3 guitar players Ritchie Blackmore said he admires

One of the biggest “guitar heroes” in the history of Rock and Roll, Ritchie Blackmore left his mark through the incredible work he did with Deep Purple and in his own band, Rainbow. Besides being one of the greatest guitar players of all time, he has also always been a very sincere person who gave his honest opinion about other musicians and bands, even when he did not like them. Over the decades, he spoke about many of his peers and once mentioned three famous guitar players he admired.

3 guitar players Ritchie Blackmore said he admires

“There aren’t many (I admire). Jeff Beck’s an obvious choice because he’s still very consistent. He may bring an album out every two years, but when he does, it’s always good. I suppose you could say I’m more into the old school of guitar players, simply because I haven’t heard many new ones I particularly admire. Edward Van Halen is good, although he tends to be rather erratic. Schenker also has some great melodies in his head,” Ritchie Blackmore said in an interview with Hit Parader magazine in 1985.

During his entire career Ritchie praised the late Jeff Beck, who he said many times was his favorite guitarist of all time. “The Yardbirds started the whole thing going. I think it was ’64 and I think I was in Hamburg (Germany) at the time and I first heard ‘The Shapes of Things’ with Jeff Beck playing and I thought: ‘My God, who the hell is this? This shouldn’t be allowed is too good’. I’ve been a fan of theirs ever since. I think the producer was Giorgio Gomelsky and they were way ahead of all the other bands, they were fantastic. ‘Shapes of Things’, ‘Over Under Sideways Down’, all that stuff, amazing guitar playing by Jeff. (He) cheats on the guitar because he has notes than I don’t have on my guitar (joking).”

Ritchie Blackmore continued:

“That’s ok, I’ll let him go on that one. But he knows how to ring a note, his soul comes through his tone as well as his notes. Great player, my favorite guitar player and every time I tell him that, he will say: ‘Oh, Blackmore, come on. Stop bullshiting’. I’m going: ‘Jeff, you can never take a compliment’. Because he’s kind of an introverted guy, he loves his cars but what a player, what a natural fantastic player. I’m so glad that he started (the thing going), because in my opinion ‘Shapes of Things’, ever since then we’ve just kind of followed that style. In fact, I did a session with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, I think it was in ’63, long time ago.”

“Jeff and I were the guitar players and Jimmy Page was producing. I remember Jeff playing incredibly well and I actually said to him: ‘What is your name?’. He said: ‘Jeff Beck’ and I said: ‘I never heard of you, I should have heard of you, because you’re so good’. About three years later I saw him somewhere else and he was a very big name at that point. He came up to me and said: ‘What’s your name?’ I said: ‘Ritchie’ and he said: ‘Oh, I never heard of you’ (laughs).”

He continued:

“So he paid me back. But I didn’t mean it as an insult, it was just that for someone to be that good and for me to have never heard of them on the circuit, in ’63, ’64 was unusual. He still has his own tone, his own way of playing. He obviously doesn’t sit there and practice all these fast little runs, he is just himself,” Ritchie Blackmore said in an interview on Rainbow‘s channel (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

When Jeff passed away in 2023 at the age of 78, Blackmore said that is a “big blow” to hear about his death. He used to go see him playing whenever he could because he “found him very refreshing” and also called him the “best Rock and Roll player”.

Ritchie Blackmore said Eddie Van Halen reinvented the guitar

Although Blackmore said that Eddie Van Halen tended “to be rather erratic” when playing, he considered him a musician who reinvented the guitar. “Eddie Van Halen was a brilliant guitarist who started a technique of guitar playing which was emulated by a whole generation of guitarists. He was one of the nicest musicians I ever met in the music business. (He was) very shy and not at all conceited about his ability as a guitar player. Frank Zappa said (Eddie) reinvented the guitar. I agree. He will be sadly missed but his brilliant legacy will always be remembered, the ultimate guitar hero,” Ritchie Blackmore said after Eddie’s passing in 2020.

Ritchie was also a fan of Eddie as a keyboardist, saying in the early ’90s that he was quite impressed with what he had done on the previous Van Halen albums. “He is probably the most influential player in the last 15 years. Because everybody’s gone out and bought one of those, what does he play, Charvel, Carvel … Kramer, with the locking nut. Yes, with the locking nut!”

He continued:

“So everyone’s gone hammer-on crazy! So he’s obviously done something, he’s a great guitar player. But I’m more impressed by his recent songwriting and keyboard work. I think he’s going to be remembered, he could be the next Cole Porter,” Ritchie Blackmore said in an interview with Guitar World in 1991.

Eddie also admired Blackmore and once said the guitar riff of Deep Purple’s “Burn” was one his favorite of all time. However, his first meeting with Blackmore did not go very well and left him with a bad impression. “There’s one thing that bothered me so much in the very beginning, in ’78, our first tour. (It was) how people like Joe Perry and other guitarists would just give me the shaft with their eyes. Wouldn’t say hello. Wouldn’t be nice. No nothing. I’m not that way.”

Eddie Van Halen continued:

Michael Schenker refused an invitation to replace Blackmore in Deep Purple

Since Blackmore mentioned Jeff and Eddie, two lead guitar players, and referred only to the surname “Schenker”, it is believed that he was most likely talking about Michael Schenker (lead guitarist), who was the most important guitar player in the history of UFO, a band Ritchie admires. “UFO, that’s an interesting band. They kind of represent the roots of English Blues based Rock,” he said in an interview with VH1 for their show Greatest Artists of Hard Rock in 2000.

Michael first achieved fame with Scorpions, the band formed by his older brother Rudolf, who continues to be the band’s rhythm guitarist. Since the 1980s, he has reunited a few times with UFO but has focused mainly on his acclaimed solo career. Curiously, in the early ’90s, he was invited by Deep Purple to join the group after Blackmore left. He once again declined the invitation, as he had previously done with Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Motörhead. Schenker stated many times that the reason for refusing these offers was that he didn’t want to be in someone else’s shoes; he wanted to play the music he composed himself and maintain his own identity.

He said:

“Deep Purple asked me too, before they asked Joe Satriani. The thing is that I was always tempted to take part of it, and to do it. But something always told me: ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it. You have to do your own thing. You have to fulfill your own version and your dreams, and you have to experiment with your music. And you have to develop and experiment’ and do all of these things, which I couldn’t have done with them. But it’s very flattering that I left that much of an impression on those guys. What can I say? It’s flattering,” Michael Schenker told Wiki Metal in 2012.

Interestingly, Michale Schenker had recruited for his band dozens of musicians who had previously worked with Blackmore. Some of them were the ex-Rainbow members Cozy Powell (Drummer), Graham Bonnet (Singer), Doogie White (Singer). Other two former Blackmore bandmates that worked with Schenker in the studio were Bobby Rondinelli (Drummer) and Don Airey (Keyboardist), who is a current member of Deep Purple.

Michael Schenker said: