There’s always a fair amount of fuss when bands refuse to reunite with former members for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction performances, but DEEP PURPLE‘s Ian Gillan knows exactly where those groups are coming from, as reported by ultimateclassicrock.com.
Using Gene Simmons‘ and Paul Stanley‘s decision not to do a set with ex-bandmates Ace Frehley and Peter Criss following KISS‘ induction into the Hall as an example, Rolling Stone asked Gillan if, should Deep Purple be inducted, they’d be willing to play with former guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. “This is the longest that any lineup has ever been together in this band,” he responded simply. “And it would be unconscionable to think about bringing Ritchie in.”
Gillan’s stance regarding Blackmore, who left in 1993, is nothing new, but he stopped to note that his point of view has more to do with honoring the work done by the current version of the band — and the talent of Blackmore’s replacement, Steve Morse — than old grudges. “I don’t have an issue with Ritchie, nor does anyone. I’ve been in touch with Ritchie recently and everything’s cool, so there’s no bitter, personal problem. We’re too old for that and everything’s in the past, but no. That would be out of the question.”
While he made a point of staying as diplomatic as possible about the Rock Hall in general, saying the band doesn’t “really understand it, but if I treat it with respect, we’ll see what happens,” Gillan made it clear that if Blackmore’s involvement in a ceremony set was required for their induction, he’d turn it down. “If that’s the stumbling block, fair enough,” he shrugged. “Never the twain shall meet.”
Of course, Deep Purple isn’t exactly crying out for the extra help — their most recent release, 2013′s ‘Now What?!,’ was well-received, and Gillan was speaking with Rolling Stone on the eve of the band’s biggest U.S. tour in years. But most importantly, he sees Blackmore’s departure as a crucial turning point in the group’s ongoing development.
“Let’s get the record straight: I was just as much of an a–hole as Ritchie was,” Gillan admitted. “But Ritchie carried it on for a little longer. Had Ritchie stayed with the band, it would have been all over. It would have just ended. Without any doubt in anyone’s mind — it was all over. So the day he walked out was the day we had to rebuild. … It’s good to go through those crises. It doesn’t do your heart any good, but that was the spirit of the band. So to go back to the question of ‘Would we do the show with Ritchie?’ I think that would be hugely disrespectful to what I call the living, breathing, Deep Purple. There’s always been a living, breathing, Deep Purple, good or bad at any stage of our evolution, and how it is now is particularly healthy and it wouldn’t be right.”
Daniel Liebl, Getty Images / YouTube
Andy Sneap who seems always busy and can hardly find time to answer his messages, mentioned Blackmore as one of the major influences. The legendary Wolf Hoffmann told me that he is not afraid to confess that he worships Ritchie and the mighty Pumpkinhead Michael Weikath told me “I could say many things but given his position and history, who am I to say anything?” Simon Johansson went even further as to attribute Ritchie for being “a bit responsible” for his starting to play guitar!”
“I just proofed a coffee table book that I’m doing on Ozzy Osbourne, which is like a timeline with quotes book, like my Iron Maiden coffee table book that just came out. And I’m halfway through a WHITESNAKE book, I’m gonna do a book on a Canadian band called MAX WEBSTER and I just finished up a 400 page book that I’ve got with my layout guy on MEGADETH. So lots going on, and also through another big American publisher I’ve got a coffee table book that’s like an oral history of Hair Metal, so going from about 1980 roughly to about 1991 when NIRVANA came out. Plus working with Banger films, we did the Rush movie Metal Evolution and we did the IRON MAIDEN movie. We got a new series called Rock Icons, it’s half hour episodes on just one person at a time, so I’m in there as a consultant as well, one week on, two weeks off, so I dip that in between everything else.”
“Yes I agree with that, I think DEEP PURPLE’s big contribution is the bringing of a classical element to heavy metal and that’s a combination of Ritchie and Jon Lord. We might have gotten some of that Middle Eastern or Turkish or Morrocan sound too. All of power metal, which is a massive heavy metal genre, owes a lot to bands like DEEP PURPLE, RAINBOW, JUDAS PRIEST, and Ritchie is in two of those bands. It got even more power metally when he started RAINBOW, especially with “Rainbow Rising” and “Long Live Rock ‘N Roll.” At that point you have Ronnie James Dio helping him out and they both agree philosophically about subject matter like fantasy, dungeons and dragons, castles and all of that stuff. You’re right, heavy metal would be a very different beast, it might have gone more of that blues or doom route, not this interesting classical route if it wasn’t for Ritchie.”
“That’s an interesting one because Yngwie is almost the guy who picked up where Ritchie left off and just went crazy. RAINBOW was almost like the uber DEEP PURPLE on steroids kind of band, but when you get into Joe Lynn Turner he’s moving into a more American sound. So he went one way and Yngwie is like hmm well if Ritchie kept getting heavier and faster and more crazy and bombastic and more heavy metal and more classical, more and more everything. He’s almost like the guy who did pick up from there. In doing that Yngwie battered us all over the head and came up with a style that’s even more distinct.”
When Graham Oliver (former guitarist of SAXON and currently with Oliver-Dawson SAXON) was asked to share his thoughts on Ritchie Blackmore, he was happy to do so and promised a few interesting stories. In his reply to my questions, he got right to it! Following are his own accounts of meeting and later touring with the celebrated guitar master.
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