Ian Gillan says Deep Purple reunion with Ritchie Blackmore would be a ‘circus’.

Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan has once again quashed the hypothetical idea of a reunion with Ritchie Blackmore saying it would be a “circus” and “no fun at all.”

 

Guitarist and co-founding member Ritchie Blackmore quit Deep Purple 28 years ago in 1993 and is yet to perform live again with the band. Ritchie’s replacement guitarist Steven Morse has now been with Deep Purple longer than him.

In a fresh interview with Tales From The Road, Ian Gillan was asked whether he’s still in touch with Ritchie Blackmore and if he could ever see Deep Purple reuniting with him.

 

Ian replied (via Blabbermouth): “No. The answer to your question is yes, we are in touch. Tensions eased quite a lot after we got hold of our business affairs and sorted everything out. There were previous managers from the past who had not done things exactly as you would like. I didn’t get paid for 10 years when I was with Deep Purple  in the big years  and goodness knows what happened to all that. And there were other tensions too.

“Needless to say, it was all pretty nasty when we finished and Ritchie walked out. But we’re too old for that now. We’ve both written some pleasant notes via our managers. I can’t write to Ritchie or phone him because he doesn’t have a telephone, he doesn’t have a computer. He lives in a world of Greensleeves  he lives in a medieval world, and he has messages given to him and that sort of thing. But he’s sent some pleasant words to me, and I’ve sent some pleasant words to him.“There are still issues; there are still bones of contention. I’ve seen a lot of rubbish being spoken  it’s not worth even rising to the occasion  but I hear David Coverdale and others talking about what happened at the Rock And Roll Of Fame (in 2016).

 

“Well, we were very kind to everybody, the current band. And we did invite Ritchie to play ‘Smoke On The Water’ with us at the ceremony, but he declined. So, (those) are just opportunistic remarks from the others.”

Ian continued: “We’ve never had any antagonism towards Ritchie. He has his own interpretations, and the rest of us have our interpretations, so it’s really not worth being fired up about it.

 

“But I think probably this late in our career, and with things moving along so pleasantly for the band, it would naturally enough  we discussed this years and years ago when it was first talked about  it would be a circus and it would be a distraction to everything we’re doing, to be honest. It would be no fun at all, because we don’t work that way anymore.”

Speaking in the documentary feature of Rainbow’s ‘Memories In Rock II’ CD/DVD package in 2018, Ritchie Blackmore said a Deep Purple reunion would happen if management, agents and promoters didn’t ‘complicate’ things.

 

“I would like to do one, maybe one show with the rest of Purple just to prove that we’re not all hating each other,” Ritchie said. “And just do that and go, ‘Hey, everybody. It’s just one show for all the Deep Purple fans that liked the Mark II lineup.’“That was my idea in the beginning. But when you’re talking to managements of Purple, it gets complicated. They want their money for this and that.

 

“So, it’s not like you call up your old friends and just say, ‘Hey, let’s just have a good time and play. There’s lots of fans that want to hear it.’ Once you have managements and agents and promoters getting involved, it gets so complicated that everybody just calls back and says, ‘It’s too complicated.’”