Joe Satriani 'hurt' after hearing Ritchie Blackmore critique him
Guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani says he is ‘hurt’ after hearing an old audio clip of Ritchie Blackmore critiquing his musicianship.
Earlier this month, an archive Ritchie Blackmore interview seemingly dating back to 1997 was uploaded to a Ritchie Blackmore YouTube fan account and the video has already amassed over 100,000 views.
In the clip, Blackmore called Satch ‘brilliant’ but criticised him for being ‘too polished’ and ‘never playing a wrong note.’
Appearing on the latest edition of Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon, Satriani, who briefly toured with Deep Purple after Blackmore quit in 1993, was asked for his reaction.
"Well, it's unfortunate when somebody that you look up to has something negative to say about you," Satch commented (via Blabbermouth). "So that part will always hurt. I wouldn't hide my feelings about that.”
He added: "I get criticised on both sides of the fence for the opposite offenses. And I don't quite understand it other than most of the time, when someone has criticism, it's because they're challenged and they feel that they have to strike out.
“So I get it - I understand why he would have to say something negative. I can kind of laugh at it, because I'm not like that myself. I tend to just look at the positive of another musician and focus on that."
In the interview on YouTube, Ritchie Blackmore said: "I'm just glad Deep Purple found a guitar player to carry on because I thought I was going to be shackled to this band for the rest of my life. It was like a ball-and-chain thing, and luckily, they said, 'Well, we found someone.' 'Thank God, I can get out!'
"I haven't listened much to Deep Purple’s latest recordings, I just know that Joe Satriani and Steve Morse are brilliant players. I remember Steve Morse with the Dixie Dregs; they're fantastic.
"I think what you mean is that certain people play from the heart and other people play from the head. I prefer a heart player, I prefer someone like a blues player, like Jeff Healey. Jeff Healey I think is tremendous.
"If I hear someone really technical running up and down a fingerboard, I can hear that for a couple of minutes and then I start to kind of get bored and think of other things, like playing football or something. But I do like to hear someone reaching for something, not quite making it and then sometimes they do make it.
"Joe Satriani is a very polished player — almost too polished; that's what worries me sometimes. But it's different strokes for different folks, as an enemy of mine used to say — which is such a corny thing. Some people are into that head music, that head technique; some people are into the heart technique; some people are into blues technique.”
He added: "If you're always playing the correct notes, there's something wrong - you're not searching, you're not reaching for anything."