“I don’t like them”: the friendship Ritchie Blackmore ruined with one interview in 1978
It’s a well-known fact in the rock community that Ritchie Blackmore never shies away from sharing what he really thinks.
Although one of the genre’s finest heroes who can transform any arrangement into a fireball of sheer musical energy, Blackmore doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being calm and considered, or for keeping his mouth shut whenever the topic veers into someone or something he doesn’t especially like. And most of the time, his cynicism comes from the perspective of valuing authenticity in rock spaces, with many of those leading the charge seeming either like poor imitations of older, better rock ‘n’ roll groups or attempts to jump onto something for the sake of it, rather than the actual message at its core.
For instance, when the punk rock movement was in full swing, several people – musicians and journalists included – criticised its honesty. For some, like Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, it seemed like an opportunity for the lesser musically capable members of the community to make noise, not music that actually said anything meaningful. And Blackmore couldn’t help but agree.
In fact, Blackmore seems to be sceptical of anything the masses jump on, believing that most successful bands don’t actually have anything that worthwhile to offer when you actually pick apart their music. When Fleetwood Mac exploded onto the scene with Rumours, for instance, Blackmore wasn’t buying it, mainly because he preferred “intense music” and felt that the Mac had softened rock’s edges into something more “mellow”.
Sometimes, Blackmore’s views have legitimately landed him in hot water, and other times, they’ve even gone so far as to ruin relationships entirely. The Deep Purple guitarist sparked the beginnings of what could have been a truly wonderful relationship with The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger in the 1970s, who seemed just as dazzled at the prospect, even going so far as to call his new friend the greatest guitarist he’d “ever seen”.
Nobody really knows what compelled Blackmore to then go on record and completely dismiss the entire group, but that’s precisely what he did in 1978, when he rather scathingly told Trouser Press that he didn’t have time for them because they’re “idiots” who steal all their riffs from Chuck Berry. While he also said he respected them, he bluntly concluded, “I don’t like them.”
At the time, Blackmore had an issue with the scene in a broader sense, feeling that bands like The Beatles and The Hollies were too “pretty”. He even moved to Germany to escape it for a few years, before Jimi Hendrix started making waves and deemed the British music scene “safe” again. Although unclear, the Stones likely fell into a similar category, feeling too artificial for Blackmore to associate himself with.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, Blackmore’s budding friendship with Jagger ended there, a fact he later reflected on to Cameron Crowe when he said all the big groups “raved” about him at the time, including Jagger. But that’s as far as their camaraderie went: “The next I slagged the Stones in print, and that was the end of that friendship,” he said.
Blackmore’s evaluation wasn’t entirely off the mark; the Stones knowingly borrowed from many heroes of rhythm and blues, by their own admission. However, there’s no doubt a difference between borrowing for the purpose of reaching higher levels of greatness and exploring your own artistic expression, and simply stealing for the sake of commercial gain. And in the Stones’ case, it’s hard to say they ever just “nicked” things from others for no good reason.
