Blackmore has spent most of the past two decades focused on his medieval folk group Blackmore's Night, which also features his wife Candice Night. But in a recent interview he discussed taking a short break from that music to form a band to put on a handful of shows to perform some classic songs from Deep Purple and Raindow.

He tells French newspaper Le Parisien via Ultimate Classic Rock, "Just for a few days, next June. But for now, I'm not decided on the persons I want to work with.

"I've got a good idea about the ideal candidates, but it wouldn't be fair to say anything now. I will know exactly in one month who I want to have in this band to play Deep Purple and Rainbow songs. We will probably play three or four shows in June; that's all."

One person that isn't likely to be part of the group is former Rainbow and Deep Purple frontman Joe Lynn Turner. Blackmore had to say about the singer's possible involvement, "I think that Joe will not be part of the adventure, and he doesn't know it yet.

"He does his thing, I like him, and I made good albums and good songs with him, like "Street of Dreams' (a 1983 Rainbow track that Blackmore's Night later reworked). But I'm thinking about doing a mixture in the band, with famous people and not so famous ones. That's my state of mind at the moment, and you're the first person I talk to about it."