Ritchie Blackmore is one of the biggest guitar heroes of the history of Rock and Roll music, who was a fundamental part of Deep Purple‘s sound during their most successful eras. His guitar riffs and solos were crucial for not only the band’s success but also for the evolution of music. In 1975, when he decided to leave the group he would once more make history creating Rainbow. With his band, he became one of the few artists who were able to become extremely successful not only with one band, but two.
He had commercial success with both groups and influenced countless generations of musicians worldwide. Over the decades he talked about many other bands he had the chance to see during his career. He even mentioned two, which according to him, were important influences.
The 2 bands Ritchie Blackmore mentioned as influences
Mountain
As he told Newsweek back in 2017, the American band Mountain was one of his main influences. He recalled that the first time he heard them he was drinking in a bar in Germany with the drummer Ian Paice. They were really happy with their groundbreaking album “In Rock”, which had been recently released in 1970 and then another record came on and it was the song “Mississippi Queen).
“I remember Ian Paice and I were out for a drink in a bar in Germany, in 1970 I think it was. We were pretty pleased with our record ‘In Rock’, and they were playing it. And then this other record came on, and we didn’t know who it was, but it was such an amazing, big, hard sound. We looked at each other very nervously and thought, ‘Who the hell is that?'”
He continued:
“We asked the DJ and it was Mountain, with ‘Mississippi Queen,’ and that thundered! (But) we couldn’t speak because we didn’t know what to say [laughs]. We thought, Oh, my God, that is one hell of a sound,” Ritchie Blackmore said.
In an interview with VH1 back in 2000, Blackmore praised the track once more. He said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage): “There’s no Hard Rock song which has more impact than that (one). Around 1970, Deep Purple invariably ended up in Rock clubs all over Europe and they would always play music of the latest bands. This one night, this band came in doing “Mississippi Queen”. We didn’t speak to each other for about 3 minutes because we thought: ‘Who the hell is this?’ They just completely destroyed our sound,” Ritchie Blackmore said.
Mountain was formed in Long Island, New York by Leslie West (Vocals, guitar), Felix Pappalardi (Vocals, bass), Steve Knight (Keyboards) and N.D Smart (Drums – who would be replaced by Corky Lang).
Vanilla Fudge
The other band Ritchie Blackmore mentioned as a significant influence was the American psychedelic rock band Vanilla Fudge. In a 1991 interview with Guitar World magazine, he even said that his love for the American band helped bond his friendship with Deep Purple’s keyboardist Jon Lord. Because both of them loved the group.
“I met him (Jon Lord) in a transvestite bar in ’68, in Hamburg, Germany. [laughs] Back in the late Sixties, there were few organists who could play like Jon. We shared the same taste in music. We loved Vanilla Fudge – they were our heroes. They used to play London’s Speakeasy and all the hippies used to go there to hang out – Clapton, The Beatles – everybody went there to pose.”
He continued:
“According to legend, the talk of the town during that period was Jimi Hendrix, but that’s not true. It was Vanilla Fudge. They played eight-minute songs, with dynamics. People said, ‘What the hell’s going on here? How come it’s not three minutes?’ Timmy Bogert, their bassist, was amazing.”
“The whole group was ahead of its time. So, initially we wanted to be a Vanilla Fudge clone. But our singer, Ian, wanted to be Edgar Winter. He’d say, ‘I want to scream like that, like Edgar Winter.’ So that’s what we were – Vanilla Fudge with Edgar Winter!” Ritchie Blackmore said.
Just like Mountain, Vanilla Fudge was also formed in Long Island, New York. The band is still active and it’s formed by Mark Stein, Vince Martell, Carmine Appice and Pete Bremy.