Ritchie Blackmore has always operated on his own terms. He walked away from Deep Purple at the height of their power, built Rainbow into one of the great hard rock bands of the 1970s with Ronnie James Dio, then walked away from that too. For the past 25 years he’s been playing Renaissance and folk music with his wife Candice Night in Blackmore’s Night — and doing that completely on his own terms as well. So when he started having health problems that forced him off the road in 2025, the news hit fans hard. But in a rare, candid interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Blackmore has opened up about exactly what happened — and what comes next.
The culprit was vertigo. Not the mild dizziness that gets dismissed as a minor inconvenience — the genuine, incapacitating kind that can drop you where you stand. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever been involved with,” Blackmore said. “I’ve had heart problems, gout problems and pain, but vertigo is the worst thing I’ve ever been involved with. You’re very dizzy to the point of where you have no control over any part of your body, and you just fall down, basically — and you can’t even think properly.” The episode hit him in a hotel while the band was on their 25th anniversary tour in 2025. He was taken to a local hospital, given treatment via the Epley Maneuver — a head repositioning technique used for vertigo caused by inner ear issues — and sent home. Two days later it came back.
The tour was canceled. And Blackmore, now 80, found himself reassessing his relationship with travel entirely — reconnecting something in the process to how he felt as a nine-year-old getting carsick on the way to Bristol. “That is what made me have a phobia about traveling,” he reflected. “Now I seem to have a phobia, almost about traveling too far, leaving the comfort zone of one’s home.”
Still Playing. Still Wanting to Perform.
What’s notable — and what fans who feared the worst should hold onto — is that Blackmore has not given up on performing. He’s still playing constantly at home. His intent is to get back onstage; the limiting factor is distance, not ability or desire. “I want to do our next shows,” he said. “I want to be on stage. I want to play.” The plan, as he described it, is to pursue dates within a manageable radius of Long Island, where he lives, rather than committing to transatlantic touring schedules that his body is no longer tolerating well. For European fans, that may be a hard reality. But for anyone in or near the Northeast United States, that door is apparently still open.
The interview also covers deeper territory. Blackmore discussed why he left Deep Purple the first time around — the frustrating “committee” dynamic that saw five people unable to agree on anything as basic as a tour schedule, with everyone having weddings to attend and holidays to take. He wanted to move fast, and the band could no longer do that. When he heard Ronnie James Dio sing in an afternoon session on “Black Sheep of the Family,” the decision crystallized. “Things seemed to be going along quite quickly,” he said. “I kind of like this.” Rainbow was the result.
A New Rainbow Box Set Digs Into the Dio Years
The occasion for the interview is a lavish new box set, The Temple of the King: 1975–1976, covering Rainbow’s first two albums — 1975’s Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and the legendary Rising from 1976 — across nine discs. Three complete live shows from Nuremberg, Köln, and Düsseldorf are included, along with rarities and extensive liner notes. It’s the kind of deep archival work that reminds you what Rainbow actually were at their peak: one of the tightest, most combustible hard rock bands in the world, powered by two of the most distinct musical personalities ever to share a stage.
Blackmore at 80 may not be able to play every city on a world tour. But he still has something to say — about his music, about his past, and about his plans. That’s more than most people can claim at any age. Keep an eye on any dates he announces near Long Island. They’ll sell out fast.
Source: Ultimate Classic Rock | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/ritchie-blackmore-interview-2026/