“That’s all I cared about”: the band Ritchie Blackmore took no shame in hating
Can you imagine being such an influential guitarist that guitar stores have to put up signs telling people not to play your music because they’re so sick of hearing it? If you’re Ritchie Blackmore, you don’t need to imagine. His influential riffs have inspired the fingers of many a guitar-playing beginner, who is always eager to learn the likes of ‘Smoke On The Water’ the minute they get their hands on their very first six-string.
Of course, it would be unfair to suggest that Blackmore’s career starts and stops with the creation of ‘Smoke On The Water’. He has done a lot more for guitar music than that, both within Deep Purple and Rainbow; his riffs, solos and open mind when it comes to music have led to the creation of some of the most inspiring and timeless pieces of music to come out of that side of millennia.
One of the reasons Blackmore has been able to make so much great music throughout his career is how open-minded he is as a creative person. Many rock bands from the 1960s and ‘70s followed a similar trend because it was proving to be working. However, Blackmore was always keen to change things up.
This came in a variety of different ways. It meant that Deep Purple sometimes played classical music, lacing their rock-heavy songs with strings and off-kilter passages to give them a more unique sound. It also meant that when they wanted to make a rock album, they made one of the best rock albums ever. When Blackmore decided to fully embrace the band’s heavier side, the album they produced, In Rock, is still celebrated as one of the greatest LPs to come out of that period.
This openness is a double-edged sword, though. While Blackmore is good at identifying what he likes and thinks will work, he is equally good at recognising what he hates. There are a number of bands who have found themselves on the receiving end of his sharp tongue as he cuts different musical outfits down to size; however, one of the bands that he was very happy admitting to despising was The Police.
When Deep Purple began touring again in the ‘80s, it was because Blackmore had seen a gap in the market. Music had changed, as it always will, but in doing so, he felt as though it had lost its bite and needed something with a bit more grit, such as Deep Purple. Their bassist, Roger Glover, confirmed as much, saying that the world needs a band like Deep Purple. It was off the back of this comment that Blackmore made his thoughts on The Police known.
“It’s quite a profound statement, and Roger doesn’t take drugs,” he said. “Yeah, I suppose so. That’s the kind of promotional statement that the record company will love. As long as the world doesn’t need The Police, that’s all I care about.”
Make no mistake, there is no mix-up here where Blackmore is actually talking about law enforcement. When he was talking about realising there was a gap in the market for a resurgence of Deep Purple, he made his thoughts on Sting and co quite clear. “I think it was on the first part of the tour in Australia. I suddenly realized that there was a gap for this type of music because only ZZ Top were doing that aggressive stuff,” he concluded. “Everyone was playing like The Police. And can I state here that I hate The Police?”
