Ritchie Blackmore recently addressed his one-time reunion with Deep Purple, marking his first performance with the band in more than three decades. The guitarist joined Deep Purple on stage during the band’s headlining concert on August 12 at the Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York. He revealed what took place behind the scenes leading up to the appearance.
Blackmore explained how the idea first came to him and how it took shape into a full reunion moment on stage.
“I sat up in bed and thought, ‘What about if I got up on stage?’, as they’re in the area… They’re playing a great place called the Jones Beach Theater,” Blackmore said. “And it’s outside, and the view is over the water. Magnificent place. And I’ve always wanted to play there.”
“But I sat up in bed and I thought, ‘I wonder if…’ [So I asked my wife Candice], ‘How do you feel about me just asking [Deep Purple singer] Ian Gillan if it’s all right to play in ‘Smoke On The Water’, then just disappearing?'” he continued. “And then she thought it was a good idea, so we sent him an e-mail via Candice. I don’t deal with that nonsense. I’ve just learnt how to actually use the telephone, and it’s still difficult for me. And so we sallied forth and infiltrated.”
He then described how Ian Gillan and the rest of the band responded to the request. He also explained how the plan came together ahead of the show.
“Now Candice sent the e-mail and Ian said, ‘Yes, of course. Welcome aboard. All the band is up for it. Come on stage for ‘Smoke’.’ I just wanted to do one song, and I thought that would be the song,” Blackmore said. “It’s big over here [in the U.S.] — bigger here than it was in Europe. And so we kind of advertised it in a little way. Not much, just enough. And funnily enough, the ticket sales went up, which was nice. Anyway, they thought it was a good idea.”
Blackmore went on to recount the atmosphere backstage and how the performance itself unfolded.
“I came along to their show, and everybody was so helpful. It was almost like overkill. Everybody was incredibly nice. And then we got up on stage,” he said. “I got up on stage and played it, ‘Smoke On The Water’. I never did a soundcheck, which was a little bit off-putting, putting because I do like to do a soundcheck. But my roadie did that for me, thank goodness. And the sound was good. And I played my three or four minutes of ‘Smoke On The Water’, which seemed to go down like I just invented the cure for cancer.”
He also described the crowd’s reaction and the unusual setting at the venue during the performance.
“The people went nuts, and half of them were sitting in water. For some reason, the venue kind of gets covered in water at certain points ’cause it is right on the water,” Blackmore said. “So they’re now all sitting in the water, the front three or four rows. And I felt very good about it because it was like playing with old friends. Everybody was super nice and super efficient… Well, it’d been like 35 years since I’d actually played with the band, and nobody had changed.”
Blackmore reflected on the overall experience and compared his return to the stage to a long-awaited homecoming.
“Everybody was great. And thank goodness it went off without a hitch, but it could have quite easily have fallen apart, and that would’ve been embarrassing,” he said. “I felt like I was one of the soldiers that had come back from the Western Front, and everybody thought I was dead. And there I was — I was alive. So it really went down incredibly well.”
He closed by sharing his thoughts on being in the spotlight again and why he decided to take the opportunity.
“I almost felt like I was a celebrity for the four minutes that I was on stage, and I’m not a celebrity type of person. I just play the guitar — sometimes well, sometimes not so well,” Blackmore said. “But it was well worth doing. It was a good idea that I had, and it came to me very early one morning when I was in bed. I just thought, ‘Why not?’ ‘Cause we never know when we’re going to meet again, which is like a sad note in a way.”
The moment carried extra weight given just how long it had been since Blackmore last shared a stage with his former bandmates. The circumstances that finally brought them back together shed further light on why the reunion felt so significant to everyone involved.
Blackmore’s guest appearance ended a 33-year gap between him and Deep Purple. His last performance alongside the band came on November 17, 1993, in Helsinki, Finland, during the touring cycle for the album “The Battle Rages On…” That stretch of more than three decades makes the Jones Beach reunion one of the longest-awaited returns in the band’s history. It explains why both Blackmore and the audience treated the four-minute cameo as such a landmark occasion.
Deep Purple’s stop at Jones Beach was part of a wider 2026 tour that also included dates alongside Kansas. The Wantagh show fell on Wednesday, August 12. The band’s schedule placed them within reach of Blackmore’s Long Island home. That detail played a role in making the surprise appearance logistically possible in the first place.
Health considerations have also shaped where and how often Blackmore performs these days. The 81-year-old guitarist generally limits himself to shows within driving distance of home. That constraint made the Jones Beach date a rare and fitting opportunity, since the venue’s location put it within range for him to take part.
Word of the reunion actually broke a day early, when Blackmore revealed during an Instagram Live appearance on August 11 that he planned to join Deep Purple on stage the following night. The advance notice, though modest, was enough to stir excitement among fans. It even gave ticket sales a noticeable boost heading into the show.
Source: Now Spinning Magazine
