The guitarist too good to have a hit, according to Ritchie Blackmore
Like many who went on to become some of history’s finest guitar players, Ritchie Blackmore knows what it’s like to appear humble below some of rock’s more seasoned pros.
Although this may seem hard to believe now, especially given Blackmore’s reputation and knack for speaking his mind whenever the moment arises, he wasn’t always so confident and self-assured, particularly in the early days when he was merely a session guitarist trying to navigate the big world of rock music and well-established players.
After all, Blackmore got his real big taste of the big leagues when he was just 18, having been hired by ‘The Killer’ himself, Jerry Lee Lewis, who’d wanted the Outlaws to join him on the road for a string of gigs. Immediately, Blackmore became aware of how much better and more experienced the other guitarists in the room were, which naturally made him feel slightly anxious whenever he entered rehearsals.
However, it didn’t exactly help that Lewis also had a rep for being a bit harsh whenever things went south, either, which made Blackmore feel like one wrong move would surely result in a punch to the face. To his surprise, though, Lewis wandered over to him one day, reached out his hand for a handshake and called him “good boy”, which, for anyone who knew the musician back then, was about as close to praise as it got.
That said, once Blackmore became a major name in his own right, those moments of doubt happened less often, and while, like many era-defining guitar players, he’d no doubt still experience those similar anxieties from time to time, Blackmore became far more focused on his own brand of authenticity, and looked down upon anyone who appeared to be in the game for all the wrong reasons.
Or anything that gained mass attention but didn’t deliver good music, or that had anything actually meaningful to say. Take the entire punk movement, for instance: when it was in full swing, Blackmore couldn’t quite see what all the fuss was about, and felt as though it was merely an opportunity for bands to make as much noise as possible without translating any of that energy into real action.
Which is why, whenever it comes to someone who is genuinely good at what they do but struggles to see it for themselves, Blackmore found it especially strange. After all, anyone with talent should recognise as much, as it doesn’t make much sense if they don’t. Such was the case with Jeff Beck – whose approach and technique was, according to Blackmore, one of the most “special” and “different to anybody”.
Beck’s entire demeanour was “refreshing” to Blackmore, but what struck him as odd was how humble he was when talking about his own craft. As he recalled to Guitar Player, “He would always put himself down.”
He remembered one specific moment when he asked Beck how his latest record was, to which Beck responded, “Oh, it’s a load of rubbish.”
This is also, in Blackmore’s eyes, what made him so legendary. In his words, “He was always reaching for something he couldn’t find,” which basically means that Beck was already at a level no others were operating at, but he didn’t stop there – he searched for whatever ‘perfect’ was for his entire life, feeling that anything less than was just not good enough. And because of that frustration, most of his legacy is defined by the sheer power of immense cultural impact alone.
