If you don’t like the music on the radio – don’t worry, neither does Ritchie Blackmore

The renowned Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore talks about his love of music and what inspires him in a new video posted on his own YouTube page. 

I retain my passion for music by listening to old music from the 15 and 1400s, listening to a few bands that I’ve become friends with in Germany, Czech, Finland and Sweden. They’re still playing the music that really excites me. I’m obsessed with that stuff. It was so organic. That music just grabs me. I obviously don’t listen to the radio in America where they’re playing the latest, whatever it is. I suppose as we progress and change generations, I cannot relate to what they would play on the radio. And I don’t listen to rock and roll so much anymore. I listen to the old rock from the ’50s, when it was fresh — Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore playing James Burton with Ricky Nelson, The Everly Brothers; love all that stuff. Buddy Holly being my favorite at the time. I feel like an old granddad complaining about the music they’re playing on the radio at the moment. I feel that back in the ’70s, when Eric Clapton was playing Cream and that stuff, it was thoughtful music. You would listen to ‘White Room’ or something, you didn’t need that. You didn’t have to hear that [same beat]. You could actually go, “Wow, that’s a great song, ‘White Room’. Fantastic.’ We love Cream. Eric, of course, great. He started the whole thing. There are so many types of music that I like, but very rarely do I hear it on the radio. I’d rather hear talk radio about who’s the latest president and stuff like that, that bores people to death. I don’t hear good music — from my point of view. It might be good music, but it’s not something I wanna hear. When the family all get into the truck and we go on a bit of a holiday, which probably is like 20 miles down the road, because I don’t like to travel, all I hear is maybe Taylor Swift or something. I find it hard to relate to that. But it’s not wrong. It’s the new generation wanting to hear that. That’s probably as great to them as The Beatles and Cream was and Jimi Hendrix was to me. So I can’t really complain, but I do like to complain, and I will complain. And I think the crap that they’re playing on the radio today is bloody awful.

It looks like we’re not alone in avoiding commercial music!