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Insecurities and more insecurities
Guitar Player has an article on Ritchie Blackmore based on an interview he gave to the paper version of the magazine circa 1996.
That relentless, almost surgical pursuit of perfection was felt far beyond his own ranks; it reverberated through the generation of electric guitar players raised on his records. As Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins told Guitar Player in 1995, “Pound for pound, he’s one of the best soloists in history, but he’s such a dick that he’ll probably never get the credit he deserves.”
No one understood the paradox better than Blackmore himself. Asked one year later about his reputation for being difficult, he didn’t deflect. He indicted the entire enterprise.
“I hate show biz. I hate people who confine themselves to the system,” he told Guitar Player. “Why does everyone have to do the right interview at the right time, be on the right program, be politically correct, say the right things and be at the right parties? That gets up my nose. Why can’t I just play the guitar? It’s all I want to do.”
Read more in Guitar Player.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
This:
“ Why can’t I just play the guitar? It’s all I want to do.”
Ohh, so right!
I hear ya mr. Blackmore!
And I have a notion that Ian somehow sees it the same way as RB:
“ I hate show biz. I hate people who confine themselves to the system,” he told Guitar Player. “Why does everyone have to do the right interview at the right time, be on the right program, be politically correct, say the right things and be at the right parties? That gets up my nose.”
– maybe Ian’s just more refined and polite.
It’s such a show… I love it when people are genuine and honest!
February 14th, 2026 at 05:00The pretending to be someone in the spotlight but not at home gets up my nose 😊
Oh my, it’s not too late for a few therapy sessions, Ritchie! 😘
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71kVR9T4pLL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg
I don’t think that any guitarist worth his salt has ever looked down on Ritchie as an instrumentalist, it’s the idiosyncrasies surrounding his persona that have raised eyebrows (or smirks) now and then. Ritchie might have never attained the status of Jimi Hendrix or EvH, but in the 70s he was always confortably in the upper echolons of British guitarists.
February 14th, 2026 at 05:34