RITCHIE BLACKMORE

Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple 

Ritchie Blackmore spoke with Jungleroom.com this afternoon sharing details and some very kind words about recruiting Jimi Jamison to sing for Deep Purple in 1989:

"I had seen Jimi in Survivor and was very impressed. I remember going down to Tennessee to meet him and I really liked him as a person. He then came up to try out with Deep Purple.

We did 1 song, I think it was "Going Down" and he was so good I immediately stopped playing and just said "Youre in!" He said "Dont you want to do more songs?" I said "No, You are so damn good, I know that you are perfect for the job." We went out and celebrated at a restaurant. I was full of ideas due to his melodic soulful voice and he could improvise much better than a lot of singers I knew so he had every aspect I was looking for in a singer. Very, very nice guy. Very humble.

Unfortunately, 2 weeks later, we were told he couldn't join the band. We never found out why. I think it had something to do with the management. I was surprised and saddened by what happened and it was a mystery to me what had gone down. It was a bad moment for me. I rated him as one of the top singers in the country."

—Ritchie Blackmore