Ritchie Blackmore claims “most guitarists aren’t nice people”
Over his years playing in Deep Purple and Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore has crossed paths with plenty of musicians – but that doesn’t mean he got on with all of them.
In a recent Instagram live to celebrate his 81st birthday, the guitarist reveals that, behind the scenes, he’s been quite disappointed by his guitar-playing peers. “Most guitar players aren’t nice people,” he jokingly admits.
READ MORE: Ritchie Blackmore on how Jeff Beck would wrestle with self-doubt: “He was always reaching for something he couldn’t find”
However, that doesn’t extend to Tommy Bolin, the guitarist who joined Deep Purple in 1975 to replace Blackmore. “He was such a nice guy that I couldn’t believe he was a guitar player…” Blackmore says. “I would go around his house, and we’d often have fun just talking to each other.”
Though, he does note one flaw with Bolin’s approach to guitar. “I said to Tommy once, ‘When did you last change your strings?’ ‘cause they were so caked in dirt and grit,” he says. “And he looked at me, like, ‘I should change them?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ And he said, ‘Well, probably about five years ago!’ He was a brilliant player, a great player, but he never changed his guitar strings!”
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Regardless, Blackmore stands by Bolin’s skills and the value of his friendship. He concludes by saying: “There was never ever any envy, no competition whatsoever.”
Those themes of “envy” and “competition” seem to be at the centre of Blackmore’s “guitar players aren’t nice” claim; considering the rockstar ethos can come with a side of ‘ego’, it makes sense that a sense of competition and envying others might impact how nicely an artist treats their peers.
There’s plenty of competitiveness within the guitar world, with Exodus recently declaring themselves “faster” than thrash rivals Metallica and Megadeth. However, plenty of artists are trying to cut down on the toxic mindset of guitar-playing being a “competitive sport”.
Back in 2024, Swedish star Yngwie Malmsteen took to Instagram to encourage people to stop focusing on guitar rivalries and competitiveness. “Even if you are making a career out of it, if you play with the thought that I’m going to compete with another guitar player or another musician, you will be miserable,” he wrote. “Competition is for sports and athletes, not for guitar playing, period. [Guitar playing is] not a competition. The instrument of the guitar is to be played and enjoyed at any level.”
Last year, Mateus Asato shared similar reflections in his Guitar.com cover story. “After I won a guitar contest, I realised I never want to mix those things again in my life…” he said. “I understood that if I didn’t win, that would have probably sent me down a very melancholic road where I’d have probably decided that I did not want to play guitar any more… I know now that it’s not about competition.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
