In a recent chat with ‘Talk Louder’ podcast, Bob Daisley recalled working with Ritchie Blackmore and explained why he had a reputation for being hard to work with.
“Really enjoyable, and a learning curve as well. It was the first big arena band I’d been in, although I played in arenas with Widow Maker because we opened up for ELO… Ritchie was very pedantic about how things should be played. A lot of it sounded like we were jamming on stage, but it was all worked out and rehearsed. It had to be just right,” he explained.
He added that as long as people were professional, he was easy to work with. “And Ritchie was great; he was a very aware person. And if you were professional and reliable, you were fine with him. It was just people who didn’t take it as seriously as he did he would shun a little bit.”
The bassist recalled his audition to Rainbow in another interview and how he was warned about Blackmore beforehand. “I didn’t do it to be cheeky, but I just said, ‘I’ll think about it.’ I was serious; I had my own band, Windowmaker, and people had warned me, ‘If you work with Ritchie, you could last five minutes. He could chew you up, spit you out. You could end up with nothing.’ So I did have to think about it,” he explained.
However, the rocker eventually accepted the offer, joined the band, and even got praised by Blackmore. “He started clapping, and I thought, ‘Wow… Ritchie doesn’t give praise easily.’ I thought, ‘I must have done something right,'” Daisley recalled.
In other news, Rainbow’s iconic album, ‘Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow,’ is turning 50 this year.
