blow the other up.
GP-Does that happen often?
RB-Sometimes we have a run of bad luck where something
blows up every gig. I've had it happen about six
times continous. You feel like giving it all up
when that happens. Learning to play the guitar
is one thing, but learning to play with a big
amplifier is a different thing altogether. It's
trying to control an elephant.
GP-But you can't get that power rumble without
big amps.
RB-Yes, but that's about all. I'd rather play a
little amp anyway. I used to do the circuit with
a little amp and played ten times better than
I do now. I was fast clean, but nobody took
any notice except other musicians. Normal people
did'nt know what the hell I was doing.
GP-What's that thing on the drum case behind your
amplifier?
RB-A treble-booster with a variable control which
gives me sustain. Hornby Skues made it, but I
had it slightly modified, because I found that on
some nights I had too much sustain, and on
others I didn't have enough. So I had a variable
control put on. Actually, using a Stratocaster,
I don't really need any treble boost. I use the
unit mostly for sustain.
GP-Does the band use all of your stage gear in
the studio's?
RB-The full whack.
GP-When playing live do you stick closely to your
recorded solos?
RB-I try. Unfortunately, I think the only one I
can remember is "Highway Star." I can never
remember what I do even in the studio.
GP-What sort of things affect the quality of your
performances?
RB-Some nights I feel like I can do anything.
Other nights I feel inhibited. It all depends
on what I'm feeling. If I go on stage and think,
"That guy down in the front row thinks I'm an idiot.
He thinks I can't play the guitar," I seize up.
But if just one person says,"You're great." I really
turned on to play. If I overhear someone saying
something like, "This guy's useless, I'm not staying
to watch," it doesn't do me a hell of lot of good.
GP-When do you feel you play best?
RB-Actually, I can play best if we're having a
jam session. The stuff we do on stage is always
basically the same, so I like to jam now and then
to keep in shape. The best I ever played this year
was around Christmas at a jam in Hamburg, Germany
with some of my ol friends who aren't very good
players at all. I thought I played brilliantly,
because I wasn't leaping around. I was just standing
there with small amps.
GP-You don't like leaping around on stage?
RB-I like leaping around on stage as long as it's
done with class. Like Free. They're the best
band in England. Paul Rodgers is a good singer
and an brilliant mover. None of this jumping up
in the air and doing the splits and all that.
He just moves with the music, not like Pete
Townshend who's gotten to the point the he waits
until the photographers are well-aimed before
he leaps. He's not very spontaneous.
GP-Townshend, Page, Hendrix, Beck and even Dave
Davies in the Kinks all are supposed to have been
the first to use feedback, fuzz-boxes, etc. Who
do you think was the first to really start getting
into electricity in a big way?
RB-I've been on the scene for so long that I know all
those people-or someone who does. Therefore, I knew
pretty well who played om what and when and so on.
The first fuzz-box ever used on a guitar for a
recorded solo was used by the Rip Chords about 1957.
The first fuzz-box solo ever played in England was
by a guy named Bernie Watson, on a record in 1960
called "Jack the Ripper," by Sreaming Lord Sutch.
It was a B side.
GP-When did you get your first fuzz-box?
RB-Around 1960 I used to have push about 30 watts
trough a three-inch speaker. But I'd have to kick
the speaker in until I got a fuzz-box sound. I tried
getting a real fuzz-box made up in about 1956. I told
some electricians that I wanted a contraption to control
fuzz and sustain, to overload the amp. But it's funny,
the electricians said they were trying to get away from
distortion. They just wouldn't have it. They thought I
was stupid. Twelve years ago Jimmy Page had a volume
pedal for violin sounds. But Big Jim Sullivan was
actually the first person in England to use a volume
pedal. But "You Really Got Me," by the Kinks was
Jimmy Page because Jon Lord, our organ player, played
piano on that session and Dave Davies was nowhere to
been seen.
But Jimmy used to run around telling everyone
that he played on certain records. I asked him if he
played on "The Crying Game" -that was Dave Berry- and
"My Baby Left Me." He said,"Yes,I played guitar on that."
What he didn't say was that he played rhythm guitar on
it.
Big Jim Sullivan played the solo on "The Crying Game."
He was livid when he heard what Jimmy was running
around saying, because Jimmy had always used his guitar and
everything. Jimmy played rhythm guitar because the lead
guitar bit was a reading part and Jimmy couldn't read.
GP-Who first used feedback?
RB-Pete Townshend was definitely the first. But not
being that good a guitarist, he used to just sort
of crash chords and let the guitar feedback.
He didn't get into twiddling with the dials on the
amplifier until much later. He's overrated in England,
but at the same time you find a lot of people like
Jeff Beck and Hendrix getting credit for things he
started. Townshend was the first to break his guitar,
and he was the first to do a lot of things. He's
very good at his chord scene too.
GP-Why do you suppose groups like Grand Funk are
selling millions of records when there other bands
that are doing the same thing only much better?
RB-Our main audience is about eighteen years old.
People that age don't really understand music that
much. They're trying to understand it, but if they
were really that musically hip they wouldn't even
like us. They wouldn't like Led Zeppelin. They'd
be into someone like Yehudi Menuhin. America is so
vast that I think people buy records mainly of
groups they've seen, and I imagine that they must
have seen Grand Funk all over America, they buy
their records. At the same time though, I have never
met one person who likes Grand Funk. On the
other hand, there might be an increased interest in
people like Pink Floyd. I really like some of
Pink Floyd's stuff. Groups like Curved Air might start
coming into favor. Some of their music is bloody
good-classical, with moogs and bombs going off.
Some nights their music is a complete disaster, but
other nights works. It's chance music. Like some
of the stuff I play.
GP-What do you mean by "chance music"?
RB-If you hold your guitar against the amp you might
get a harmonic feedback, or you might get nothing.
But that's what interest me: Playing with electricity.
Like I can turn on some jazz guitarist, and he won't
do a thing for me, if he's not playing electrically.
But Jeff Beck's great to listen to, because he takes
a change, and when it comes off it's so emotional.
When he gets feedback going right it's like an
orchestra playing instead of just a guitar with a lot
of brilliant runs. Actually, the real art of chance
music is knowing what to do if you don't get what you
tried for. Like if a ballet dancer falls over, it's
knowing how to get out looking clumsy that counts.
Beck takes a chance every night. Sometimes, he's
absolutely useless, and you wonder why he's got a
name. Other times he pulls things off that sound like
nothing you've heard before. He's one of my favorite
guitarist. But taking all thoe chances is why he gets
such bad reviews, sometimes. The reviewers sometime
catch him on nights when it doesn't work. The kind
of things that you do in that kind of playing are
subconscious and depend on what type of day you've
had and thang like that. If Ive read a lot, or if
I've had a game of chess and my mind's working, I can
play much better than if I've had a lazy day of sitting
in a car or plane. But also, I just think there are
good days and bad days, all having to do with the
cycle of life. You know-thirthy days forward and then
ten days backward.
GP-How do you like touring?
RB-If you've only done it for a couple of years it's
alright. But when you've done it for about ten years
like me, you end up feeling like you're always
waiting for somebody or something. You wish that
you could just come over here, play the thirthy
hours and then go home. The whole day is a drag.
You get up and wait at some stupid airport for some
stupid plane which is always late. It's like going
into the army. You say goodbye to everyone and say
"See you again in three months," and the you come
back a physical wreck.
GP-Does listening to solos performed on other
instruments than the guitar help the beginning
guitarist develop a personal style?
RB-Listening to as many guitar solos as possible is
the best method for someone in the early stages. But
saophone solos can be helpful. They're interesting
because thay're all single notes, and therefore can
be repeated on the guitar. If you can copy a sax
solo you're playing very well, because the average
saxophonist can play much better than the average
guitarist. Jimmy Page says he listens to piano
solos.
But I don't see how that helps, because a pianist
can play about ten times the speed of a guitarist.
GP-What advice would you give to a person who
wanted to become a good rock guitarist?
RB-I'd have a tendency to say "Get a good guitar,
and get a good tutor book." Really the
only way you can get good - unless you're
a genius - is to copy. You'll never
come up with your own gear, untill you've
copied.
That's the best thing. Just steal.