To celebrate his 81st birthday earlier today (April 14th), Deep Purple and Rainbow guitar legend Ritchie Blackmore took part in a surprise Instagram livestream where he answered a number of fan-submitted questions from his home in Long Island, New York. You can now watch the nearly one-hour discussion — hosted by Ritchie‘s wife/music partner Candice Night — below.
Asked for his opinion of Tommy Bolin, who replaced Blackmore on lead guitar in Deep Purple more than 50 years ago, Blackmore 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 often have 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.”
As for whether he still keeps in contact with the members of Deep Purple, he said, “Yes, [drummer] Ian Paice sends me regards now and again, and I talked to [singer] Ian Gillan and [former vocalist] David Coverdale. But I don’t know the new people in the band. I mean, obviously [current keyboardist] Don Airey was in Rainbow. Don is a brilliant keyboard player, but he has been in every band in the business.”
After one fan suggested that Blackmore could undergo surgery for foot gout in order to help him return to touring, the guitarist replied, “I don’t play with my feet. It’s not just my feet that I have a problem on tour with. I have a problem with my back, my heart and my feet. And to go on tour at 81 is pushing it. And I don’t really wanna just sit down on stage, which I would have to do anyway. I’m kind of running out of energy a little bit. When you play rock and roll, you’ve gotta have a lot of energy, but I tend to like sleeping a lot these days.”
The interview has been posted to Blackmore‘s Instagram page, which can be seen here. The Q&A is the one with the guitar next to him on the sofa.