4 famous artists that Ritchie Blackmore criticized in the 70s

Since rising to fame in the late ’60s, original Deep Purple guitarist and Rainbow leader Ritchie Blackmore has been known not only as an incredible musician but also as a remarkably candid person. There are countless fascinating interviews in which he speaks openly about other artists and bands.

Back in the mid-70s Deep Purple was already one of the biggest bands in the world. But they were close to their first breakup and Ritchie had already proven himself as a fantastic guitar player. At the time, he was increasingly dissatisfied with the state of music and in a 1974 interview with the L.A. Times he criticized some bands and artists.

4 famous artists that Ritchie Blackmore criticized in the 70s

David Bowie

The first one is David Bowie, an artist Ritchie Blackmore called “pathetic” and said was for people who were naive and lost. “It seems as though everything in music today is fake. This glitter stuff, I can’t stand. David Bowie is pathetic. Just pathetic. He’s alright for people who are a bit naive and lost, I imagine, but to me it’s all very false.” One year later, he mentioned Bowie once again in an interview with Creem, saying: “I’m afraid at the moment, with David Bowie and Alice Cooper and people like that, the scene has dampened again. So it’s slipping back. There’s nothing happening musically with people like David Bowie and Alice Cooper, but some people seem to think they’re the new messiahs so, I guess that’s the way it is,” Ritchie Blackmore said.

Curiously, when bassist and singer Glenn Hughes was in Deep Purple, he received an invitation from Bowie to sing on his album Young Americans, but Blackmore prohibited him from doing it. According to Hughes, the guitarist was ‘pissed’ and believed it would be bad for the band’s image. “I was in LA and I got a call from David Bowie’s personal assistant Corinne. She said Bowie had been watching footage on TV of Purple playing the California Jam and he’d been impressed by my performance. So I met up with him and we sat up talking all night. At the time, he was into his blue-eyed soul thing. We shared a mutual love of Luther Vandross!”

He continued:

“Later Bowie asked me to sing on his Young Americans album. Unfortunately Ritchie Blackmore was vehemently against it. He thought it would be bad for Purple’s image. I was a bit pissed off about that,” Glenn Hughes told Classic Rock in 2021.

Although their collaboration didn’t happen on that album, Hughes and Bowie remained good friends. The late rock star even lived at Glenn’s house while writing part of the album Station to Station. According to Hughes, after Blackmore left Deep Purple in 1975, it was Bowie who suggested they find a guitarist who didn’t sound like Blackmore at all—and he even took Hughes to Tommy Bolin’s audition.

The Rolling Stones

Blackmore also didn’t have good things to say about The Rolling Stones back then, telling L.A. Times that they were only using Chuck Berry riffs. “The Rolling Stones, every-time they come out it’s another Chuck Berry riff with the tambourines going. Let’s face it, it’s been downhill since ’67. Things like Hendrix, Traffic and the Beatles must have been too much for the world.” A few years later, in an interview with Trouser Press in 1978, he said that he considered them to be “idiots”.

“I wasn’t really getting off on people like the Beatles and the Hollies, all that vocal business. The Stones? I considered them idiots. It was just a nick from Chuck Berry riffs. Chuck Berry was OK. Sometimes I’m outspoken, but I don’t have any time for the Stones.”

He continued:

“I can see why they’re respected and their rhythms are very good, very steady on record. I respect them, but I don’t like them. (…) It might sound condescending, but I find them a little too limited. I like to play the blues when I’m jamming, but then I want to get on to other things,” Ritchie Blackmore said.

Curiously, criticizing the Stones cost Blackmore his friendship with Mick Jagger, at least in the 70s. That’s what he told (future movie director) Cameron Crowe in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1975. “All the big groups knew and raved about me. We played with the Stones once and Mick Jagger said in an interview that I was the best guitarist he’d ever seen. The next I slagged the Stones in print and that was the end of that friendship. Still, I was well respected, from top to bottom,” Ritchie Blackmore said.

Deep Purple recorded parts of their albums “Machine Head”, “Who Do You Think We Are?” and “Burn” in the famous Rolling Stones Mobile Studio (Inside a DAF F1600 Turbo truck), owned by Mick Jagger.

John McLaughlin

The British Jazz fusion guitarist John McLaughlin was also criticized by Blackmore back then.  “Still, I’m a very staunch supporter of rock ‘n roll. A lot of people like to snub it. You get these well-respected jazz guitarists like Barney Kessell and nobody knows when he hits a flat note. In jazz, it all sounds the same. In rock, you can’t hit a flat note. It’s very limiting. It’s much harder. People must be completely sick of guitar solos by now.”

“I think my solos are better than the others, without being conceited, but still, if I wasn’t a musician I’d be bored stiff. I’m much more interested in the violin. The guitar has become too trendy. People like John McLaughlin . . . he’s a jazz guitarist who thought that playing with a fuzz would make him a rock ‘n roller. He leaves me cold,” Ritchie Blackmore told L.A. Times.

McLaughlin has been awarded multiple times over the decades and is consistently listed among the greatest guitarists of all time. Curiously, in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, Blackmore is ranked at number 75, while McLaughlin is slightly ahead at number 72.

Carlos Santana

“He leaves me cold. He’s influencing a lot of people, though, whereas the (Carlos) Santana guy is just plain rotten. I don’t why he’s got such a name,” Ritchie Blackmore told L.A. Times in 1974. At the time, the band led by Carlos Santana had already released their first six albums. Those records had praised tracks like “Evil Ways”, “Jingo”, “Soul Sacrifice”, “Samba Pa Ti” and “Everybody’s Everything”.

Since then the guitarist released more 21 studio albums and is one of the most influential artists of all time. He has sold an estimated amount of more than 100 million records worldwide.

Santana curiously paid tribute to Deep Purple on his 2010 album “Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time”. He covered the band’s hit “Smoke On The Water”.