“The band wasn’t pulling its weight as a venture – it became a committee”: Why Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple
Sometimes, too many cooks can spoil the broth – and that’s exactly what Ritchie Blackmore felt when he left Deep Purple back in 1975. In the 51 years since his initial departure from the band, he’s thrived being the boss in his musical projects, rather than having to consult a “committee” of other musicians.
In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Blackmore explains that leaving Deep Purple to pursue other projects like Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night was his way of escaping a musical “stalemate”. While Deep Purple were always busy deliberating over their art, Blackmore just wanted to get straight into the studio. “I just felt that the band wasn’t pulling [its weight] as a musical venture,” he says. “It became a committee.”
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In the Deep Purple “committee”, Blackmore notes that “there were always five different answers” because “everybody was into different things”. It always delayed creativity, because the band couldn’t decide what to do. “I got a little bit tired of the committee meetings…” he explains. “I basically thought ‘I’m going to [leave], get four other musicians, [and make it so I can] just get on with playing the music.”
He goes on to explain that the band sometimes couldn’t agree on tour dates. “Our manager [would] turn around to the band and say, ‘Okay, guys, let’s work out the tour for the next year’… straight away, it was ‘Okay, what about January the 25th?’… And somebody would speak up, ‘Oh, I can’t make that, I have a wedding to attend.’”
“This went on, believe it or not, until about June or July,” he laughs. “And I’m thinking, ‘This is ridiculous…. Are we a band any more, or are we just people going on holiday and going to weddings?’”
Another key reason for leaving was to truly let his creativity shine. While the differing tastes and “committee meetings” were already a hurdle, there were some cases where Blackmore felt his talent was being muffled due to other members not believing in his work. In some cases, members even rejected his writing if it meant they wouldn’t get writing credit.
He points to a track that ended up being on Rainbow’s 1975 debut, Black Sheep of the Family. “I thought it was a great song that we should do, whereas one of the members of the band said, ‘I don’t want to do that song… We didn’t write it, so we won’t get writing credits,’” he says.
It’s a strange memory he also recalled in a chat with Guitar World last month: “A band member said, ‘If we didn’t write it there’s no point in doing it because we won’t get writing credits’. I was really disappointed in that statement.”
Eventually, Blackmore would enlist Ronnie James Dio to record the track instead – and working with Dio would change everything. “We [recorded the track] in an afternoon,” he tells Ultimate Classic Rock. “We worked so quickly together. There was no committee meetings. He wasn’t going on holiday or getting married or anything else. Finally, things seemed to be going along quite quickly… and that’s when I decided to leave Deep Purple.”
Last November, Blackmore was forced to postpone the second leg of his Blackmore’s Night tour due to medical reasons. The dates are yet to be re-scheduled, and you can find out more about the band via the Blackmore’s Night website.
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