Asked for his opinion of Tommy Bolin, who replaced Blackmore on lead guitar in DEEP PURPLE more than 50 years ago, Ritchie said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I knew him more as a friend. And he was such a nice guy that I couldn't believe he was a guitar player, because most guitar players aren't nice people. He was so nice, and he was an Indian — I think Sioux Indian or something — and I would go around his house, and we'd oftenhave fun just talking to each other. There was never ever any envy, no competition whatsoever.
"I said to Tommy once, 'When did you last change your strings?'" Blackmore recalled. "And he looked at me, like, 'I should change them?' And I said, 'Well, yeah.' And he said, 'Well, probably about five years ago,' 'cause they were so caked in dirt and grit. He was a brilliant player, a great player, but he never changed his guitar strings."
Gene Simmons: „Ritchie Blackmore ist die Welt“
Puh, alles Gute! Mit (bald) 80 wird es nicht einfacher ...
Learning to play the guitar is one thing, but learning to play with a big amplifier is a different thing altogether. It’s like trying to control an elephant.
During a new question-and-answer session posted on Instagram, legendary DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was asked to name his favorite ABBA song. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "There's too many. I love them. They are incredible. Their progressions and it's just… It's a funny story with that. We were in a chateau in France trying to do [RAINBOW's] 'Long Live Rock 'N' Roll' [album in 1977]. We were all very bored. We were sitting around the fireplace — Cozy [Powell, RAINBOW drummer], myself and Ronnie [James Dio, RAINBOW singer] — and we were getting a little bit kind of irritated because we were not coming up with any ideas. And Cozy said, 'Okay, I have to own up.' And we looked at him, because we'd been drinking, as usual, and we said, 'You have to own up about what?' He said, 'Are you ready?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'I like ABBA.' To which I went, 'Oh my God. I love ABBA.' And then Ronnie goes, 'Yes. So do I.' So now we've all embarrassed ourselves going, 'Ah, we love ABBA,' 'cause you're not supposed to say that. And with that, Cozy runs off to get all the ABBA songs and to play them. And we played, for hours, all the ABBA songs around the fireside in this chateau. We should have been writing our own songs, but it was much better to listen to ABBA."
Ritchie continued: "I think ABBA was the best band. I always listened to ABBA when I was a kid. It was so melodic, and it just worked. It was fantastic. And they are probably my favorite band of all time. And I know it's uncool to say that in certain areas. And they were wonderful."