Former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has surprised his fans by going live on Instagram for an impromptu Q&A session, during which he recalled an amusing anecdote about his friendship with Tommy Bolin.
Bolin became the successor to Blackmore’s Deep Purple throne in 1975. David Coverdale, a fan of his work with Billy Cobham, was instrumental in his hiring, and he struck up a friendship with bassist Glenn Hughes as the band segued into a more funk-driven sound on Come Taste the Band.
Blackmore hasn’t always spoken kindly of Deep Purple’s other lead guitar players. Yet in this new Q&A, filmed as he recovers from a health scare that saw Blackmore’s Night’s recent tour postponed, he bucks the trend.
“He was such a nice guy that I couldn't believe he was a guitar player,” he says of Bolin, “because most guitar players aren't nice people.
“I would go around his house, and we'd often have fun just talking to each other. There was never ever any envy, no competition whatsoever.”
Like most, Blackmore is said to have first heard Bolin's playing on Billy Cobham's Spectrum album, while keyboardist Jon Lord is said to have been “entranced” by his playing. He had the looks to boot, too. Hughes, who was driven to his Deep Purple audition by David Bowie, picked up on that immediately.
“I saw this guy with green and purple hair,” he recalls (via Guitar Interactive Magazine). “I whispered in his ear, ‘If you don't get the gig, you're coming back to my house tonight.’”
Bolin had his admirers. But one thing did strike Ritchie Blackmore about his fellow virtuoso and friend.
“I said to Tommy once, ‘When did you last change your strings?’ ‘cause they were so caked in dirt and grit. And he looked at me, like, ‘I should change them?’” he recalls. “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!”
Blackmore, speaking to Guitar Player recently, said he became disillusioned with life in the band because the rest of the group had priorities elsewhere. He would go on to form Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio. Billy Corgan once said that Blackmore was one of the best soloists in history, but was destined not to get the credit he deserves because “he's such a dick.”
