IAN GILLAN On RITCHIE BLACKMORE: 'That A**hole — I Will Never Speak To Him Again'

Charlie Steffens of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with DEEP PURPLE frontman Ian Gillan. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

KNAC.COM: Your relationship with most of your mates from DEEP PURPLE is good, obviously. Do you ever talk to Ritchie Blackmore?

Gillan: No, I don't talk to him at all. That asshole — I will never speak to him again, as far as I'm concerned. I loved Ritchie, though. I used to be his roommate and everything was fine. We all respect Ritchie for what he did — the foundation. But he turned into a weird guy and the day he walked out of the tour was the day the clouds disappeared and the day the sunshine came out and we haven't looked back since. And there are certain personal issues that I have with Ritchie, which means that I will never speak to him again. Nothing I'm going to discuss publicly, but deeply personal stuff. As far as I'm concerned, the divorce came a long time ago. I never want to see or hear of him again.

KNAC.COM: Joe Satriani came on board in '94, but you never actually had a release with his recordings, right?

Gillan: Joe came in at the last minute. Ritchie walked out and the tour was taking off to Japan…it was all very dramatic. He said, "Alright, that's the end of the band," and assumed because he left that we were going to fold up. The fact is, we were approaching terminal velocity in that moment. The band had never played so badly, the audiences had never been so small and the atmosphere was absolutely terrible. It was horrible. We could see the end in sight. We thought, "This is going to be our last tour. This is the end of the world." What an ignominious end to what was once a glittering band, you know? Anyway, he walked out and things picked up and recovered unbelievably, remarkably well and the band's in great shape now. Satriani never did anything other than help us out. He had an album to make and he had his own tour booked, so he only had a limited time with us. But I do remember spending many happy hours on the bus and on planes and in dressing rooms and in hotels with him. We're still friends now. He's a great guy. All the other guys, even Jon Lord — he retired from touring about five years ago. The band's a really close-knit family. We've got fantastically good friendships and relationships that have developed after all these years…40-odd years. In a day or two I'm going into the studio to sing a track on Jon Lord's new record so there's a great deal of friendship. But Ritchie…we wish him well. The wounds have healed. We're doing fine and we respect him for what he did. But personally speaking…forget him. His end of the road was a long time ago.

KNAC.COM: Are you friends with David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes?

Gillan: No. I know them, obviously, and I get on fine with them. I've only met David a couple times in parting. I've met Glenn a couple of times and I have great respect for him. He's a great musician, a great singer. Glenn's an extraordinarily talented man. But I wouldn't classify them as friends because I didn't develop any relationship with them because I was doing different things when they were in DEEP PURPLE. And to be honest, that was a weird period anyway, because I take these things extremely personally and I get quite emotional about things. When I left the band I didn't pay much attention to what PURPLE was doing — it's like watching your ex-Missus making love to some other guy. That doesn't turn me on.

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.