Ritchie Blackmore Would Not Have Reunited With Dio

Ritchie Blackmore made his return to rock last year with a new version of Rainbow and he says in a new interview that would not have reunited with original frontman Ronnie James Dio if the legendary metal singer was still alive.

The iconic original Deep Purple guitarist was asked in an interview if he was disappointed that he wasn't able to invite Dio, who died of cancer in 2010, to be part of the Rainbow reformation.

He responded, "I hate to say it, but no, I wasn't. I'd finished with Ronnie a long time ago, and we kept in touch now and again but I went on to other things and he was in other things.

"We kept it very convivial and that, but I think neither one of us really wanted to get back together. He's a strong alpha male, and so am I; he wanted to go one way, I wanted to go the other."

Blackmore also discussed how the mid-90s regrouping of Rainbow came about and he explained why the lineup didn't last: "I kind of left the Purple camp and I was really at a loose end, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just knew that I didn't want to travel anymore. They were all over the world, all the time, and I hate traveling. It's funny, because I chose a profession where all you do is travel. I thought maybe I'll re-form Rainbow and see how it goes.

"Popularity-wise, it went very well. But I wasn't pleased with the lineup. After being in the studio, I thought, You know, I'm not happy with the singer (Doogie White). My main connection with music is the singer and if I don't have a good singer, I can't force it. And when you bring somebody into a band, sometimes the egos go crazy, so I thought, 'Why am I doing this?'

"And Candy and I would often get around the fire because we were up in Massachusetts in a snow storm all the time, so we'd often spend nights coming up with ideas. And I noticed that I was having a better time playing songs that Candy could sing rather than what the singer at the time in Rainbow was coming up with.

"So I decided to gravitate more toward the ballads and Medieval/Renaissance music, which of course has been my favorite music since 1972. So this was like two things in one: We're having a good time and I'm playing basically Renaissance music, so I was very happy with that."

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