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INSANE: 3 | Vintage Vibes

"I've seen people younger than him in wheelchairs on stage, he probably doesn't want people to see him that way." Ritchie Blackmore's wife Candice Night says the guitarist had a heart attack 18 months ago, won't be onstage in Europe any time soon

Blackmore appears on Candice Night's forthcoming solo album, Sea Glass

Louder

"So much happened during those 12 months that it's hard to pack the impact into mere words": The greatest year in heavy metal history, revisited

A look back at 12 memorable months for loud music

Metal Hammer

The greatest gig I've ever seen: 24 writers pick the most memorable live show of their lives

24 life-changing live shows from 60 years of gigs

Louder

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read the most diverse news in one place.

“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

Guitar World

“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

Louder

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"After shaking her hand, I went out and had like five cigarettes in a row just to calm myself down. I get starstruck easily": Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt on the time he met ABBA's Agnetha Fältskog and had dinner with her

Mikael Åkerfeldt looks back on the time he was starstruck after meeting fellow Swedish legend, Agnetha Fältskog from ABBA

Metal Hammer

“Jim Morrison was carried out. Jimi Hendrix was there. We were all getting drunk”: Ritchie Blackmore recalls the first time he saw two-hand tapping – at a wild show in 1968

Years before Eddie Van Halen put it in the early pages of the guitar textbook, Harvey Mandel was highlighting his performances with flourishes of two-hand tapping – grabbing the attention of onlookers in the process…

Guitar World

"People said I was just jerking off on guitar. There was a point when I thought, ‘Oh, God, they’re right’”: Chris Impellitteri is one of the fastest guitarists of all time – but he realized there was more to life than shredding

Impellitteri explains why he listens to Albert King and Joe Bonamassa, what he learned from Eddie Van Halen and Ritchie Blackmore, and why he doesn’t regret missing out on the Ozzy Osbourne gig that went to Zakk Wylde

Guitar World

“We had an exploding Marshall cabinet. The roadies put too much gasoline in it, and it almost blew Ritchie Blackmore offstage”: A metal fan’s guide to Deep Purple, one of hard rock’s original Holy Trinity

Along with Sabbath and Zeppelin, Deep Purple helped craft the primordial goop that spawned metal

Metal Hammer

"I was lying in bed at about three in the morning when an axe smashed through my door": Deep Purple’s 25 maddest moments

Life in Deep Purple has never been dull

Louder

“We had a plan. Jesus Christ, are you kidding? My whole plan was to make an album that sells more than the last one”: How Whitesnake shed their skin and made a solid gold hard rock classic with the 1987 album

David Coverdale looks back on the making of Whitesnake’s hair metal-era classic 1987

Metal Hammer

“I bought my ’54 Strat from the biggest dealer in Sweden – he was crying when I walked away with the guitar”: Brian May, Steve Vai and Neal Schon have all given Yngwie Malmsteen guitars – but nothing compares to his Fender Strats

Malmsteen descends from shred mountain to dispense wisdom on all matters gear, how to buy it, single coils vs humbuckers and to reminisce about some of his best gear purchases

Guitar World

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Louder

"I do like to complain, and I will complain": Ritchie Blackmore has given his official verdict on Taylor Swift

Former Deep Purple man Ritchie Blackmore has spoken

Louder

“John Wayne said: ‘My daughter would be so happy to get your autographs.’ So David Coverdale and I signed his cowboy boots”: Glenn Hughes’ wild tales of Ritchie Blackmore, David Bowie, Phil Lynott and The Duke

Bowie, Blackmore, Richard Burton and Linda Blair – Glenn Hughes has crossed paths with them all

MusicRadar

“What we are after is not perfection. You’re looking for the flaws… the noise… earth hum. You’re looking for the arm-tight playing… the human aspect”: Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt on inspirations, intuition, shred, and the problem with modern metal

A sprawling story of dark familial secrets, freewheeling prog and Åkerfeldt death growls, solos inspired by Peter Green and Ritchie Blackmore, Opeth bequeath everything a prog-metal fan could ever want on The Last Will And Testament

Guitar World

“People warned me, ‘If you work with Ritchie Blackmore, you could last 5 minutes. He could chew you up, spit you out. You could end up with nothing.’ So I did have to think about it”: Bob Daisley on Rainbow, Ozzy – and pairing-up with Randy Rhoads

Born to be a bassist, he was warned against working with Rainbow and Sabbath alumni, but did it anyway. And his only regret is the ever-looming cloud over his celebrated work with Ozzy Osbourne

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Louder

"Ritchie Blackmore never missed a note, and that ain't easy when you're about to be beheaded": An introduction to Terry Reid, the man who could have fronted Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple

Unfairly framed as rock’s ultimate nearly man, Terry Reid chose to take his own path, and he's still going strong

Louder

“I had a meltdown. Cocaine psychosis took over – it’s a form of paranoid schizophrenia”: How Deep Purple split from Ritchie Blackmore and made a funky masterpiece in Come Taste The Band

Ritchie Blackmore was out, US hotshot Tommy Bolin was in and Deep Purple’s Mk IV line-up were about to make the most under-rated album of their career

Guitar World

“Ozzy had been fired from Black Sabbath. People warned me against working with him because he didn’t have the best reputation”: Ozzy Osbourne bassist Bob Daisley on why he decided to bet on the Prince of Darkness’ post-Sabbath career

Daisley had just been unceremoniously replaced in Ritchie Blackmore’s band, Rainbow, when the opportunity to join Osbourne in his new venture came about

Guitar World

“I went there with the intention of buying a Gretsch Jet Firebird. He said, ‘Forget the Gretsch. That’s a toy compared to the 335’”: Ritchie Blackmore recalls buying his first Gibson from amp pioneer Jim Marshall's music store

Blackmore used the Gibson ES-335 all throughout the '60s, from The Outlaws to Deep Purple’s 1970 breakthrough album, In Rock

Guitar World

“He said very politely, ‘Can I get up on stage with you and use your guitar?’ It was very overwhelming to play with a Beatle”: That time Ritchie Blackmore and George Harrison jammed Little Richard at a Deep Purple concert

Harrison had decided to check out Deep Purple while in Australia in 1984, and ended up sharing the stage with Blackmore for an eight-minute jam of Lucille

Louder

"Plug me into anything, I'll be alright!": Listen to Sweet and Ritchie Blackmore join forces for a unique performance of Free's All Right Now in tribute to Paul Kosoff

The unlikely partnership hooked up onstage in Santa Monica in 1976, just five days after the death of Paul Kossoff

Louder

Terminally ill grandmother loses £140,000 to scammer pretending to be Ritchie Blackmore

The victim, who is suffering from cancer, went to school with the former Deep Purple guitarist

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