Ritchie Blackmore shared in a brief clip from his upcoming YouTube video that he was invited to join the Beatles but turned it down.
“I did play with George Harrison. He wanted me to join the band called the Beatles,” the guitarist recalled. “I never heard them and I knew they were going nowhere. So I said no. Absolutely no.”
Blackmore has often praised the Beatles, acknowledging their significance in music. In a 1976 interview with Melbourne Radio, he expressed his admiration for Paul McCartney, stating, “The Beatles were excellent. Probably the best band ever lived, without a doubt, along with Hendrix and Jethro Tull.”
The rocker continued, “I admire Paul McCartney and Ian Anderson. Especially Ian Anderson, his songs are just beyond me.”
In a 2018 interview with Eclipsed magazine, Blackmore described the Beatles as the benchmark for all music. He noted, “When I started making music in the sixties, the beat wave was still in full swing. The Beatles were the measure of all things.”
He added, “Tommy Steele, a British rock’n’roller, was my first youth idol. But then the Beatles got more sophisticated and other bands like Procol Harum knocked me down.”
After leaving Deep Purple in 1975, Blackmore formed Rainbow but rejoined the band in 1984. During this time, George Harrison became friends with keyboardist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice, who lived nearby.
That same year, Blackmore, bassist Roger Glover, and singer Ian Gillan reunited with Deep Purple while they were in Australia. Harrison attended one of their concerts, where he was invited on stage, and they performed Little Richard’s ‘Lucille.’
In 1971, Ritchie heard John Lennon’s song ‘Gimme Some Truth’ during an interview. He recognized it as a Lennon track, mentioned that he liked it, and intended to buy the album. He thought most of the songs were good, especially one about McCartney.
