Ritchie Blackmore
United Kingdom, 1960–now
English guitarist (b. 1945), the riff and the solos of Deep Purple and then Rainbow, and since 1997 a renaissance-folk act with Blackmore's Night. He put classical scale shapes and pedal points into hard rock, which is the door most neoclassical metal walked through.
MusicRoots documents 6 artists who influenced Ritchie Blackmore and 1 artist Ritchie Blackmore influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Ritchie Blackmore?
- Big Jim Sullivan — Blackmore found out his favourite guitarist lived a bus ride away, knocked on the door, and got lessons — including the rule he built a career on: anyone can parrot a recorded solo, a great player writes his own.
- Duane Eddy — One of the early influences Blackmore names, from listening to Radio Luxembourg on a transistor radio.
- Buddy Holly — Another of the names on Blackmore's own list of what he grew up hearing.
- Django Reinhardt — Listed by Blackmore among his guitar influences, with Les Paul and Wes Montgomery — the jazz end of a hard rock player.
- Les Paul — Listed by Blackmore among his guitar influences.
- Johann Sebastian Bach — The pedal points and arpeggiated triads over a classical progression are borrowed outright, and they are what Malmsteen heard and followed back to the source.
Which artists did Ritchie Blackmore influence?
- Yngwie Malmsteen — One of only two guitarists Malmsteen credits, and the route by which he found the rest: Blackmore's minor scales over blues riffs are what pointed him at classical music in the first place.