Deep Purple bassist and singer from 1973 to 1976 Glenn Hughes recalled in an interview with Classic Rock magazine the story of when guitarist Ritchie Blackmore pranked him with ghost noises in the room he was sleeping.
The musician had just joined the group at the age of 21 after bassist Roger Glover left and Blackmore received him in a very funny way.
Glenn Hughes recalled the Ritchie Blackmore prank with ghosts noises:
“We went to Clearwell Castle to work on the Burn album. Ritchie rigged up my room with hidden speakers. In the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of all these ghost noises. I was scared shitless! The next night me, Baz Marshall [Purple roadie] and Ritchie held a séance. Baz was a farmer and he’d recently lost one of his cows.”
“We started the séance and suddenly the room echoed with the sound of a cow mooing. Only this time it wasn’t a wind-up! Blackmore freaked and ran out. When it came down to it, he was a bit of a scaredy-cat. But Ritchie was the king of the prank – we all know that. Even today, he always carries a water pistol around with him. I have it on the greatest authority”.
Blackmore’s interest in ghosts
Blackmore has much interest in the spiritual world and talked many times about séances and experiences he had in his life. In an interview with The Guardian back in 2017 the guitarist talked about ghosts and a haunted clock he owns.
The Guardian journalist Michael Hann visited Blackmore’s house basement that has a bar in it, in Long Island at the time. Ex-Deep Purple guitarist said when they were going downstairs that he would notice “that vibe of being haunted”.
Blackmore presented a clock in the bar that was gift from a friend and is haunted, saying: “It only chimes when it’s in agreement with something. Or when we’re talking on a frequency the clock understands. It’s a very strange thing. And if we ever talk about religious things, it gets excited and it starts going off.”
The guitarist also said he has a theory that ghosts are attracted to religious people and symbols:
“I don’t know if that taunts the ghost, or sets off an energy that excites them. I was watching a show last night. They were investigating this house and sure enough there were crucifixes and religious pictures all over the place. It’s strange they hadn’t figured that one out and thought it might have been causing ghostly activity.”
“I find it a fascinating subject. Because we’re all going to end up going somewhere and it would be nice to know if it was a nice place.”