In a recent interview with Dawn Osborne of TotalRock, Candice Night, who has been with Deep Purple and Rainbow icon Ritchie Blackmore for 36 years (including 17 years of marriage), discussed the possibility of Blackmore’s Night performing live in Europe again soon.
She said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): ”As far as flying anywhere right now, Ritchie has actually been told by his cardiologist not to get in a plane. He had a heart attack about a year and a half ago. He’s got six stents. And I can’t believe he’s gonna be 80 on April 14th, which is crazy, but he doesn’t look it, still doesn’t act it, but eventually medical things wind up catching up with you. So we’ve gotta make sure we keep him happy and healthy. And he’s dealing with gout and some arthritic things.”
“And, of course, his back has always been an issue for years. So it’s getting harder for him, it’s tricky, but, hey, I’ve seen people younger than him in wheelchairs on stage doing what they do. So I think he probably doesn’t want people to see him that way. I see the other perspective-from a fan’s perspective, I would think people would just be happy to be under the same roof with him and listen to him play whatever he comes up with. So, we kind of have this discussion, or argument-I’ll say discussion-all the time. [Laughs] But he was just recently at his cardiologist and they said, ‘Let’s put traveling by plane on hold.’ So, hopefully we’ll get that all straightened out and that’ll change. But I’ll let you guys know if it does.”
Blackmore’s Night describes its music as renaissance folk rock—a unique and original style inspired by the melodies and traditions of the Renaissance period, transformed into contemporary music with Blackmore’s signature touch. This distinctive sound has achieved remarkable success since its inception. Never created with the charts or sales in mind, the project became one of the most successful acoustic acts of all time, remaining a best-seller for over 25 years while staying true to its original artistic vision.
Blackmore, a co-founder of Deep Purple, wrote many of the band’s most iconic riffs, including “Smoke on the Water,” but has not performed with them since his departure in 1993. After leaving Deep Purple, he formed the neo-classical band Rainbow, blending baroque influences with hard rock before gradually shifting toward a more melodic, pop-style hard rock sound.
In 2016, Blackmore took a break from his Renaissance-inspired music with Blackmore’s Night to perform a series of shows with a newly assembled lineup of Rainbow.
Alongside Blackmore and Candice Night (backing vocals), the most recent version of Rainbow featured singer Ronnie Romero, Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson, Blackmore’s Night drummer David Keith, bassist Bob Nouveau (also known as Robert “Bob” Curiano, formerly of Blackmore’s Night), and backing singer Lady Lynn.
