Candice Night, who is Ritchie Blackmore’s wife and bandmate in the band Blackmore’s Night, gave the musician’s current health status. As she told Iron City Rocks, He has a heart condition and suffered a heart attack a couple of years ago, and there are other minor issues that are preventing him from going on the road with the band.
Ritchie Blackmore’s wife discusses the guitarist’s health issues
“One of the things that’s so great about Ritchie is he can recognize — he’s very in tune with his own body, and he stays on top of everything. Thank goodness. And when he doesn’t, I nag him to stay on top of it, which he hates, but at least somebody’s doing it — you know, like eating well and things like that. There’s the three main issues with him that are going on. He has a heart issue. He had a heart attack a couple of years ago, so we stay on top of that. He’s got gout, so that’s difficult.”
“It’s affecting his feet really badly. And it’s starting in his forefinger, so it’s hurting the mobility in that, so he just had an injection for that. And his back, of course, which has always been an issue. He hasn’t taken any back injections since he had the heart issue. So everything kind of is working together. So, it’s hard — it is hard for him. But he’s at the point now where — he’s very smart when it comes to things like that.”
“(The problem of touring) it’s not so much the travel on a plane. Honestly, it’s the aggravation before you even get into the plane and after you get into the plane and it’s all the sitting of traveling. So that’ll affect his back and all the rest of it. And the jet lag that stresses your heart. All of these things. Waiting on those lines when you have to get to JFK and you have to go transatlantic, and then coming off and going back through the security lines and the customs lines and all the rest of that stuff, and all of that stuff, it really does take a toll on a human — on a healthy human, so forget about someone who’s 80 years old and going through these issues. But he did just say to me yesterday, which I wait for his…”
She continued:
“With Ritchie, if you try to pressure him to do something, he instantly says no. He’s like a teenager. And so now I’ve got three of them. But learning how to deal with that a little bit better. So I wait for him to come to the realization, or I drop little seeds here and there and try to wait for him to be ready to talk about it. And he did just say, ‘What about doing some Blackmore’s Night dates in the fall?’ So, of course, I got greatly excited about that. So now I’ve gotta contact the agent. But he would rather do places that he can drive to.”
“He takes the night off the next day. Gone are the days where you do five shows in a row, including travel. That’s just way too much. For anybody, it’s difficult to do that. And we don’t have a tour bus and we don’t have private planes. If we go someplace, I’m driving. So it’s like a mini road trip, but not really because we have to just get to the place, rest that night. Hopefully it’s close enough to the venue.”
“You get to the venue, you go back, you get a good night’s sleep that night. Hopefully they’re not doing construction or maintenance in the hotel or the maids don’t wake you up at seven o’clock in the morning. and then you move on to the next place and have a day of travel. So it’s a very slowed down way of doing it. But honestly, I’d much rather take something than nothing at all,” Candice Night said (Transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Candice Night is currently promoting her first solo album “Sea Glass”.
