The legendary British guitarist Ritchie Blackmore is one of the few musicians in the world who had the chance to be successful with two different bands. He helped to form Deep Purple and was a crucial part of the band’s sound, which made them one of the best-selling bands of all time. However, in 1975 when he decided to leave the group, he formed his own band, Rainbow. The group was active until 1984, being reunited from 1993 to 1997 and for a few shows in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
During the band’s career, they had five different vocalists and only four of those were part of studio albums. Also known for being quite sincere, Blackmore once revealed who was a Rainbow vocalist he didn’t like very much.
The Rainbow singer that Ritchie Blackmore didn’t like very much
All the vocalists Rainbow had are respected in the music scene but as Blackmore said in an interview with Newsweek in 2017, he didn’t like Doogie White’s performance in Rainbow in the 90s.
He was asked about reactivating Rainbow in the 90s and he said: “I kind of left the Purple camp and I was really at a loose end. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just knew that I didn’t want to travel anymore. They were all over the world, all the time. I hate traveling. It’s funny, because I chose a profession where all you do is travel. I thought maybe I’ll reform Rainbow and see how it goes.”
“Popularity-wise, it went very well. But I wasn’t pleased with the lineup. After being in the studio, I thought, You know, I’m not happy with the singer (Doogie White). My main connection with music is the singer and if I don’t have a good singer, I can’t force it. And when you bring somebody into a band, sometimes the egos go crazy. So I thought, ‘Why am I doing this?'”
He continued:
“Candy (His wife) and I would often get around the fire because we were up in Massachusetts in a snowstorm all the time. So we’d often spend nights coming up with ideas. I noticed that I was having a better time playing songs that Candy could sing rather than what the singer at the time in Rainbow was coming up with.”
“I decided to gravitate more toward the ballads and Medieval/Renaissance music. Which of course has been my favorite music since 1972. So this was like two things in one: We’re having a good time and I’m playing basically Renaissance music. So I was very happy with that,” Ritchie Blackmore said.
Doogie White
Born in Scotland back in 1960, Doogie White was the second European Rainbow vocalist. Before joining the band in 1993 he recorded with bands like La Paz and Midnight Blue. He was in Blackmore’s group until 1997 and appeared on the only studio album released by the band during that period: “Stranger in Us All” (1995). After that Doogie White recorded with many other incredible artists and bands. Some of them are Yngwie Malmsteen, Praying Mantis, Tank, Michael Schenker and Alcatrazz.
The first Rainbow vocalist was the legendary Ronnie James Dio, who was part of the band from 1975 until 1979. Then he was replaced by Graham Bonnett who was only in the band for one year. From 1980 until 1984 it was Joe Lynn Turner who occupied the vocals until Blackmore dissolved the group to reunite with Deep Purple. The most recent Rainbow vocalist was Ronnie Romero, who was the frontman in the shows the band did during the last decade.