Ken Dashow

Ken Dashow

Listen to Ken Dashow everyday and don't forget about Breakfast With The Beatles every Sunday Morning.Full Bio

 

Ritchie Blackmore Says Money Is Preventing Deep Purple Reunion One-Off

Deep Purple's estranged founding guitarist Ritchie Blackmore says he's on good terms with the members of his former band and a one-off reunion show could happen if they were to remove one key element: management.

"I would like to do maybe one show with the rest of Purple just to prove that we're not all hating each other," Blackmore says in an excerpt from Rainbow's new Memories in Rock II DVD.

Blackmore suggested that he's reconsidered the idea of a reunion in recent years, especially in the time since 2012, when Deep Purple keyboardist John Lord passed away.

"We're older and with the passing of John, you never know who's going to pass next," Blackmore said. "And it would just be a friendly get-together. But as you might know, in this business nothing works around friendship. It's all around money and business." 

The band's Mk. II lineup won't reunite because Deep Purple's management won't allow it, Blackmore says. 

"It's not like you call up your old friends and say, 'Hey, let's just have a good time and we'll play 'cause there's lots of fans that want to hear it,'" he lamented, saying the fiscal aspect makes a reunion too complicated.

Blackmore famously no-showed Deep Purple's 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. The guitarist said at the time that he didn't attend because Deep Purple's longtime manager, Bruce Payne, had banned him from the ceremony.  

Payne later responded saying Blackmore was not banned, but Deep Purple didn't want to perform with him at the ceremony.

Blackmore recently brought back Rainbow with a new lineup. While he says he prefers the Renaissance-inspired music of his Blackmore's Night project, he's happy to reunite with his old electric guitar. 

"It is good fun," the famously stodgy guitarist admitted in a recent interview with Billboard. "We wrote some good songs back then. It's always nice to kind of blast out on the Stratocaster for a while."


Thumbnail Photo: YouTube / Onix Kalybur


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