Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan talked about Ritchie Blackmore’s surprise reunion with Deep Purple for the first time in more than three decades during the band’s headlining concert on August 12 at Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York, and explained how Blackmore’s message set the plan in motion.
Ian Gillan said: “I think it was lovely. It was fantastic. We’ve been in touch, Ritchie and I, for a few years now, and a lot of water’s gone under the bridge. I don’t like using clichés, but that’s a very apt one for this.”
“[Ritchie] wrote me a nice letter a few days before we got to New York and said, ‘Would it be all right, do you think? What do you reckon if I step up in smoke?’ So I said, ‘Yeah, of course.’ It brought an instant smile to my face. I thought, ‘Well, of course it would be wonderful. It’d be fantastic.’ So, we set up. And he only lives around the corner from Jones Beach, on Long Island, so it was just great when he stepped on the stage, that magic moment. And it’s been a long time.”
“And you kind of forget everyone out there when we’ve mended all of those problems ourselves. But, of course, not everyone is aware of that. So it was a wonderfully warm feeling. And we had a few drinks in the dressing room backstage afterwards. And I think he went home a bit tiddly. But it was great — really a magic moment.”
“Life goes through so many different phases, and you can’t really allow all these problems to continue to exist. They become destructive forces in their own right then. We’ve grown out of all that. Did you ever see ‘Spinal Tap’? Well, it was like that for most of us, including The Beatles and everyone else. When you get four or five guys in their late teens or early 20s, form a band and go out on the road, there’s a camaraderie and a unit there that almost makes them inseparable, and it gives them a great power and identity.”
“But as things become enlarged, you get into contact with the real world and a larger world, a lot of outside play comes into force. And human chemistry is the most complex of all the sciences, so we can’t cater for it. We can’t see it coming because we’re young, and then you’ve gotta cope with stuff that you never did before, and it’s critical. So when things go wrong, but that doesn’t mean to say they have to stay that way. So as the years go by, you put it all behind you.”
Gillan’s account placed the Jones Beach appearance in the context of one of rock’s longest-running band conflicts. Blackmore’s return was brief, but it marked a significant moment in Deep Purple’s history after decades of tension, separate careers and an acrimonious final departure.
Blackmore had not performed live with Deep Purple since his turbulent exit in 1993. His final concert with the band took place in Helsinki, Finland, on November 17, 1993, during the European tour supporting The Battle Rages On.
Blackmore’s last exit followed years of friction within the group. He left during the 1993 tour, ending his final period with Deep Purple and closing the door on his latest chapter with the classic singer-guitarist partnership.
The tension between Blackmore and Gillan had also affected the band’s earlier history. Blackmore later described their relationship by saying, “We still respected each other, but we never got on. We just couldn’t be in the same room.” Gillan left Deep Purple in 1973, while Blackmore departed in 1975 before returning for the band’s 1984 reunion.
The Jones Beach appearance was presented as a one-off rather than the start of a new Deep Purple reunion. Blackmore joined the band for “Smoke on the Water,” his first live performance with Deep Purple in 33 years. The rest of the concert remained a regular Deep Purple set, with Blackmore appearing only during the finale.
The moment carried additional weight because Blackmore and Gillan were members of Deep Purple’s classic Mark II lineup alongside bassist Roger Glover, keyboardist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice. Blackmore co-founded Deep Purple in 1968, and the Mark II lineup became closely associated with albums such as Deep Purple in Rock, Machine Head and Who Do We Think We Are. Their brief reunion at Jones Beach brought together two of hard rock’s most influential and complicated figures after more than three decades apart.
