Ritchie Blackmore Says He Will Rejoin Deep Purple On Stage — 33 Years After He Left
Ritchie Blackmore announced on Instagram on Tuesday, 11 August that he plans to join Deep Purple for a one-off encore at their show the following evening, 12 August, at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York. If it happens, it would be his first live appearance with the band in more than three decades. (Rolling Stone)
Blackmore's official account described the planned reunion as coming "after more than three decades apart" and insisted the news was "no joke" (Instagram). He said he had asked Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan — who lives in Portugal — via an "A.I. pigeon" whether he could sit in for a single song as an encore. Gillan liked the idea, and the band gave a thumbs-up, according to Rolling Stone.
That sign of approval is striking given the history. Blackmore has not played a single live show with Deep Purple since leaving the band in November 1993. The split followed a turbulent final stretch: during a 1993 show at Birmingham's NEC Arena, Blackmore came onstage midway through "Highway Star," played erratically, and threw a glass of water at a camera operator. Deep Purple parted ways with him after a 17 November 1993 show in Helsinki, Finland. Joe Satriani filled in temporarily; Steve Morse took the guitar slot long-term and held it until 2022.
The ill feeling ran both ways. Ian Gillan told Rolling Stone in 2014 that bringing Blackmore back would be "unconscionable." When Deep Purple were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, Blackmore wanted to perform but the band refused to share the stage with him — even for one song — a stance manager Bruce Payne conveyed to the Hall of Fame directly. As recently as 2017, Gillan publicly explained his reasons for refusing a reunion, and in 2023 bassist Roger Glover dismissed reunion rumours as unfounded.
Blackmore is the founding guitarist of Deep Purple and co-wrote three of the band's most widely known songs: "Smoke on the Water," "Highway Star," and "Space Truckin'." He first left the group in 1975 to form Rainbow with singer Ronnie James Dio, rejoined in 1984 after Rainbow dissolved, and stayed until the 1993 departure.
For a band that has toured and recorded without him for 33 years, a single-song encore would carry weight regardless of which track they choose. Whether Gillan and the band hold to the thumbs-up Blackmore described, or the old refusals carry the night, will be settled on the Jones Beach stage.
If the encore goes ahead, it closes one of rock's longest-running standoffs. If it does not, the announcement itself — from a guitarist who once threw water at a cameraman on his way out — is the closest the two camps have come in decades.
