In this collection of bite-sized memoirs, Ritchie Blackmore talks about the earliest days of Deep Purple: meeting Derek Lawrence, signing an unfavourable contract, covering Hush, and 16 telegrams from Chris Curtis.
Posted by Nick on Thursday, January 29th, 2026, filed under News. You can follow comment on this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.
‘A house in the country, it had to be haunted’…………Blackmore at his best………..Thanks for the reminder, always enjoy hearing him talk and play the guitar. Cheers.
Blackmore’s memory – when he’s being serious – is phenomenal. He’ll give the date of some relatively obscure historical event, and you look it up and he’s spot on every time. Ritchie’s got perfect timing with his sense of humor. Chris Curtis, obviously, had done one too many magic mushrooms at that point.
I agree with you Karin, he´s my all time favourite guitarist too. But I also admire his voice.. he´s english accent the way he talk its like great english actors like James Mason or Rikard Burton…I could also listen to him all day long. Cheers!
Yet the same Ritchie lambasted Eric Clapton in the early 70s as “overrated” and “doing nothing special”. Just like at various points in his life he has derided bands like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and the Bee Gees (and then nonchalantly hiring Graham Bonnet on the basis of how he sang a Bee Gees song 😎) – only to laud them a few years later.
Take a bag of salt with you when you weigh his comments and sound bites over the decades, more often than not they are not so much fueled by deep and longstanding convictions but by mischievous enthusiasm for raising a little hell and saying something controversial for the heck of it.
Ritchie likely became aware of Hush only because he was living in Hamburg in 1967 (living off, as he later put it, “the immoral earnings” of his then mistress and later second wife Bärbel, a Reeperbahn dancer which he married in 1969), the song in its Billy Joe Royal original version was a hit that same year in Germany:
WIKIPEDIA: “Hush” did afford Billy Joe Royal a one-off hit on the European continent, reaching #12 on the German singles chart and becoming a Top Ten hit in Belgium (#1), the Netherlands (#5) and Switzerland (#2).
That also explains why Purple’s Hush version (to my mind save for the lengthy solo by Jon not THAT radical a departure from the Royal arrangement though that had a more rootsy Southern Gospel feel) never even dented the charts of their later uncontested spiritual home in Germany in 1968: It was simply too early for the song to reenter the German charts and the Billy Joe Royal version was still in everyone’s ears.
Unlike ALL later DP line-ups, Mk I was commercially irrelevant in Germany, DP’s first German chart entry (Top 30) was the Concerto and their first TV appearance in 1969 Hallelujah in the Neat-Club show:
Purple’s version of Hush only became a radio staple in Germany AFTER Mk II had established the name through incessant touring in Deutschland and In Rock’s spectacular success. It would then sideline the Billy Joe Royal original which I have NEVER heard on German radio (maybe it was more a dance club than a radio hit at the time, it is danceable after all). The only other Mk I track you would regularly hear in the 70s on German radio was April, especially on religious holidays when more somber music was called for. 😇😂
I heard Stay With Me Baby first on Dan MacCafferty’s 1975 solo album where Roger Glover played bass throughout (Roger did not produce that record, Nazareth guitarist Manny Charlton did):
However Ritchie Blackmore – the poetic genius has won my girlish guitar-heart. Never forget first time I heard this: https://youtu.be/uEFChMd8-7U?si=I909lpy-2E_rndbs Woah, woah, woah and an extra woah 🤩 How this brilliant guitar player can think EC is great, well that I don’t get 😊
I’m not surprised that Blackmore praises Clapton. After all he’s a huge fan of Mountain and Leslie West, and West’s favorite guitarist and band was Clapton and Cream. I like West as well in fact saw Mountain open for Purple in 2005, but I much prefer Clapton and Cream to Mountain.
I rate Kirk Hammett because – for a guy playing in a (originally even thrash-) metal band that rose to fame in the 80s – he plays like EVH never happened at all. I’ve never seen or heard him tap. Does he ever? I hear 70s heavy rock gods in his playing – Blackmore, Schenker, Iommi or Page -, but I don’t hear EVH. In the 80s when Metallica broke that was so unusual for someone his age (born 1962), it must have been a conscious thing.
Cobain was more a songwriter and singer to me than a guitarist, I don’t think he ever saw himself as a lead guitarist, he was a guitar playing holistic musician in the same sense Neil Young is.
And The Edge, I don’t think he sees himself as a traditional lead guitarist either, he’s within U2 a sound- and atmosphere-creator, often assuming the role a keyboard- or synth-player would assume in another band. Say about him what you will, but he is the chief creator of the U2 sound and his approach to guitar playing has been hugely influential on bands like The Smiths, The Cure, New Order, Duran Duran or Coldplay.
Comparing the two to 60s or 70s guitar gods rings hollow – they never set out to do such a thing. Cobain patterned himself more after John Lennon, Keith Richards, Ron Asheton, Johnny Ramone, Steve Jones and of course Neil Young than any traditional guitar hero from the 60s and 70s.
The story of meeting Chris Curtis and Jon Lord always makes me laugh like crazy! thanks Chris wherever you are, if you hadn’t been so crazy we would never have had Deep Purple!
#6 Uwe:
As a young man, when Purple were the support band, Ritchie was ruthless with his colleagues. For him, Hendrix was number 1 and everyone else was overrated… he was famous when he imitated Clapton on the “3 Little Pigs” theme during the tour with Cream, which pissed off Eric who fired Purple. It’s likely that even with the Faces or others Ritchie did something to make fun of other guitarists, but this was also the essence of his grumpy personality. In all likelihood, after Jimi’s death, Ritchie was the best rock guitarist in the world, and he knew it.
#9 Karin: I partly agree, but Cobain never thought he was a great guitarist, it was the press and fashion that decreed it that way. the same goes for The Edge, but The Edge was definitely better than Cobain. The Edge certainly created a different and particular way of playing, a particular sound, even unique in its genre, strictly suited to U2’s music, certainly repetitive and anchored to itself as much as 95% of the world’s guitarists are anchored to their style over the years (including Blackmore & Morse). Cobain’s guitar playing only deserves credit for using “Power chords” differently for grunge than they were used in heavy metal.
Blackmore has said that he learned the art of vibrato fron “Old Slowhand”, it was something he hadn’t really focused on in the Outlaws/Joe Meek/Lord Sutch days when flashy fast runs were everything.
And of course: Hadn’t Blackmore gotten his talented paws on a hand-me-down Strat from Eric, the development of his guitar playing might have taken a very different turn. I prefer Ritchie’s sound and playing with a Strat very much to his work with the ES 335. Things like Blackmore scalloping the necks of his guitars wouldn’t have happened with a Gibson which due to its shorter scale doesn’t really have the necessary string tension for it.
All that said, Ritchie has been in the past also good for incendiary quotes like this one:
I’m not too struck on Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, I never saw what was in Clapton at all. He’s a good singer.
“And when Cream came along, I thought ‘Well, it’s all happening again.’ Although I was never knocked out with Eric Clapton’s playing, it was competent, and he was copping a lot of the English blues guitarist, and that was a good sign. He had a good sound, but Hendrix was way ahead of him because he could write, he could sing, he could perform. He blew it from 1970 onwards, though. People were supplying him with drugs, and certain managers were doing knotty things.”
On the other hand: Why should Ritchie be more bothered than the rest of us about nonsense he has said in the past? I myself have proudly proclaimed in the past that neither AC/DC nor U2 would ever go commercially anywhere. Me and my predictions. 😑🤣
Michael Schenker thinks Leslie West is god btw. Yet he’s not an avid Blackmore fan though he can be broadly placed in the same neo-classical school of guitarslingers. He rates Blackmore for his views and for forging his own path, also for his choice of musicians (which is why MSG is sort of a scrap heap for ex-Rainbow musicians), but not all that much for his playing. Perhaps Schenker is a bit too much also a rhythm guitarist too idolize Blackmore to whom rhythm guitar was often scarcely more than an afterthought, leaving the real rhythm work to Jon Lord. Schenker otoh never wanted a dominant keyboard player in his bands because he thought they were getting in the way of his – very good and non-angular for a Kraut – rhythm playing.
Because you’re now releasing a tribute song for Ronnie, I would like to know what kind of memories you have of Ronnie James Dio from the ’70s in particular, and when did you first hear about him?
Michael Schenker: I knew about Ronnie from before Rainbow when he was on tour with Elf. It was a band called Elf. And so, the first time we…. We used to play a lot together at festivals, UFO and Rainbow. So, I got little glimpses of him every here and there. I heard “Long Live Rock N Roll,” which is fantastic, especially the vocals. And because that was—Actually, Cozy Powell played it to me because he was playing on it, and that became one of my favorite songs. But I don’t really remember many other songs from Rainbow because I never really listened to it. I would just hear glimpses at festivals, but I don’t listen to music. I don’t have a record player, or I don’t listen to music in the car or on the radio because I want to stay as pure as possible with self-expression because the brain copies everything we hear. If we consciously do it or not, we might do it subconsciously. So, I knew that from when I was 18 years old. I stayed away. And just because I love to self-express, to do it the way I think– the way I want to do it. That’s what I do, regardless of what the outcome is or regardless if it’s going to be great or well received by the audience or not. I just do it because it’s an artist’s way of doing it.
I have one more question about Ronnie James Dio. Did you ever have any plans to collaborate with him?
Michael Schenker: Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no. When I said NO to all these people who wanted me to play with them, like Ozzy Osbourne, Ian Hunter, Thin Lizzy, and Aerosmith, the list was endless. And I think it just kind of spread around. “Don’t bother asking Michael Schenker; he will reject anyway” [laughter]. So, I don’t think that Ronnie did even think about asking me because he knew that I would reject it. I would not have, no matter who asked, I would not have joined any band because I then would have to play past music, and I hate copying music anyway. But I like to self-express.
As you said, UFO often played at the same festivals as Rainbow in the 70s, so you knew each other already then. But what’s interesting is that many musicians have played with both bands over the years— Cozy Powell, Graham Bonnet, Don Airey, Doogie White, and now Ronnie Romero. Is that just a coincidence?
Michael Schenker: I always say that Ritchie Blackmore and I are living in a parallel universe. [laughter] We’re kind of doing the same things. He left the Purple; I left UFO. Then Rainbow got the replacement, and UFO got the replacement. Both of them got their replacement from the same management. And then I was doing acoustic guitar, and then Ritchie started doing acoustic guitar. And then I had Cozy come to me and join MSG. Everybody who left, or most people leaving Rainbow, would come to MSG. It was kind of very strange. And then even the Purple asked me to join them, and it was just kind of very powerful, very, very closely connected. But yet, we don’t really know much about each other, but we have very similar things happen to us in life.
And you both have a good taste of great musicians!
Michael Schenker: That’s one other thing! [laughter]
Another thing about Ritchie Blackmore. You both are among the most respected and influential guitar players in the world. So, if you think about the very early days, how did you discover Blackmore for the first time?
Michael Schenker: Do you know how I discovered Ritchie Blackmore? It was because of the singer, my friend, and me; we were about 13 years old. And we heard about that singer, Ian Gillan, singing really high. It was a song called “Child in Time.” We listened to the song, the real high singing, and we think like, “Oh, we have to get the album.” So, we got the album, and that’s when I discovered all the other musicians in the band. Ian Paice is really good. I even went to see a live concert when I was 13 or 14. I think it was Deep Purple, and we were there not because of Ritchie but because of the whole band. The whole band was remarkable. All the players were really good. But Ritchie also had some unique things that he was playing, which was attractive. But I would not really – I mean, I was attracted to anybody from the late 60s, early 70s who was a great guitarist. And those guitarists, they all had their own style. Nobody was really cropping anybody. They all had their own style. It was amazing, unlike in the 80s when everybody sounded the same.
Then everyone either sounded like Eddie Van Halen or me or somebody else. But they all just copied everybody. There was no self-expression at all. But in the late 60s and the early 70s, everybody sounded like they had their own style, and that’s why it was so interesting. So, I went to do like “guitarist hunting” on festivals and stuff like that when I was 14 years old. There were so many great guitarists that I would kind of be interested in and listen to and so on. And so, it was just when Black Sabbath came out. You know that guitar sound? That was for me like, “Wow! That is amazing what he can do!” Although Tony wasn’t playing that great, but the sound he had was amazing, and so were the melodies he played. So, that’s when I got sold on that distortion, and that’s when I went my own way.
@ 14 – excellent points Fla 76, everyone has their niche, it is only the flavour that changes in the consumers mind. I am not a U2 follower at all, but The Edge has his way of playing and why not? The same with Kurt Cobain. Cheers
I think the most striking thing about 80s DP as compared to 70s DP was the loss of the bluesy groove they had initially had, not totally, but noticably less than in their heyday. Things didn’t swing and glide as much anymore in the 80s, there was less roll and I largely blame Ritchie for that, he had gotten used with Rainbow to playing things too fast and also developed a love for a more rigid rhythm section work – none of that benefitted Purple’s inherent musicality.
Both bands, Gillan and Rainbow had a penchant for the fast songs…..that influence was dominant upon the return of MKII… don’t blame Ritchie only………The Gillan songs were more thrashy too and with no swing either……………….Poor Ritchie, someone should place a halo over his head, or maybe he had one hidden under his hat to stop the white light from emanating everywhere. Cheers.
admired certainly not by guitarists or by those who listened to 70s/80s rock and understood even a little what it meant to have musical technique and musical culture.
Nirvana were a band that broke all previous molds, as a vision they were artistically relevant, but technically they were as much of a sheep as most of the punk and dark bands of the 80s.
Didn’t realise Michael Schenker had turned down so many offers to collaborate. Or that an invitation to join DP in 1995 was among them.
He did spend half a year or so with Ratt. Just before they imploded in 1991, which may have been why their “Unplugged” session wasn’t issued as a record, like so many of their contemporaries’ were. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deHM9w4vDcE
Oh yeah, he had invites from the Stones (as early as 1975), Whitesnake, Motörhead and Aerosmith too. But Michael is his own worst enemy and always good for totally erratic, non-commercial and career-damaging decisions. God gave him wonderful hands and a musical brain, but everything else is pretty much messed up. Rudolf was the less gifted brother, but also the more focused mind.
That Michael got an offer from DP doesn’t surprise me, given that Roger knew him from producing his first solo album after UFO. Roger has an eye and ear for good guitarists. It wouldn’t have worked though, the set list baggage with DP would have been too great for him, Michael wants to play his own songs and pretty much only those. He’s a musical hermit.
I had never seen that vid of him playing with Ratt until now, vielen lieben Dank!
This is probably his earliest TV show – from 1972, still with the Scorpions and nearly a year before (a) UFO abducted him, he was age 17, doing proggy Krautrock (or krauty Prog Rock):
Ritchie is always coming as a calm, smooth storyteller. I also agree with the notion that his voice has something, like Richard Burton had. In an intimate and relaxing setting, I could listen to his stories for hours.
Although history has taught us for not taking Blackmore’s opinion too seriously as it might change in another time, or that wasn’t what he meant (in other words, his infamous dark humour).
If I’m not mistaken, Gillan did it, by responding to Ritchie’s “I’m going to attack Ian Gillan in the back alley”. Perhaps the interviewer tried his best to push that to Gillan, to invite potential headlines. Because Gillan certainly missed Blackmore’s last part (He’s bigger than me, and probably a better fighter. So I’m gonna do it with a few friends of mine, probably Swedish) lol.
Interesting take on what would be Deep Purple if Michael Schenker joined the gang after Ritchie / Satriani left. Certainly, die hard Mark 2 fans would be more open arms than to Steve
But I guess it might not last 5-10 years as he was already on the track with his solo career, a man on his own. Being in a democratic band where he would be only one-fifth might expose him. Just see his ‘records’, his not-so-amicable exits from Scorpions and UFO, and his rejection to join Ozzy’s band. The last thing Purple needed at the time, potential conflict that might lead them to end the band permanently
Regardless of all the talk about Schenker’s solo career, if he had joined Purple he would have won the lottery as much as Steve Morse did or as much as Satriani or Malmsteen or whoever else took the Man in Black throne.
If Schenker had joined Purple in 1996, he would have since then left and rejoined them at least five times. 🤣 As regards planning security, my countryman is a walking talking liability, not something the Purple organization, especially not Bruce Payne could have put up with.
I (lamentably) never saw Schenker with UFO (people who saw them with Schenker in the 70s said they were a legendary live act), but I saw him solo a couple of times and once with the Scorpions on the Lovedrive tour. Man was he physically uncomfortable on stage having to play Uli Roth’s parts, he viscerally hated being there. The Scorpions weren’t his band anymore.
Ritchie is smart as he knows that Vikings NEVER take a backward step. Big Ian would have been doomed. Regarding DP replacing Blackers, the last thing they would have been looking at was a guitarist with an out of control ego (type Yngwie’s name here). And the fact that they invited Satriani probably smacked a little of desperation. He was very keen setting himself up solo wise, he would have told them that up front no doubt. Steve had already been there and done that Dregs and solo thing and as we know he is very modest and unassuming etc, so he was the right guy in so many ways. There would not have been too many other ‘rock’ guitarists on planet earth to fit that bill would there? Many rock guitarists are the worse for trouble making are they not, followed closely by lead vocalists. Drummers of course are not like that at all. Cheers.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride6.jpg)
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
‘A house in the country, it had to be haunted’…………Blackmore at his best………..Thanks for the reminder, always enjoy hearing him talk and play the guitar. Cheers.
January 30th, 2026 at 01:53Blackmore’s memory – when he’s being serious – is phenomenal. He’ll give the date of some relatively obscure historical event, and you look it up and he’s spot on every time. Ritchie’s got perfect timing with his sense of humor. Chris Curtis, obviously, had done one too many magic mushrooms at that point.
January 30th, 2026 at 04:56Awww he thinks EC was the best guitar player in the world 😁
RB is a poet, my favourite guitarist ☺️
January 30th, 2026 at 05:29I could listen to him all day long.
I agree with you Karin, he´s my all time favourite guitarist too. But I also admire his voice.. he´s english accent the way he talk its like great english actors like James Mason or Rikard Burton…I could also listen to him all day long.
January 30th, 2026 at 09:28Cheers!
@ 3.. Karin, Eric Clapton in my opinion is the most overrated guitarist ever.
January 30th, 2026 at 12:57Yet the same Ritchie lambasted Eric Clapton in the early 70s as “overrated” and “doing nothing special”. Just like at various points in his life he has derided bands like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and the Bee Gees (and then nonchalantly hiring Graham Bonnet on the basis of how he sang a Bee Gees song 😎) – only to laud them a few years later.
Take a bag of salt with you when you weigh his comments and sound bites over the decades, more often than not they are not so much fueled by deep and longstanding convictions but by mischievous enthusiasm for raising a little hell and saying something controversial for the heck of it.
January 30th, 2026 at 13:27Ritchie likely became aware of Hush only because he was living in Hamburg in 1967 (living off, as he later put it, “the immoral earnings” of his then mistress and later second wife Bärbel, a Reeperbahn dancer which he married in 1969), the song in its Billy Joe Royal original version was a hit that same year in Germany:
https://youtu.be/ZUd1TKSDj4A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz4Kneqsk70
WIKIPEDIA: “Hush” did afford Billy Joe Royal a one-off hit on the European continent, reaching #12 on the German singles chart and becoming a Top Ten hit in Belgium (#1), the Netherlands (#5) and Switzerland (#2).
That also explains why Purple’s Hush version (to my mind save for the lengthy solo by Jon not THAT radical a departure from the Royal arrangement though that had a more rootsy Southern Gospel feel) never even dented the charts of their later uncontested spiritual home in Germany in 1968: It was simply too early for the song to reenter the German charts and the Billy Joe Royal version was still in everyone’s ears.
Unlike ALL later DP line-ups, Mk I was commercially irrelevant in Germany, DP’s first German chart entry (Top 30) was the Concerto and their first TV appearance in 1969 Hallelujah in the Neat-Club show:
https://youtu.be/XdsdlbLTMaM
Purple’s version of Hush only became a radio staple in Germany AFTER Mk II had established the name through incessant touring in Deutschland and In Rock’s spectacular success. It would then sideline the Billy Joe Royal original which I have NEVER heard on German radio (maybe it was more a dance club than a radio hit at the time, it is danceable after all). The only other Mk I track you would regularly hear in the 70s on German radio was April, especially on religious holidays when more somber music was called for. 😇😂
January 30th, 2026 at 14:23I heard Stay With Me Baby first on Dan MacCafferty’s 1975 solo album where Roger Glover played bass throughout (Roger did not produce that record, Nazareth guitarist Manny Charlton did):
https://youtu.be/9tdSmp20dR4
I was unaware of the – indeed spectacularly rendered – original
https://youtu.be/mmieZIObElE
by Lorraine Ellison. It has become somewhat of a female vocal prowess standard since then:
https://youtu.be/heu88ey5kjc
https://youtu.be/NqLEVph-uDg
January 30th, 2026 at 14:44@5
Well, mr Buttocks, I agree with you, to some extent ☺️
I could think of other guitarists who are equally overrated, what do you think of this guy:
https://youtu.be/hTWKbfoikeg?si=c4CwfoyurenxFsn5
Or Kirk Hemmet, I really don’t appreciate Metallica at all, but KH is among the worst (imho and all that 😁)
Of course this guitarist here is heavily debated, or sorry, was, years ago:
https://youtu.be/GkgvIPpdboA?si=1CKm7yPm5QS6Syrr
I almost don’t dare saying I like some of his playing, but I do 😊
However Ritchie Blackmore – the poetic genius has won my girlish guitar-heart. Never forget first time I heard this:
January 30th, 2026 at 18:38https://youtu.be/uEFChMd8-7U?si=I909lpy-2E_rndbs
Woah, woah, woah and an extra woah 🤩
How this brilliant guitar player can think EC is great, well that I don’t get 😊
What Eric Clapton plays when people call him “overrated”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dATZzP0n0QE
January 30th, 2026 at 18:55@ 9… Karin totally agree with you on Cobain and the Edge, terrible. Now Kirk i do enjoy mainly his early stuff.
January 30th, 2026 at 21:01I’m not surprised that Blackmore praises Clapton. After all he’s a huge fan of Mountain and Leslie West, and West’s favorite guitarist and band was Clapton and Cream. I like West as well in fact saw Mountain open for Purple in 2005, but I much prefer Clapton and Cream to Mountain.
January 31st, 2026 at 04:52I rate Kirk Hammett because – for a guy playing in a (originally even thrash-) metal band that rose to fame in the 80s – he plays like EVH never happened at all. I’ve never seen or heard him tap. Does he ever? I hear 70s heavy rock gods in his playing – Blackmore, Schenker, Iommi or Page -, but I don’t hear EVH. In the 80s when Metallica broke that was so unusual for someone his age (born 1962), it must have been a conscious thing.
Cobain was more a songwriter and singer to me than a guitarist, I don’t think he ever saw himself as a lead guitarist, he was a guitar playing holistic musician in the same sense Neil Young is.
And The Edge, I don’t think he sees himself as a traditional lead guitarist either, he’s within U2 a sound- and atmosphere-creator, often assuming the role a keyboard- or synth-player would assume in another band. Say about him what you will, but he is the chief creator of the U2 sound and his approach to guitar playing has been hugely influential on bands like The Smiths, The Cure, New Order, Duran Duran or Coldplay.
Comparing the two to 60s or 70s guitar gods rings hollow – they never set out to do such a thing. Cobain patterned himself more after John Lennon, Keith Richards, Ron Asheton, Johnny Ramone, Steve Jones and of course Neil Young than any traditional guitar hero from the 60s and 70s.
January 31st, 2026 at 14:30The story of meeting Chris Curtis and Jon Lord always makes me laugh like crazy!
thanks Chris wherever you are, if you hadn’t been so crazy we would never have had Deep Purple!
#6 Uwe:
As a young man, when Purple were the support band, Ritchie was ruthless with his colleagues. For him, Hendrix was number 1 and everyone else was overrated… he was famous when he imitated Clapton on the “3 Little Pigs” theme during the tour with Cream, which pissed off Eric who fired Purple.
It’s likely that even with the Faces or others Ritchie did something to make fun of other guitarists, but this was also the essence of his grumpy personality.
In all likelihood, after Jimi’s death, Ritchie was the best rock guitarist in the world, and he knew it.
#9 Karin:
January 31st, 2026 at 15:17I partly agree, but Cobain never thought he was a great guitarist, it was the press and fashion that decreed it that way.
the same goes for The Edge, but The Edge was definitely better than Cobain.
The Edge certainly created a different and particular way of playing, a particular sound, even unique in its genre, strictly suited to U2’s music, certainly repetitive and anchored to itself as much as 95% of the world’s guitarists are anchored to their style over the years (including Blackmore & Morse).
Cobain’s guitar playing only deserves credit for using “Power chords” differently for grunge than they were used in heavy metal.
Blackmore has said that he learned the art of vibrato fron “Old Slowhand”, it was something he hadn’t really focused on in the Outlaws/Joe Meek/Lord Sutch days when flashy fast runs were everything.
And of course: Hadn’t Blackmore gotten his talented paws on a hand-me-down Strat from Eric, the development of his guitar playing might have taken a very different turn. I prefer Ritchie’s sound and playing with a Strat very much to his work with the ES 335. Things like Blackmore scalloping the necks of his guitars wouldn’t have happened with a Gibson which due to its shorter scale doesn’t really have the necessary string tension for it.
All that said, Ritchie has been in the past also good for incendiary quotes like this one:
I’m not too struck on Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, I never saw what was in Clapton at all. He’s a good singer.
“And when Cream came along, I thought ‘Well, it’s all happening again.’ Although I was never knocked out with Eric Clapton’s playing, it was competent, and he was copping a lot of the English blues guitarist, and that was a good sign. He had a good sound, but Hendrix was way ahead of him because he could write, he could sing, he could perform. He blew it from 1970 onwards, though. People were supplying him with drugs, and certain managers were doing knotty things.”
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-ritchie-blackmore-never-saw-what-was-in-eric-clapton/
On the other hand: Why should Ritchie be more bothered than the rest of us about nonsense he has said in the past? I myself have proudly proclaimed in the past that neither AC/DC nor U2 would ever go commercially anywhere. Me and my predictions. 😑🤣
Michael Schenker thinks Leslie West is god btw. Yet he’s not an avid Blackmore fan though he can be broadly placed in the same neo-classical school of guitarslingers. He rates Blackmore for his views and for forging his own path, also for his choice of musicians (which is why MSG is sort of a scrap heap for ex-Rainbow musicians), but not all that much for his playing. Perhaps Schenker is a bit too much also a rhythm guitarist too idolize Blackmore to whom rhythm guitar was often scarcely more than an afterthought, leaving the real rhythm work to Jon Lord. Schenker otoh never wanted a dominant keyboard player in his bands because he thought they were getting in the way of his – very good and non-angular for a Kraut – rhythm playing.
January 31st, 2026 at 17:46Michael Schenker on Ritchie and DP in 2022:
https://chaoszine.net/michael-schenker-to-chaoszine-i-always-say-that-ritchie-blackmore-and-i-are-living-in-a-parallel-universe/
Because you’re now releasing a tribute song for Ronnie, I would like to know what kind of memories you have of Ronnie James Dio from the ’70s in particular, and when did you first hear about him?
Michael Schenker: I knew about Ronnie from before Rainbow when he was on tour with Elf. It was a band called Elf. And so, the first time we…. We used to play a lot together at festivals, UFO and Rainbow. So, I got little glimpses of him every here and there. I heard “Long Live Rock N Roll,” which is fantastic, especially the vocals. And because that was—Actually, Cozy Powell played it to me because he was playing on it, and that became one of my favorite songs. But I don’t really remember many other songs from Rainbow because I never really listened to it. I would just hear glimpses at festivals, but I don’t listen to music. I don’t have a record player, or I don’t listen to music in the car or on the radio because I want to stay as pure as possible with self-expression because the brain copies everything we hear. If we consciously do it or not, we might do it subconsciously. So, I knew that from when I was 18 years old. I stayed away. And just because I love to self-express, to do it the way I think– the way I want to do it. That’s what I do, regardless of what the outcome is or regardless if it’s going to be great or well received by the audience or not. I just do it because it’s an artist’s way of doing it.
I have one more question about Ronnie James Dio. Did you ever have any plans to collaborate with him?
Michael Schenker: Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no. When I said NO to all these people who wanted me to play with them, like Ozzy Osbourne, Ian Hunter, Thin Lizzy, and Aerosmith, the list was endless. And I think it just kind of spread around. “Don’t bother asking Michael Schenker; he will reject anyway” [laughter]. So, I don’t think that Ronnie did even think about asking me because he knew that I would reject it. I would not have, no matter who asked, I would not have joined any band because I then would have to play past music, and I hate copying music anyway. But I like to self-express.
As you said, UFO often played at the same festivals as Rainbow in the 70s, so you knew each other already then. But what’s interesting is that many musicians have played with both bands over the years— Cozy Powell, Graham Bonnet, Don Airey, Doogie White, and now Ronnie Romero. Is that just a coincidence?
Michael Schenker: I always say that Ritchie Blackmore and I are living in a parallel universe. [laughter] We’re kind of doing the same things. He left the Purple; I left UFO. Then Rainbow got the replacement, and UFO got the replacement. Both of them got their replacement from the same management. And then I was doing acoustic guitar, and then Ritchie started doing acoustic guitar. And then I had Cozy come to me and join MSG. Everybody who left, or most people leaving Rainbow, would come to MSG. It was kind of very strange. And then even the Purple asked me to join them, and it was just kind of very powerful, very, very closely connected. But yet, we don’t really know much about each other, but we have very similar things happen to us in life.
And you both have a good taste of great musicians!
Michael Schenker: That’s one other thing! [laughter]
Another thing about Ritchie Blackmore. You both are among the most respected and influential guitar players in the world. So, if you think about the very early days, how did you discover Blackmore for the first time?
Michael Schenker: Do you know how I discovered Ritchie Blackmore? It was because of the singer, my friend, and me; we were about 13 years old. And we heard about that singer, Ian Gillan, singing really high. It was a song called “Child in Time.” We listened to the song, the real high singing, and we think like, “Oh, we have to get the album.” So, we got the album, and that’s when I discovered all the other musicians in the band. Ian Paice is really good. I even went to see a live concert when I was 13 or 14. I think it was Deep Purple, and we were there not because of Ritchie but because of the whole band. The whole band was remarkable. All the players were really good. But Ritchie also had some unique things that he was playing, which was attractive. But I would not really – I mean, I was attracted to anybody from the late 60s, early 70s who was a great guitarist. And those guitarists, they all had their own style. Nobody was really cropping anybody. They all had their own style. It was amazing, unlike in the 80s when everybody sounded the same.
Then everyone either sounded like Eddie Van Halen or me or somebody else. But they all just copied everybody. There was no self-expression at all. But in the late 60s and the early 70s, everybody sounded like they had their own style, and that’s why it was so interesting. So, I went to do like “guitarist hunting” on festivals and stuff like that when I was 14 years old. There were so many great guitarists that I would kind of be interested in and listen to and so on. And so, it was just when Black Sabbath came out. You know that guitar sound? That was for me like, “Wow! That is amazing what he can do!” Although Tony wasn’t playing that great, but the sound he had was amazing, and so were the melodies he played. So, that’s when I got sold on that distortion, and that’s when I went my own way.
January 31st, 2026 at 19:50@ 14 – excellent points Fla 76, everyone has their niche, it is only the flavour that changes in the consumers mind. I am not a U2 follower at all, but The Edge has his way of playing and why not? The same with Kurt Cobain. Cheers
January 31st, 2026 at 21:24I think the most striking thing about 80s DP as compared to 70s DP was the loss of the bluesy groove they had initially had, not totally, but noticably less than in their heyday. Things didn’t swing and glide as much anymore in the 80s, there was less roll and I largely blame Ritchie for that, he had gotten used with Rainbow to playing things too fast and also developed a love for a more rigid rhythm section work – none of that benefitted Purple’s inherent musicality.
February 1st, 2026 at 00:38Ok Uwe and Buttocks, I get your points, but I am really not fond of Metallica, even though they have a Danish drummer, who also loves Purple 😃
February 1st, 2026 at 09:47@14
Fla76 – I know Cobain wasn’t a guitarist pr say, as Ritchie Blackmore was(is) but he was highly admired, at least as far as I remember 😊
And yes the Edge was one of my favourites, to some extent, actually ‘the Joshua Tree’ was a surprise and this one blew my mind:
February 1st, 2026 at 09:54https://youtu.be/e3-5YC_oHjE?si=2168XZs_viI6djvs
#18 Uwe:
also consider that Paicey began playing with the click
February 1st, 2026 at 10:35Both bands, Gillan and Rainbow had a penchant for the fast songs…..that influence was dominant upon the return of MKII… don’t blame Ritchie only………The Gillan songs were more thrashy too and with no swing either……………….Poor Ritchie, someone should place a halo over his head, or maybe he had one hidden under his hat to stop the white light from emanating everywhere. Cheers.
February 1st, 2026 at 12:50#20 Karin:
admired certainly not by guitarists or by those who listened to 70s/80s rock and understood even a little what it meant to have musical technique and musical culture.
Nirvana were a band that broke all previous molds, as a vision they were artistically relevant, but technically they were as much of a sheep as most of the punk and dark bands of the 80s.
February 1st, 2026 at 13:59Didn’t realise Michael Schenker had turned down so many offers to collaborate. Or that an invitation to join DP in 1995 was among them.
He did spend half a year or so with Ratt. Just before they imploded in 1991, which may have been why their “Unplugged” session wasn’t issued as a record, like so many of their contemporaries’ were.
February 1st, 2026 at 20:10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deHM9w4vDcE
Oh yeah, he had invites from the Stones (as early as 1975), Whitesnake, Motörhead and Aerosmith too. But Michael is his own worst enemy and always good for totally erratic, non-commercial and career-damaging decisions. God gave him wonderful hands and a musical brain, but everything else is pretty much messed up. Rudolf was the less gifted brother, but also the more focused mind.
That Michael got an offer from DP doesn’t surprise me, given that Roger knew him from producing his first solo album after UFO. Roger has an eye and ear for good guitarists. It wouldn’t have worked though, the set list baggage with DP would have been too great for him, Michael wants to play his own songs and pretty much only those. He’s a musical hermit.
I had never seen that vid of him playing with Ratt until now, vielen lieben Dank!
This is probably his earliest TV show – from 1972, still with the Scorpions and nearly a year before (a) UFO abducted him, he was age 17, doing proggy Krautrock (or krauty Prog Rock):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjojP5x06Uk
A most busy bass courtesy of Lothar Heimberg, Francis Buchholz’ forgotten predecessor! 😎
February 1st, 2026 at 21:20Ritchie is always coming as a calm, smooth storyteller. I also agree with the notion that his voice has something, like Richard Burton had. In an intimate and relaxing setting, I could listen to his stories for hours.
Although history has taught us for not taking Blackmore’s opinion too seriously as it might change in another time, or that wasn’t what he meant (in other words, his infamous dark humour).
If I’m not mistaken, Gillan did it, by responding to Ritchie’s “I’m going to attack Ian Gillan in the back alley”. Perhaps the interviewer tried his best to push that to Gillan, to invite potential headlines. Because Gillan certainly missed Blackmore’s last part (He’s bigger than me, and probably a better fighter. So I’m gonna do it with a few friends of mine, probably Swedish) lol.
Interesting take on what would be Deep Purple if Michael Schenker joined the gang after Ritchie / Satriani left. Certainly, die hard Mark 2 fans would be more open arms than to Steve
But I guess it might not last 5-10 years as he was already on the track with his solo career, a man on his own. Being in a democratic band where he would be only one-fifth might expose him. Just see his ‘records’, his not-so-amicable exits from Scorpions and UFO, and his rejection to join Ozzy’s band. The last thing Purple needed at the time, potential conflict that might lead them to end the band permanently
February 2nd, 2026 at 07:25@ 13….Yes Kirk has said in the past that his favorite guitarest is Michael Schenker
February 2nd, 2026 at 13:13#26 Andre:
Regardless of all the talk about Schenker’s solo career, if he had joined Purple he would have won the lottery as much as Steve Morse did or as much as Satriani or Malmsteen or whoever else took the Man in Black throne.
February 2nd, 2026 at 21:36If Schenker had joined Purple in 1996, he would have since then left and rejoined them at least five times. 🤣 As regards planning security, my countryman is a walking talking liability, not something the Purple organization, especially not Bruce Payne could have put up with.
I (lamentably) never saw Schenker with UFO (people who saw them with Schenker in the 70s said they were a legendary live act), but I saw him solo a couple of times and once with the Scorpions on the Lovedrive tour. Man was he physically uncomfortable on stage having to play Uli Roth’s parts, he viscerally hated being there. The Scorpions weren’t his band anymore.
February 2nd, 2026 at 21:59Ritchie is smart as he knows that Vikings NEVER take a backward step. Big Ian would have been doomed. Regarding DP replacing Blackers, the last thing they would have been looking at was a guitarist with an out of control ego (type Yngwie’s name here). And the fact that they invited Satriani probably smacked a little of desperation. He was very keen setting himself up solo wise, he would have told them that up front no doubt. Steve had already been there and done that Dregs and solo thing and as we know he is very modest and unassuming etc, so he was the right guy in so many ways. There would not have been too many other ‘rock’ guitarists on planet earth to fit that bill would there? Many rock guitarists are the worse for trouble making are they not, followed closely by lead vocalists. Drummers of course are not like that at all. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X-LWzFmZnA&t=27s
February 3rd, 2026 at 07:33