Richard Hugh “Ritchie” Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was one of the founding members of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard-rock music which mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. During his solo career, he established a heavy metal band called Rainbow which fused baroque music influences and elements of hard rock. Rainbow gradually progressed to catchy pop-style hard rock after Ronnie James Dio’s departure. Later in life, he formed the traditional folk rock project Blackmore’s Night transitioning to vocalist-centred sounds. As a member of Deep Purple, Blackmore was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2016.

Throughout his life, he has released many critically acclaimed albums, and he has also released many flops. When asked about his musical tastes in 1979 he said the following:

“I like popular music. I like ABBA very much. But there’s so much stigma like, ‘you can’t do this because you’re a heavy band’, and I think that’s rubbish. You should do what you want … I think classical music is very good for the soul. A lot of people go ‘ah well, classical music is for old fogies’ but I was exactly the same. At 16 I didn’t want to know about classical music: I’d had it rammed down my throat. But now I feel an obligation to tell the kids ‘look, just give classical music a chance’ … the guitar frustrates me a lot because I’m not good enough to play it sometimes so I get mad and throw a moody. Sometimes I feel that what I’m doing is not right, in the sense that the whole rock and roll business has become a farce, like Billy Smart, Jr. Circus, and the only music that ever moves me is very disciplined classical music, which I can’t play. But there’s a reason I’ve made money. It’s because I believe in what I’m doing, in that I do it my way—I play for myself first, then secondly the audience—I try to put as much as I can in it for them. Lastly I play for musicians and the band, and for critics not at all.”

DEEP PURPLE (1968-1975, 1984-1993)

Blackmore joined Deep Purple in 1968 after receiving an invitation from Chris Curtis who originated the concept of the band (though Curtis would be forced out before the band fully formed). Purple’s early sound leaned on psychedelic and progressive rock. Their first line-up featuring singer Rod Evans lasted until mid-1969 and produced three studio albums.

The first studio album from Purple’s second line-up, In Rock, signalled a transition in the band’s sound from progressive rock to hard rock, with Blackmore being impressed at the time by the King Crimson’s first album, In The Court of the Crimson King. This line-up featured rock singer Ian Gillan and it lasted until mid-1973, producing four studio albums, and two live albums.

The third and final lineup featured David Coverdale on vocals. It lasted until mid-1975 and produced two studio albums.

From 1984 to 1989, Blackmore joined a reunion of the former Deep Purple second line-up and recorded two studio albums and one live album. One more studio album was recorded under Deep Purple in 1990, featuring Rainbow’s last vocalist, and in 1992 the second lineup reunited again for one last studio album. Blackmore quit the band one last time in November 1993.

RAINBOW (1975-1983, 1993-1997, 2015-)

The band’s debut album, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, was released in 1975. During this early period, Blackmore wrote a lot of Dio’s vocal melodies, particularly on their debut album. Shortly after the first album was recorded, Blackmore recruited backing musicians to record the second album Rising, and the following live album, On Stage. After the next studio album’s release and supporting tour in 1978, Dio left Rainbow due to “creative differences” with Blackmore, who disliked Dio’s fantasy oriented lyric style. Even though Dio left, Blackmore succesfully continued with Rainbow, and in 1979 the band released a new album entitled Down To Earth, which featured R&B singer Graham Bonnet.

For the 1981 album Difficult To Cure, Blackmore changed Rainbow’s vocalist once more, this time choosing Joe Lynn Turner. The instrumental title track from this album was an arrangement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with additional music. Blackmore explained in an interview,

“I found the blues too limiting, and classical was too disciplined. I was always stuck in a musical no man’s land.”

Following two more studio albums in 1982 and 1983, Blackmore disbanded Rainbow until 1993. Rainbow briefly reunited again in 1993 and released their last album to date entitled Stranger in Us All in 1995, which is also Blackmore’s last hard rock album, and disbanded again in 1997. Blackmore claimed “I didn’t want to tour very much.”

The band was reformed by Blackmore once again in 2015 and is currently touring. The setlists include Deep Purple and Rainbow songs.

Throughout Rainbow’s existence, Blackmore constantly changed the line-up. There are no two albums to feature the same line-up and the only constant band member was himself.

BLACKMORE’S NIGHT (1997-)

In 1997 Blackmore, with his girlfriend Candice Night as vocalist, formed the traditional folk rock duo Blackmore’s Night. His musical approach shifted to vocalist-centered sounds. They recorded a mixture of original and cover materials. The band’s musical style is inspired by medieval music and it blended with Night’s lyrics about love’s themes. For that reason, Blackmore rarely used an electric guitar for most of the 8 studio albums. The duo also turned down many touring offers instead limiting their appearances to small intimate venues.