As questions swirl about Ritchie Blackmore’s health, his wife and bandmate, Candice Night, reveals “there's the three main issues with him” prevent the guitarist from going back out on the road with their group, Blackmore's Night.
Blackmore, who changed the face of rock guitar with his pioneering, baroque-laced playing in Deep Purple, formed the Blackmore's Night folk-rock project with Night in 1997, four years after he left Deep Purple for a third and final time. Steve Morse and Simon McBride have respectively taken his place in the band.
Blackmore’s Night has since become his main project. But since releasing its 11th album, Nature’s Light, in 2021, the band has been silent as Blackmore faces mounting health issues.
“There's three main issues with him that are going on," Night tells the Iron City Rocks podcast (via Rayo). "He has a heart issue — he had a heart attack a couple of years ago, so we stay on top of that.
“He's got gout, so that's difficult,” she adds. “It's affecting his feet really badly. And it's starting in his forefinger, so it's hurting the mobility in that. He just had an injection for that. And his back, of course, which has always been an issue.”
Among the first rock guitar players to incorporate sweep-picking techniques into his arsenal, Blackmore was one of the fastest and most melodic shredders in 1970s hard rock, first with Deep Purple and after with Rainbow. His decision to pursue medieval-inspired folk-rock with Blackmore's Night left fans of his earlier style wanting. He reunited with Rainbow in 2016 for a trio of European concerts, but has worked only with Blackmore's night since then.
Now 80, Blackmore faces challenges that make traveling difficult. Flying is problematic as “jet lag stresses your heart,” Night says. “It really does take a toll on a human — on a healthy human, so forget about someone who's 80 years old and going through these issues."
Still, Night believes some concert dates could be possible in the future,
“With Ritchie, if you try to pressure him to do something, he instantly says no. He's like a teenager,” she says. “So I wait for him to come to the realization, or I drop little seeds here and there and try to wait for him to be ready to talk about it.
“He did just say, ‘What about doing some Blackmore's Night dates in the fall?’ So, of course, I got greatly excited about that.”
But, as was the case when news of a new King Crimson album broke last month, it helps to curtail expectations of immediacy. She says Blackmore, who is believed to live in Long Island currently, “would rather [play] places that he can drive to.
“We don't have a tour bus, and we don't have private planes. If we go someplace, I'm driving. So it's like a mini road trip. You get to the venue, you go back, you get a good night's sleep that night.”
“It's a very slowed-down way of doing it. But honestly, I'd much rather take something than nothing at all.”
Blackmore launched the video series Tales from the Tavern on YouTube in lieu of an official autobiography last year. His short-but-sweet anecdotes saw him reminiscing about instances from across his career.
There was the story of the time he protested hotel construction by cranking his amps at 3 a.m., only to discover that Eric Clapton was in the room next door. He's also shared origin stories for classic Deep Purple tracks, but the frequency of his videos has slowed to a stop, hinting at Blackmore’s currently limited capacity.
Speaking to Guitar World last year, Blackmore revealed that he bought his first Stratocaster for Eric Clapton at a bargain price, and he's since recalled the time he was pranked by Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Ian Anderson. The guitarist’s colorful career may not be over just yet, but a little patience is needed before he can hit the road once more.
