Ritchie Blackmore explains who “started the ball rolling” for hard rock
Although many legends had already emerged by the time Ritchie Blackmore co-founded Deep Purple in 1968, the guitarist’s contributions to guitar music are monumental. He developed and refined many of the techniques and patterns that you still hear across all genres today and was one of the first to blend classical with hard rock and heavy metal, forever changing its distinctive sensibilities.
When Deep Purple first entered the scene, Blackmore brought with him a host of studied greats, including Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, alongside the various fragments of experience he had acquired over the years as a member of various other bands. The difference with Deep Purple, however, was that he approached creativity as though it was a blank canvas, and soon, they were soaring.
Despite his enduring recognition as one of the biggest and best guitar virtuosos, the musician himself doesn’t often offer much praise, except for some of the names you might associate with the same title. “I was impressed by Hendrix,” he once said. “His attitude was brilliant. Even the way he walked was amazing.”
However, Blackmore isn’t easily impressed and once explained his hatred of The Rolling Stones by calling them direct rip-offs: “The Stones? I considered them idiots,” he said. “It was just a nick from Chuck Berry riffs. Chuck Berry was OK. Sometimes I’m outspoken, but I don’t have any time for the Stones.” While he acknowledges their reputation as great rhythm-makers, they’re far from his cup of tea.
That said, the musician isn’t delusional about the history of hard rock, nor does he claim to have invented anything groundbreaking. He doesn’t shy away from positive adjectives about those who have paved the way for Deep Purple to thrive. Bob Dylan, for instance, is someone he once described as “the only person I admire in the business”.
Blackmore’s appreciation for Dylan taps into the very thing that carries his legacy: mystery. His songs and sounds live on in the complexities they yield, his narratives resonating while still adopting layer upon layer of meaning, most of which we will never truly get under the skin of. For this reason, Blackmore considers him a “truly monumental” virtuoso.
On the subject of purely guitar contributions and direct influences, however, Blackmore also admires Beck, who lived nearby when Blackmore was working as a session musician alongside the guitarist and Page. “Then 64 or 65, I met up with him, we did a couple of sessions actually with him,” he recalled. “One was with Jeff Beck, Jeff took the solo and everybody was raving about the solo. That was a really good solo.”
He also described the guitarist as one who provided a “challenge” for everyone else; that was, of course, until Jimi Hendrix came along and changed everything. Still, Beck’s impact on the hard rock scene was unparalleled, something that Blackmore also recognised, who once labeled his legacy as paramount due to him being the very figure who “started the ball rolling” with the genre.
