Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is a legendary British musician, composer and guitarist. One of the founders of the cult hard rock band Deep Purple.
Biography
On April 14, 1945, in the family of Lewis Jay and Violet Blackmore, a second son was born, who was named Richard. At that time, the family lived in a small resort town in the south of Great Britain, but two years later they moved to Heston. Richie did not like school and did not show himself in any way in childhood. He was a very distant and passive child. But that all changed dramatically when Blackmore Jr. turned eleven. The father, in order to somehow stir up his son, bought him his first guitar. The boy liked the gift, moreover, after only a few months he could no longer imagine life without music.
School performance was extremely low, and at the age of 15, Richard decided to drop out of school and go to work at the local airport. With the money he earned, he began taking lessons from the famous British guitarist Big Jimmy Sullivan.
Career
In 1968, a group of talented young people decided to create their own project, which would later become known all over the world under the name Deep Purple. One of these people was an acquaintance of Richie Blackmore, who invited him to take the place of the departed guitarist. Remarkable is the fact that it was Richard who suggested the name of the group.
Blackmore and his comrades very quickly became popular in their native UK, and soon around the world. The group became a pioneer in the world of heavy music, and today they are a true monument of hard rock, which almost all aspiring metallers look up to. With the advent of fame, quarrels and conflicts began to flare up in the collective, the group's lead singer tried to devote as much time as possible to the vocals, and Blackmore, in turn, “pulled the blanket over himself” and made constant edits so that the songs had more guitar parts. He was often fond of improvisation at concerts, stretching the compositions for a few extra minutes.
Ultimately, after touring in support of the new album in 1975, the band announced they would disband. Almost immediately after these events, the talented guitarist formed his own team, which was called Rainbow. During the entire existence of the collective, eight albums of real hard rock have appeared.
In 1997, Blackmore decided to move away from canon hard rock and with his wife, Candice Knight, formed the Blackmore Nights folk group. To date, the collective has ten recorded albums, the last of which was released in 2015. In the same year, Richie re-assembled the famous Rainbow and performs in both groups.
Personal life
The famous musician is married to fashion model Candice Knight. He met his beloved back in 1991. In 1997, they formed a musical group. The star couple played the wedding only in 2008 and are still happy together.
