Ritchie Blackmore is the godfather of heavy metal guitar, co-founder of Deep Purple, founder of Rainbow, and apparently the hardest man to get along with in rock.

Richard Hugh “Ritchie” Blackmore was born April 14, 1945, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England. He was given his first acoustic guitar at 11, on condition that he learn to play properly. After about a year of lessons, he’d had enough of that – “too hard.” Undeterred, Ritchie took up the electric guitar, receiving lessons from a London session player. In 1960, Ritchie became a session player and sideman himself, and a member of the studio house band the Outlaws.

In 1968, Ritchie was recruited to join a new prog rock band that took its name from his grandmother’s favorite song (eschewing the band’s second choice, Concrete God). Initially, DP was a vehicle for Jon Lord’s keyboard virtuosity, but in 1970, after 3 studio albums, the group veered to the harder, louder, faster rock sound that foretold heavy metal. Ritchie, Jon and drummer Ian Paice recruited a new bassist, Roger Glover, and a new lead singer, Ian Gillan. This would become the group’s most successful, and most contentious lineup. This was the Deep Purple of Machine Head and “Smoke On The Water,” with Ritchie’s famous opening riff.

Ian Gillan – Ritchie Blackmore – Ian Paice – Roger Glover – Jon Lord

Ritchie and Ian Gillan were more like “oil on the water” – they just did not mix. In 1973, Gillan and Glover were forced out, and were replaced by David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. In 1975, Ritchie left DP and recruited most of the NY band Elf, who had been opening for DP. Elf was produced by Glover and Paice, and featured lead singer Ronnie James Dio, who Glover calls the best rock singer he’s ever worked with. Ritchie replaced Elf’s guitarist and renamed the band Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow (just Rainbow, in later years). DP tried to replace Ritchie with Tommy Bolin. The experiment lasted about a year -- Coverdale walked off stage in tears after the last concert of a tour intending to resign, only to be told that Paice and Lord had decided to end the band weeks earlier.

Ritchie Blackmore – Ronnie James Dio – Cozy Powell

Deep Purple’s most famous lineup reunited for 5 years from 1984-1989. Then the Blackmore/Gillan monster reared its ugly head, again. Ritchie was persuaded to give the lineup one more try in 1992. It took $250,000 of persuasion to get him in the same room with Gillan. Ritchie walked out for good a year later.

When not involved with DP reunions, Rainbow lasted, in one form or another, until 1997. The only constant was an ever-changing lineup. When he came to the end of Rainbow, Ritchie formed Blackmore’s Night, a folk rock duo with his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Candice Night. They play Renaissance inspired music and last released an album in September, 2015.

Recently, Ritchie announced that a new Rainbow lineup will perform 3 times at festivals in Europe and the UK this summer. He has left open the possibility of a longer tour, probably in 2017, depending on how things go.

Last week, Deep Purple, including Ritchie Blackmore were inducted into the rock HOF. Ritchie was invited not to attend. It was either them or him, it seems.

We wish Ritchie Blackmore a Happy Birthday, and look forward to hearing him rocking again soon. Listen to the tightest band you’ll ever hear – Ritchie’s solo starts at 3:40.