{"id":282735,"date":"2026-02-13T20:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/282735\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T20:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:25:13","slug":"ritchie-blackmore-on-the-anxiety-he-couldnt-outrun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/282735\/","title":{"rendered":"Ritchie Blackmore on the anxiety he couldn\u2019t outrun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ritchie Blackmore\u2019s ruthlessness is the stuff of rock lore. After forcing out Ian Gillan and dismissing bass<\/a> guitarist Roger Glover from Deep Purple, he blindsided the remaining members<\/a> in 1975 by bolting to form Rainbow. One album into that venture, he fired everyone but singer Ronnie James Dio and continued to rotate musicians in and out as they failed to meet his unforgiving standards.<\/p>\n

That relentless, almost surgical pursuit of perfection was felt far beyond his own ranks; it reverberated through the generation of electric guitar<\/a> players raised on his records. As Billy Corgan<\/a> of the Smashing Pumpkins told Guitar Player in 1995, \u201cPound for pound, he\u2019s one of the best soloists in history, but he\u2019s such a dick that he\u2019ll probably never get the credit he deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No one understood the paradox better than Blackmore himself. Asked one year later about his reputation for being difficult, he didn\u2019t deflect. He indicted the entire enterprise.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\n

\"Rainbow\n<\/p>\n

Blackmore backstage in 1976 with (from left) Jimmy Bain and Tony Carey. Blackmore dismissed Bain in January 1977 for being \u201csubstandard.\u201d Carey left shortly afterward when got tired of Blackmore’s difficult behavior. (Image credit: Jorgen Angel\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate show biz. I hate people who confine themselves to the system,\u201d he told Guitar Player. \u201cWhy does everyone have to do the right interview at the right time, be on the right program, be politically correct, say the right things and be at the right parties? That gets up my nose. Why can\u2019t I just play the guitar? It\u2019s all I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wanted to play guitar so badly that the social glue binding bands together often became collateral damage. An early encounter with Eric Clapton<\/a> makes the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the big thing in the area back in \u201967,\u201d Blackmore recalled. \u201cHe was God \u2014 it said so all through London, so I believed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Rainbow\n<\/p>\n

Rainbow pose in Los Angeles, June 1977. (Clockwise from left) Ronnie James Dio, Bob Daisley, David Stone, Cozy Powell and Blackmore. (Image credit: Fin Costello\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

When he saw Clapton perform, however, he was unsettled by his patience.<\/p>\n

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played very slowly with vibrato, which no one I knew bothered with because they were too interested in playing as fast as they could,\u201d Blackmore said. \u201cMy feeling was, if you play vibrato you\u2019re wasting time. \u2018C\u2019mon, let\u2019s get on to the next note and show off!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to him, \u2018You play with all this vibrato. That\u2019s very different.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was very stupid to say in retrospect. Of course he plays with vibrato, and why not?<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I felt that he was the strange person to put so much emphasis on the vibrato. It was very pleasurable to the ear, but I thought he could be playing other notes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ritchie\n<\/p>\n

Smashing a Fender Stratocaster against an amp at the California Jam, April 6, 1974. (Image credit: Fin Costello\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

Of course a wide, vocal-like vibrato would become one of Blackmore\u2019s signatures, fused with the velocity \u2014 and inhuman stage volume<\/a> and guitar thrashing<\/a> \u2014 that defined his early style. In time, he recognized the lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s thanks to Eric Clapton in a way,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s only now that it dawns on me that the guy knew what he was playing way back then, and I was the idiot for saying, \u2018Why are you playing with a vibrato? Why are you bothering?\u2019 That\u2019s embarrassing.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s thanks to Eric Clapton in a way. It\u2019s only now that it dawns on me that the guy knew what he was playing way back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ritchie Blackmore<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was into Freddie King<\/a>, but that didn\u2019t do it for me then. Those guys were too slow for me. I wanted to hear something fast. Let\u2019s go here!<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always so nervously charged that I had to be fast. I learned in reverse. I learned to be fast and now I\u2019m trying to slow down and say something. Playing a fast solo, I suppose, is a bit like having two-second sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ritchie\n<\/p>\n

Blackmore uses what remains of a Stratocaster to play another Strat during Rainbow\u2019s performance at Madison Square Garden, March 19, 1984. (Image credit: Larry Marano\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

If the bravado was bracing, the insecurity beneath it was even more revealing. Blackmore has long suggested that his difficulty with bandmates stemmed less from arrogance than from self-doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to play with another guitarist, although I\u2019m still insecure, so that guitarist couldn\u2019t be better than me,\u201d he said. \u201cI still go through life being very unsure of what I\u2019m doing, and I cover that by appearing confident, as if I know exactly what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have no idea. There\u2019s a constant searching. Some days I tell myself I can play. And other days I think, \u2018I\u2019ve been playing for 38 years and I\u2019m still floundering. Why am I so miserable with my guitar playing? I can\u2019t seem to get it down!\u2019 I\u2019ll hear my solos and think, \u2018Why did I accept that? I know damn well I can play better than that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ritchie\n<\/p>\n

Onstage with Rainbow in Milano, Italy, October 28, 1995. (Image credit: Alamy)<\/p>\n

The studio, he conceded, is the most unforgiving environment of all.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy best stuff is live, because I don\u2019t have time to think; I just get on with it. But in the studio, I very rarely feel at ease. If someone points to me and says, \u2018Play \u2014 we\u2019re going to test you to see how good you are,\u2019 I get self-conscious and disintegrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need a psychiatrist with me when I\u2019m in the studio, going, \u2018It\u2019s all right, Ritchie. Nobody hates you, nobody\u2019s testing you, nobody\u2019s watching you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I get self-conscious and disintegrate. I need a psychiatrist with me when I’m in the studio.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2014 Ritchie Blackmore<\/p>\n

He laughed at the absurdity \u2014 but only to a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I\u2019ll talk to the producer: \u2018Does the engineer play the guitar?\u2019 \u2018Yes, I think he does a bit.\u2019 \u2018How much? What is he into?\u2019 Then I\u2019ll have to sit behind the engineer, because I don\u2019t want him looking at what I\u2019m playing, because I\u2019ll interpret that as him thinking I\u2019m not playing very well. I took up the guitar because I felt insecure at school, and that insecurity is still there \u2014 that strange introversion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ritchie Blackmore\u2019s ruthlessness is the stuff of rock lore. After forcing out Ian Gillan and dismissing bass guitarist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-282735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}