Besides Ian Paice, Roger Glover and Jon Lord, the classic Deep Purple line-up was obviously formed by the vocalist Ian Gillan and the guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.
Although that line-up recorded most of their 70s classic albums and made some good records during their reunions in the 80s and 90s, the fights between Gillan and Blackmore, especially caused the end of that formation. In an interview with Made In Metal (Transcribed by Blabbermouth), the singer Ian Gillan praised Blackmore saying he is a genius and that probably half of the issues they had between each other were caused by Gillan himself. He said that after praising the band’s new guitarist Simon McBride.
Ian Gillan says that Ritchie Blackmore is a genius
“Oh, first of all, Simon (McBride) is a genius. He’s absolutely fantastic. He’s got all the energy and articulation and musical skills and creative skills that you could ever dream of. You can’t compare Ritchie with Simon or with Steve Morse or with Joe Satriani, the players that we’ve had in a band. And I think that Ritchie (Blackmore) has to have all the credit in the world. He’s a genius. He was fantastic. I thought he was brilliant.”
He continued:
“He was my roommate and we partnered and we shared a lot together. And then things, for some reason, went wrong later on. And I’m sure half of it was my fault, so those days were dim and distant. But as far as the guitar is concerned, Simon interprets these songs very, very brilliantly.”
“(…) Steve Morse said a good thing when he joined the band and somebody said, ‘How does it feel like stepping into Ritchie Blackmore’s shoes?’ And Steve said, ‘I think Ritchie took his shoes with him when he left.’ And that, that applies to everyone — that applies to Simon now,” Ian Gillan said.
The group continued after Blackmore decided to leave for good more than three decades ago. Since then they had in his place Joe Satriani (From 1993 to 1994) and Steve Morse (From 1994 to 2022). Now the band’s guitarist is Simon McBride.