Legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has revealed that he is significantly pulling back on touring, citing a recent and terrifying battle with severe vertigo that disrupted his physical equilibrium. The health crisis previously forced the cancelation of the final four dates of a U.S. East Coast tour last November by Blackmore’s Night, the Renaissance-inspired rock project he fronts alongside his wife, Candice Night.
The 81-year-old icon, celebrated for his foundational work with Deep Purple and Rainbow, opened up about the experience in a new interview with Matt Wardlaw of Ultimate Classic Rock. Ritchie Blackmore explained that the sudden onset of the condition was unlike any health complication he had faced before.
“I woke up one morning when we were on tour and I had what is called vertigo. I don’t recommend it to anybody. It was the worst thing I’ve ever been involved with,” Ritchie stated. “I’ve had heart problems, gout problems and pain, but vertigo is the worst thing I’ve ever been involved with. You’re very dizzy to the point of where you have no control over any part of your body, and you just fall down, basically and you can’t even think properly. It’s almost like a stroke, but you can speak and you can understand, which is different to a stroke and I had that in a hotel.”
Following the episode, the guitarist was rushed to a local hospital where medical professionals administered specialized treatment to help stabilize his condition.
“I was taken off to the local hospital, where they kind of gave me the cure for vertigo. It’s called epi movement [also known as the Epley Maneuver]. You have to move your head to the left and right and you have to take antihistamines, believe it or not. Taking those antihistamines is like taking something for seasickness. It’s like seasickness when you’re at sea. It was like I was in a fishing boat at sea in the biggest gale you could imagine. I had to grab hold of anything I could find, like a chair to stop from falling down. That scared the hell out of me,” Ritchie continued.
The band subsequently canceled their remaining scheduled concerts in Newton, New Jersey; Wilmington, Delaware; Cohoes, New York; and Tarrytown, New York to allow the guitarist time to recuperate at home. However, the condition proved difficult to shake.
“So we canceled the tour after that, came home and then it hit me again two days later, and it’s not something I recommend for anybody to have,” he added. “Because I always thought when people talk about vertigo, they’re talking about, oh yeah, you feel a little bit dizzy. But it’s not that. You think your whole world is ending right there. Every day now, I’m looking to the left and right and straining my neck, because that’s where it’s all coming from. But it’s a bit of a mystery.”
Looking toward the future, Ritchie clarified that while his passion for performing live remains unchanged, his days of long-distance traveling are coming to an end. He linked his current travel anxieties to a forgotten phobia from his youth in England.
“I’ve found that at my age, being 150, that you know, it’s time to kind of pull back on touring. I do not like traveling anymore. I love playing to anybody on any stage, But to get to that place, sometimes the traveling makes me sick,” Blackmore explained. “When I was a child, and I would go with my mother on the Royal Blue to Bristol in England, to where most of our relatives lived, I would always throw up. I would be the age of nine or 10 and maybe that is what made me have a phobia about traveling.”
The veteran musician now intends to restrict future Blackmore’s Night performances to a strict geographic radius surrounding his home on Long Island, New York, ensuring he can perform without jeopardizing his health.
“Now I seem to have a phobia, almost about traveling too far, leaving the comfort zone of one’s home. It’s a very strange ailment to have. And so consequently, I want to do our next shows. I want to be on stage. I want to play. I’m still playing all the time, [But I] want to play within the radius of, like, 30 miles or 40 miles on the island. We live on Long Island and I don’t want to go hundreds of miles. Because that seems to upset my equilibrium. It’s funny, I had forgotten how I reacted when I was a child, when I was nine and 10, how I would always throw up when I was traveling. So therein lies a mystery, [But I know] that I do like to be at home. So what I’m trying to do now is do dates that are closer to home,” he concluded.
