Ritchie Blackmore has opened up about his recent surprise reunion with Deep Purple.
The 81-year-old guitarist joined his former bandmates onstage at the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York on August 12, where he played Purple classic Smoke On The Water. It was his first appearance with the band since 1993, and followed decades of often bitter estrangement.
Now the guitarist has addressed the reaction to his appearance, which was teased by his wife Candice Night the day before the show. Speaking in the first instalment of a new 13-part interview series with Phil Aston of Now Spinning magazine, Blackmore reveals when he decided to play – and his thoughts on the reaction to his appearance.
“I sat up in bed and thought, ‘What about if I got up on stage, as they’re in the area?’” Blackmore says. “They’re playing a great place called the Jones Beach Theater. And it’s outside, and the view is over the water. Magnificent place. And I’ve always wanted to play there. But I sat up in bed and I thought, ‘I wonder if…’
Blackmore adds that he asked Candice: “How do you feel about me just asking [Purple singer] Ian Gillan if it’s all right to play in Smoke On The Water, then just disappearing?’ And then she thought it was a good idea, so we sent him an e-mail via Candice.
“And so we sallied forth and infiltrated. Now Candice sent the e-mail and Ian said, ‘Yes, of course. Welcome aboard. All the band is up for it. Come on stage for Smoke.’ I just wanted to do one song, and I thought that would be the song. It’s big over here [in the US] – bigger here than it was in Europe. And so we kind of advertised it in a little way. Not much, just enough. And funnily enough, the ticket sales went up, which was nice. Anyway, they thought it was a good idea.”
Blackmore added that “everybody was so helpful… incredibly nice” when he arrived at the show. “And I played my three or four minutes of Smoke On The Water, which seemed to go down like I just invented the cure for cancer.
He continued: “And I felt very good about it because it was like playing with old friends… It’d been, like, 35 years since I’d actually played with the band, and nobody had changed. Everybody was great. And thank goodness it went off without a hitch, but it could have quite easily have fallen apart, and that would’ve been embarrassing.
“But it was well worth doing,” he concluded. “It was a good idea that I had, and it came to me very early one morning when I was in bed. I just thought, ‘Why not?’ Cos we never know when we’re going to meet again, which is like a sad note in a way.”
Speaking in the brand new issue of Classic Rock, Ian Gillan suggested the appearance had effectively been in the cards for some time.
“I wasn’t really surprised it happened,” the singer says. “I’ve been in touch with Ritchie for quite a long time now, and we’re on very good terms. All the nonsense from the past is now water under the bridge.”
(LouderSound)
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