For the first time in more than three decades, Ritchie Blackmore will join Deep Purple onstage when the band performs August 12 at the Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York.
Blackmore revealed the appearance during an Instagram Live with his wife Candice Night on August 11.
“There is something we wanted to mention about tomorrow night,” the 81-year-old guitarist said [via Blabbermouth]. “Well, it is a secret and I don’t want anybody to know, but I’m probably get up and do an encore with the band, Deep Purple. But you can’t tell anybody, and I know that this is gonna be kept a secret. And will it? I suppose so.”
Blackmore said he pitched the idea to Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan.
“I said, ‘How would you feel about if I got up just for an encore? Just one of the songs. I don’t want to intrude.’ And I said, ‘No pressure — just kind of [for] old times’ sake.’ I’m 81 now.
“So he seemed to love the idea, put it to the band, got a thumbs up, and it looks like we might be doing that.”
The show will see Blackmore onstage with current Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride. Blackmore noted that he’ll be using “a small amplifier, but it‘s very loud. It’s what I use when I record.”
He says he’s also changed the strings on his Fender Stratocaster for the first time in years.
“I changed my strings on my Strat, which I haven’t done in over 25 years.”
But don’t expect Blackmore to play a full set.
“It’d probably just be the one number, as it’s been a while,” he said.
He was complimentary toward McBride, whom he called “a very good guitar player. As was, and is, [former Deep Purple guitarist] Steve Morse.”
The show will mark the first time Blackmore has performed with Deep Purple since 1993. It also marks his first return to rock music since he re-formed Rainbow in 2016 for a series of concerts that continued into 2019.
“It’ll be good to see the old guys again,” he said. “I think we’ll all be on crutches and wheelchairs and things, although I think the rest of them are okay.
“But, yes, it’s kind of frightening. I haven’t played rock in 25 years,“ he said, obviously forgetting his more recent Rainbow concerts. “I’ve been playing acoustic guitar for 25 years, and at first I was very uncomfortable playing it, but I got used to it, and now I’m used to playing the acoustic more so than the electric.’”
Since 1997 Blackmore has performed with the Renaissance-inspired folk band Blackmore’s Night, which he formed with his partner, vocalist and lyricist Candice Night. The duo blends traditional medieval melodies with modern acoustic instrumentation.
The band’s fall 2025 tour was abruptly cancelled after Blackmore suffered a case of vertigo. He’s also dealt with a heart issue, gout and four herniated disks in his lumbar region.
“I did have my injection in my lumbar area yesterday,” Blackmore said in his August 11 Instagram Live. “It’s a special injection I have that enables me to stand in one spot, because if I’m playing a Strat onstage, I have a hard time with the shoulders and the lumbar area.”
