Ritchie Blackmore’s three favourite guitarists: “My God, who the hell is this?”
When you visit guitar shops worldwide, you will come into contact with a barrage of rules you must follow. Some of the most common include no eating, no drinking and no smoking, the reasons for which should be pretty self-explanatory so as not to damage the goods. However, other rules are put in place for the sake of the staff’s sanity, and one of these is no playing Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water’.
The reason for this rule is because of how popular ‘Smoke On The Water’ is among guitar players. It tends to be one of the first tracks that budding shredders learn, and subsequently, it can be heard being played in guitar shops worldwide, hence why some people have had to step in and ban the song altogether.
This is certainly the riff with which Ritchie Blackmore is most closely associated, and fair enough, it’s a lovely piece of guitar music. That being said, if your only exposure to Blackmore is this song, you’re missing out, as he has a vast range of music in his back catalogue that shows a huge range of technical ability.
Blackmore has never worried too much about genre or style when making music. While he can definitely be considered a rock musician, the records he’s worked on in the past range from being infused with classical elements to punk, heavy metal and acoustic music. Blackmore has a huge appreciation for innovation in making music, and he has never worried about letting those who inspire him influence his music. This is clearly reflected in his three favourite guitarists and how they inspired him: Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.
Starting with Jeff Beck, Blackmore was always hugely inspired by his technical proficiency on the guitar and how he managed to merge that proficiency with emotion to make incredibly moving music. His soul bled through every single note he played, and Blackmore admitted that he even found himself jealous of Beck at times.
“I first heard ‘The Shapes of Things’ with Jeff Beck playing, and I thought, ‘My God, who the hell is this?’ This shouldn’t be allowed, it’s too good,” he said, “Jeff cheats on the guitar because he has notes that I don’t have on my guitar.”
Of course, Beck also looked up to other guitarists, one of whom was Jimi Hendrix. He came to the UK and managed to sweep up every guitar player in a flurry of technical brilliance and flamboyancy. Beck recalled the first time he saw Jimi Hendrix, saying he was furious and jealous of his talent. Blackmore felt a similar way, admiring not just his guitar-playing ability but also his attitude towards music and willingness to experiment.
Finally, Blackmore was a huge fan of Eddie Van Halen. Van Halen was famous for creating innovative tapping techniques, and while Blackmore was a big fan of it, he was more impressed at how he integrated that style into songs that still sounded good and were packed with melody. He has a point: you can be the most innovative and skilful guitarist in the world, but that doesn’t make you a good songwriter. Eddie Van Halen was both.
“Eddie Van Halen was a brilliant guitarist who started a technique of guitar playing which was emulated by a whole generation of guitarists,” said Blackmore, “He was one of the nicest musicians I ever met in the music business. Very shy and not all conceited about his ability as a guitar player.”
