In the new video below, shared via Ritchie Blackmore’s official YouTube channel, Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow, Blackmore’s Night) discusses his passion for music and what excites him musically. He also tells us, as you would expect, what he doesn’t like.
Says Blackmore: “I retain my passion for music by listening to old music from the 15-1400s, listening to a few bands that I’ve become friends with in Germany, Czech, Finland, and Sweden – they’re still playing the music that really excites me. I’m obsessed with that stuff. It was so organic. That music just grabs me.
“I obviously don’t listen to the radio in America, where they’re playing the latest, whatever it is. I suppose, as we progress and change generations, I cannot relate to what they would play on the radio here. And I don’t listen to rock ’n’ roll so much anymore. I listen to the old rock from the 50s, when it was fresh. Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore playing, James Burton with Ricky Nelson, the Everly Brothers, love all that stuff, Buddy Holly being my favourite at the time, of course.
“I feel like an old Granddad, you know, complaining about the music they’re playing on the radio at the moment. I feel that back in the 70s, when Eric Clapton was playing Cream and that stuff, it was thoughtful music. You would listen to ‘White Room’ or something, you didn’t need that [imitates a repetitive kick drum], you could actually go, ‘Wow, that’s a great song. ‘White Room’, fantastic. Love Cream. Eric, of course, he started the whole thing.
“There are so many types of music that I like, but very rarely do I hear it on the radio. I’d rather hear talk radio about who’s the latest president and stuff like that, that bores people to death. I don’t hear good music from my point of view. It might be good music, but it’s not something I want to hear.”
“When the family all get into the truck and we go on a bit of a holiday, which probably is like 20 miles down the road, because I don’t like to travel, all I hear is maybe Taylor Swift or something. I find it hard to relate to that, but it’s not wrong, it’s the new generation wanting to hear that. That’s probably as great to them as The Beatles and Cream was, and Jimi Hendrix was for me. So I can’t really complain, but I do like to complain, and I will complain, and I think the crap that they’re playing on the radio today is bloody awful.”