Ritchie Blackmore Wasn’t Inspired Before Final Deep Purple Exit

There are a plethora of reasons why musicians leave bands, but musical differences amongst the members is perhaps one of the biggest. Ritchie Blackmore was one of the founders of Deep Purple in 1968, but stated that leading up to the final time he left the band in 1994, he didn’t feel inspired anymore.

Blackmore’s first stint in Deep Purple lasted until 1975, therefore he appeared on the group’s first nine studio albums. From there, he went on to form Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, which was simplified to Rainbow, whom he released seven records with between 1975 and 1983. Afterward, he returned to Deep Purple, where he played on another four full-length releases before departing for the final time in 1993.

Years later, he formed Blackmore’s Night with his partner Candice Night to really expand on his love for the baroque-style music he created with Rainbow, but in a more stripped-back, folk manner.

“I’m not really interested in the modern approach with modern instruments,” the guitarist told Long Island Weekly in a new interview. “We use synthesizers on certain things, but they are there to see how we’re going to progress with the other instruments. It’s all about going back to the basics—simple music.”

“Melody is very important to me. It’s an important thing,” he continued. “That’s why, even in Deep Purple, towards the end, before I left, our music was a bit monophonic. There wasn’t too much melody and if I don’t hear a melody, I can’t be inspired. I find that with a lot of hard rock bands today — not the death metal or whatever — the melody is certainly not there and I can’t relate to that.”

According to another interview Blackmore did in 2010 with Guitar.com, the reason Blackmore rejoined Deep Purple in the ’80s was because Ian Gillan talked him into it, despite how well Rainbow had been doing at the time. Then, in 1994, he left because he couldn’t work with Gillan anymore because he didn’t feel the singer had been taking the gig seriously.