Well, folks, Hell has officially frozen over, and there’s “Smoke on the Water”. Deep Purple founding guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has reunited with his former bandmates after a decades-long feud.
On Wednesday, Aug. 12, the musician hopped on stage with the band during their show at Jones Beach in New York. Together, the guys treated fans to a rousing rendition of “Smoke on the Water”, according to a report from Variety.
At the end, Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan praised his ex-bandmate to the crowd. “A couple of days ago I got a message from a local lad… saying ‘I only live around the corner, do you mind if I come and jam with you?’”
He continued, “It was an absolute pleasure to have back on stage the founding member, the great legend, the immortal Ritchie Blackmore. Thanks, Ritchie. I have to say, it was a great pleasure. I’ll see you in the bar.”
Deep Purple was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2016, but Blackmore was not present for the ceremony
Blackmore co-founded Deep Purple in 1968. He left in 1975, but then returned in 1984. Nearly a decade later, he had a falling out with the rest of the band. It was so bad that he left again and didn’t even reunite with them when the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
Interestingly, Blackmore had spilled the beans about his Deep Purple reunion the night before the show. He let it slip during a social media livestream with his wife, singer Candice Night. “It’s gonna be interesting,” he said. “I have not played rock music in 25 years.”
“It is a secret, and I don’t want anybody to know, but I’m probably going to go up and do an encore with the band, Deep Purple,” Blackmore continued. “But you can’t tell anybody, and I know this will be kept a secret. Won’t it?”
Blackmore also shared how the reunion came about. “I sent my AI pigeon to Ian Gillan in Portugal, where he lives at the moment, and I said, ‘How would you feel if I got up just for an encore on one of the songs. Don’t want to intrude.’”
He continued, “I said, ‘No pressure, just kind of old times’ sake.’ You know, I’m 81 now. So (Gillan) seemed to like the idea, put it to the band, got a thumbs up, and it looks like we might be doing that.”
It’s unclear whether Blackmore’s reunion with Deep Purple will lead to more collabs, or if this was just a one-off.
Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns
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