The Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore always had a strong personality and it wasn’t always that other musicians would have a good relationship with him. That not only caused many frictions inside Deep Purple but also in his own band Rainbow. The line-up of the group was constantly changed over the years and many of the ex-members didn’t had many good things to say about working with Blackmore. But the bassist and lyricist Bob Daisley, who was a member of the group from 1977 to 1978, explained in an interview with Rock Daydream (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), the secret of working with Blackmore.
According to Daisley they never had a fight because he followed some basic rules, something other musicians didn’t do most of the time.
The secret of working with Ritchie Blackmore according to Bob Daisley
“At the end of the audition (for Rainbow), I think it was Ronnie who said to me, ‘Well, if you want it, the gig’s yours.’ I said, ‘I’ll think about it’ (laughs). It was a great opportunity. But Ritchie had the reputation of chewing people up and spitting them out. And people were saying to me, ‘Just be careful, you could leave Widowmaker to go with Ritchie, and then end up with nothing in three months.'”
The bass player’s wife was trying to convince him to join Rainbow. He finally decided to be in the group after he had a fight with his bandmates because Blackmore and Cozy Powell attend their show. After the decision was made he went to the Rainbow Bar & Grill to see the guitarist.
“Ritchie sat at the Rainbow, and as I walked in, he applauded. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’ Ritchie was not one for giving compliments easily.”
He then confirmed that the two never had a fight because their personalities were similar
“Yes. And plus, I knew the situation. It was, ‘Head down, get on with it, be professional, be reliable, don’t start bitching about anything.’ And I did. That’s all you really needed to do with Ritchie. Do the job right, and be conscientious, reliable, and professional. And I didn’t have a problem with him,” Bob Daisley said.
He quit the band in 1978 because Ritchie Blackmore wanted a more commercial sound and he didn’t like the new path the band was taking. The only Rainbow studio album he played on was “Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll” released in 1978. In the following decades, Daisley worked with Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath, Yngwie Malmsteen and more.