Ritchie Blackmore wants final gig with Deep Purple 'to show we're still friends'

Speaking in the documentary feature of Rainbow’s ‘Memories In Rock II’ CD/DVD package, Ritchie said that he believes a Deep Purple reunion would happen if managements, agents and promoters didn’t ‘complicate’ things.

"I would like to do one, maybe one show with the rest of Purple just to prove that we're not all hating each other," Ritchie said. "And just do that and go, 'Hey, everybody. It's just one show for all the Deep Purple fans that liked the Mark II lineup.'

“That was my idea in the beginning. But when you're talking to managements of Purple, it gets complicated. They want their money for this and that. So, it's not like you call up your old friends and just say, 'Hey, let's just have a good time and play. There's lots of fans that want to hear it.' Once you have managements and agents and promoters getting involved, it gets so complicated that everybody just calls back and says, 'It's too complicated.'

“So, I wouldn't mind doing one show with all the old guys, and that's it - call it a day. Just for the fans. It's not something I need to do. But I don't mind playing just to show the people that we're still friends.

“We're older, and with the passing of Jon (Lord, Deep Purple keyboardist), you never know who's gonna pass next. And it would just be a friendly get-together. But as you might know, in this business, nothing works around friendship - it's all about money and business. And unfortunately, we'd have to deal with people that were going to make money out of the deal. That's always a problem."

Ritchie has previously said he’d like to perform with Deep Purple for “nostalgic reasons”, however Ian Gillan seemed to categorically shoot down the idea in September when he asked “'Why would I go back to that misery again?”

“There's no reason (to perform with Ritchie),” Ian told The Vinyl Guide podcast. “Put it this way, for all those years, the wounds would have healed within a year. But if somebody keeps poking a wound, it won't heal. It won't if you keep poking it with a stick.

"We're happily married now. Ritchie and the band got divorced. He walked out in the middle of a tour and the rain stopped and the sun came out for the band.”

Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow have performed Russian shows in Moscow and St Petersburg this week and have further dates in Helsinki, Berlin and Prague lined up before the end of the month.

Listen to their new single ‘Waiting For a Sign’ right here: