“Our heroes”: Ritchie Blackmore names Deep Purple’s biggest influence
To truly understand your favourite artist, you need to know your favourite artist’s favourite artist. While some artists rise to become major figureheads within their genre, their sound wouldn’t be what it is if they had never taken inspiration from some of their favourite musicians. While groups such as Metallica, Van Halen, Def Leppard, and Motörhead all dominated their own respective subgenres of rock music, these groups were all inspired by the musicality of Deep Purple.
Deep Purple are said to be one of the forefathers of heavy metal, making up the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of British hard rock alongside their peers Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Combining prog rock influences with heavy percussive compositions, Deep Purple brought forward their own unique take on the genre, which was highly influenced by band members such as drummer Ian Paice and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.
Blackmore provided many of the iconic guitar riffs that ignited Deep Purple’s magnetic artistry, and his impact on modern hard rock continued when he left Deep Purple in 1975 and formed his own band, Rainbow. While considered a major influence on rock music as a whole, Blackmore has cited one major artist that he says was a huge impact on Deep Purple’s musical journey.
Vanilla Fudge, while they did record their own original material, are most widely known for their slowed-down, prog rock takes on modern pop songs of the time. The group has largely been considered as the primary source of linking psych-rock with later heavy metal, and Blackmore has often named Vanilla Fudge as one of Deep Purple’s biggest inspirations.
The group’s most popular hit was their cover of the Supremes’ ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’, recording a heavy, slowed-down version of the Motown classic. Huge fans of The Beatles, Vanilla Fudge have also released covers of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Ticket To Ride’. In 2022, the group released an album titled Vanilla Zeppelin, consisting entirely of Led Zeppelin covers.
In a 1991 interview with Guitar World, Blackmore said his love of Vanilla Fudge in the late 1960s helped him bond with Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord, as both of them were huge admirers of the band.
“Back in the late Sixties, there were few organists who could play like Jon,” Blackmore said. “We shared the same taste in music. We loved Vanilla Fudge, they were our heroes. They used to play London’s Speakeasy, and all the hippies used to go there to hang out, Clapton, The Beatles, everybody went there to pose.”
While many considered Jimi Hendrix to be the most prevalent star at that time, Blackmore said it was truly Vanilla Fudge who were changing the rock scene as he knew it. Releasing songs that were often nearly eight minutes in length, Blackmore fondly recalls how the band both inspired and confused the masses.
“The whole group was ahead of its time,” Blackmore said. “So, initially, we wanted to be a Vanilla Fudge clone. But our singer, Ian, wanted to be Edgar Winter. He’d say, ‘I want to scream like that, like Edgar Winter.’ So that’s what we were, Vanilla Fudge with Edgar Winter!”
Alongside Vanilla Fudge, Blackmore has gone on to credit several other musical acts over the years who were great influences on the sound of his guitar playing, as well as Deep Purple. Once citing Jeff Beck as his favourite guitarist of all time, he also named Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Mountain, Jimi Hendrix, and even ABBA as largely influential on his musicianship and career.
