The guitarist Ritchie Blackmore helped to form Deep Purple in the late 60s and was one of the first guitar heroes of his generation. The incredible guitar riffs and solos he composed with the band and later with his own group Rainbow are now part of Rock and Roll history and inspired countless generations of artists all over the world.
Besides being one of the best guitar players that ever existed, Blackmore is also one of the most sincere rock stars out there. He always said what he thinks about any other artist. He even once said which was the group that he hated back in the 80s.
The band that Ritchie Blackmore said that he hated in the 80s
Blackmore was part of Deep Purple for the first time from 1968 until 1975 and after spending a few almost one decade on the road with his own group Rainbow, he accepted to return to Deep Purple alongside the classic line-up. But during that decade Rock and Roll had already evolved and was very different with many new bands and sub-genres.
One of the most successful groups that appeared in the late 70s and became huge in the 80s were The Police, which is a group that Blackmore was not a big fan of. In an interview with Metal Hammer in 1987, the guitarist said that he hated them and that most of the bands from that era sounded like them.
He mentioned them when he was asked if there were any doubts that Purple’s reunion would work. He recalled when he realized that they had something good going. “I think it was on the first part of the tour, in Australia. I suddenly realized that there was a gap for this type of music because only ZZ Top were doing that aggressive stuff. Everyone was playing like The Police. And can I state here that I hate The Police?”
He continued:
“There just wasn’t a band playing that earthy kind of rock. Our music isn’t contrived, and there isn’t that sheen of gloss,” Ritchie Blackmore said. He was then asked to talk about a comment made by the bassist Roger Glover that there would always be a band like Deep Purple, because the world needs a group like them. Blackmore replied to that and mentioned The Police again.
“It’s quite a profound statement, and Roger doesn’t take drugs. Yeah, I suppose so. That’s the kind of promotional statement that the record company will love. As long as the world doesn’t need The Police, that’s all I care about,” Ritchie Blackmore said.
When The Police was formed in 1977, Blackmore already had released two albums with Rainbow. The group led by Sting disbanded one year before Deep Purple reunited and released the album “Perfect Strangers” (1984).
Curiously, Ritchie Blackmore is three years younger than The Police’s guitarist Andy Summers. The Rainbow guitarist was born in 1945 and Summers in 1942. The drummer Stewart Copeland is 10 years younger than Summers and the bassist Sting was born 11 years after the guitar player.
The Police have released only five studio albums but are one of the best-selling bands of all time. They have sold an estimated amount of more than 75 million records worldwide. The group was active from 1977 until 1983 and reunited for a few shows for the last time in 2007. They recently sold the rights to their songs and Sting said that they will never reunite again. Curiously is something that Blackmore and the current Deep Purple line-up frequently says too.