Ritchie Blackmore explained why he left deep purple band.
Why did Ritchie Blackmore leave Deep Purple?
And why did the influential guitarist do it not once but twice, initially departing the English hard rock band in 1975 before returning around 10 years later, ultimately leaving again in 1993?
Blackmore’s first stint in Deep Purple lasted until June 1975 — considered Mark I–Mark III of the band’s lineup — and he appeared on the group’s first nine studio albums. After that, he founded Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, the band name then simplified to Rainbow, with whom he released seven records between 1975 and 1983
In the spring of 1974, Blackmore returned to Deep Purple as part of a Mark II lineup reunion. He then contributed to another four full-length Deep Purple releases before departing for the final time in 1993. Later, he formed Blackmore’s Night with his partner Candice Night to expand on the baroque-style music he created with Rainbow in a more stripped-back, folky manne
Blackmore’s second departure was also due to creative differences and personal differences. At the time, Deep Purple were trying to pursue a more modern, prog-rock sound. But Blackmore seemingly wanted to stick with more traditional hard rock. Naturally, this led to further disagreements within the band, and he left again to reform Rainbow.
“Melody is very important to me,” Blackmore said. “It’s an important thing. That’s why, even in Deep Purple, towards the end, before I left, our music was a bit monophonic. There wasn’t too much melody and if I don’t hear a melody, I can’t be inspired. I find that with a lot of hard rock bands today — not the death metal or whatever — the melody is certainly not there and I can’t relate to that.”
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