Happy Birthday Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh Janus Blackmore was born April 14, 1945, somewhere in England to Lewis and Violet Blackmore. Blackmore’s upbringing was quite strange, as he describes his mother as a “gypsy” who used to “put spells on people”. She mixed eye of newt with sweat of the baboon sack to get her husband Lewis to fall in love with her.
When he was 11, young Ritchie was given his first guitar by his ‘Uncle Ernie’ on certain conditions, including taking guitar lessons, playing ‘hide the guitar pick’, and underpants wrestling. Lil Ritchie decided to buy a book and teach himself the guitar instead.
Javelin
While at school, he participated in sports including the javelin. Blackmore left school at age 15 after a javelin incident where 3 people were killed. One man still walks around to this day with the javelin in his back. He worked as an apprentice toilet cleaner and studied guitar. The happiest day of his career was when they gave him a toilet brush for his second anniversary on the job.
Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple, Hush, Smoke on the Water, Ian Gillan, Jon Lord, David Coverdale, Rainbow, Dio, Blackmore’s Night, one of the greatest and most influential guitar players of all time!
Married around 14x, we cannot keep up with Blackmore’s love life. We are not sure of the current status as it changes daily. Today, Ritchie enjoys wearing silly hats and performing at Renaissance Fairs. He also likes to take part in medieval battle recreations.
Blackmore is incredibly prolific in creating guitar riffs and is often noted for his classically influenced solos and fusing hard rock and baroque music. As Blackmore is fond of saying “If it ain’t Baroque, don’t fix it”!
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