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BIZARRE: Rainbow org - What They Never Told You

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine names his guitar heroes and praises Deep Purple and Rainbow's Ritchie Blackmore for "being metal as f*** back when there were no metal guitar players"

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine's "Last Supper" of guitarists includes special place for Deep Purple and Rainbow icon Ritchie Blackmore

Metal Hammer

“I always felt like I was the weak link in the band. I felt that my guitar playing was was too raw and unpolished”: How guitar hero Vivian Campbell overcame self-doubt to create a heavy metal masterpiece with legendary singer Ronnie James Dio

His solo in Dio's most famous song was cut in one take

MusicRadar

“I reckon Ritchie Blackmore might have thought we’d made a mistake having them open for Rainbow, as we just couldn’t match them”: When AC/DC blew Rainbow off stage

Warning: never, ever let AC/DC open for your band

Louder

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“He called and said, ‘I don’t like what’s going on with Ritchie Blackmore. I’m looking for an escape’”: That time Ronnie James Dio offered to front ’70s glam-rock outfit The Sweet

Internal disagreements led Dio to very different gig as he sought an escape from Blackmore’s Rainbow, while The Sweet were grappling with their frontman's drinking problems

Guitar World

"Underwhelming considering the talent involved." Supergroup Wild Horses pull up short on lacklustre debut studio album

Rainbow's Jimmy Bain + Thin Lizzy's Brian Robertson = Mild Horses

Louder

“I read the other day that I hated him. I can’t believe they said that”: Ritchie Blackmore sets the record straight about his relationship with Jimmy Page

Blackmore says he has nothing but respect for the Led Zep guitarist

Guitar World

“A band member said, ‘If we didn’t write it, there’s no point in doing it because we won’t get writing credits.’ I was really disappointed”: The moment Ritchie Blackmore knew he’d leave Deep Purple

Blackmore looks back on his Deep Purple departure

Guitar World

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"I looked around and nobody was happy. And I was thinking: 'This is going to be rough'": What happened when Bruce Dickinson made the decision that changed his life

Becoming a band’s new singer is never easy. But when Bruce Dickinson saw Iron Maiden play, he knew he was the singer they needed

Metal Hammer

"A veteran virtuoso who remains startlingly undimmed by the passage of time": Jan Akkerman celebrates four decades of My Focus – Live Under The Rainbow

Celebrating its 40thanniversary, Freddie's solo debut remains flawed but sporadically glorious.

Louder

"It was weird just being in the same room as him": The story of the Ronnie James Dio classic assembled from other bands' spare parts

Rainbow In The Dark a highlight of Holy Diver, an album Ronnie James Dio said was “one of the proudest things I’ve ever done”

Metal Hammer

"He said, 'Black Sabbath... I don't know if I like their music.' I said, 'We have $800 in the bank, you love their music.'" Black Sabbath's former manager originally wanted Dio to write and record while Ozzy Osbourne toured with the band

Billy Corgan has hosted an epic, emotional interview with Wendy Dio - wife and manager of Ronnie James Dio

Metal Hammer

"It was something that hit you like a flash of light, so you write a song about it": The story of the magical Saxon classic inspired by heavy metal music, heavy metal fans and... Toto?

Saxon were cruising the New Wave of British Heavy Metal... and their signature tune celebrated it

Metal Hammer

“I think every serious fan of hard rock music would love Stargazer. It’s one of those all-time epic masterpieces. It’s Ritchie Blackmore in his most experimental mode”: How guitar hero Blackmore created his magnum opus with Rainbow

The legendary track that inspired Metallica, Opeth, Dream Theater and Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson

MusicRadar

"It's karaoke time and I understand that": Graham Bonnet on the "berserk" response to Rainbow's Since You've Been Gone

Just about to tour MSG's Assault Attack in full, Graham Bonnet is still singing songs by his old bands, having fun and not taking things too seriously

Louder

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Louder

"I look round and there's puke all over the place, and I thought, this is not going well": How Rainbow's classic lineup came together then fell apart

Ritchie Blackmore and his band reflect on Rainbow Rising, hailed as an instant classic upon its release in 1976

MusicRadar

“Some of the guys never wanted to do that song in the first place. ‘This is crap – too poppy!’ I thought it was great, but I had no idea that it would become the band’s signature tune”: The ’70s hit that reinvented a legendary rock band

A triumph for a singer who’d been doing TV ads for yoghurt and crackers

MusicRadar

“Ritchie and I wrote some great songs, some really wonderful things”: How Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio combined to create an epic style of heavy music - ‘castle rock’!

The two rock legends hit a peak with Rainbow's Rising

MusicRadar

“It wasn’t just my decision to fire Ozzy. It was a band decision. It was either we break up or we carry on without him”: Tony Iommi says they had to get rid of Ozzy Osbourne to make Black Sabbath great again

And he met the band's next singer through Ozzy's future wife Sharon!

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Louder

"Ritchie Blackmore gave me a wave as he fell backwards. That was my cue to do a ten-minute keyboard solo": Don Airey on Rainbow, Deep Purple and his awesome solo album Pushed To The Edge

Deep Purple keyboard player, go-to session guy and solo artist Don Airey on his new album, touring, Purple, Blackmore and more

MusicRadar

“All the albums I did with Metallica were recorded on 24-track analogue tape. There’s not a computer in sight”: How Flemming Rasmussen produced Metallica’s classic Master Of Puppets

“I rate James as the best rhythm guitar player on the planet," the producer said

Louder

“If somebody offered me something I’d take it first and ask afterwards what it was. I’d swallow a pill and have to be carried back to my room”: The life and death of Jimmy Bain, the bassist who brought the rock’n’roll to Rainbow and Dio

They don’t make them like the late, great Jimmy Bain any more

Guitar World

“People had warned me how Ritchie chewed up and spat out musicians. Rainbow had already auditioned 40 bass players!” From Ritchie Blackmore to Ozzy Osbourne, Bob Daisley has worked with rock’s heaviest heroes

For more than 30 years, bassist Bob Daisley laid the foundations on which some of the greatest rock and roll ever was built

Louder

“I used to go to the Camden Palace and drink with Boy George. I loved Culture Club”: How Ian Gillan put Deep Purple behind him and launched a new chapter of his career with Gillan

Ian Gillan reinvented himself as a NWOBHM-era star with Gillan

Louder

“People think of Ritchie as an angry, unfriendly guy, and that’s not him. I knew him when he was in a very good place”: Ronnie Romero has sung for Ritchie Blackmore and Michael Schenker and lived to tell the tale

When rock’s most ‘difficult’ guitarists need a singer, it’s Ronnie Romero they hit up

Louder

“Ritchie has firm ideas about how things should be, and there were things that we disagreed on”: Ritchie Blackmore once asked former Deep Purple bandmate Ian Gillan to join Rainbow

Gillan responded by asking Blackmore to join his solo band

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