Glenn Hughes recently spoke about his “difficult” relationship with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. In an interview with Guitar Interactive Magazine, Hughes was asked his opinion of multiple different legendary guitarists, fromTony Iommi to Jimi Hendrix. Asked about Ritchie Blackmore, who served with him in Deep Purple Mk III, Hughes stated that being friends with the guitarist was demanding (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
“Difficult. When I joined the band, he flew me to Hamburg for a boy’s night weekend. We didn’t sleep on two stairs up, drinking coffee and alcohol. We were great together. Great time with Him alone. As soon as he was around other men, he wasn’t personal. It was difficult. Difficult but very intelligent, smart, but a difficult person to know and play with.”
Blackmore’s shifting moods and heavy personality might have affected Deep Purple’s future. Hughes recently stated that he, David Coverdale, and Jon Lord once discussed a reunion of Deep Purple Mk III, but their plans ultimately failed due to Blackmore’s unreachability. Hughes said:
“So, you know, about 15 years ago, David and Jon and myself – before Jon passed – had a three-week conversation about, wouldn’t it be great, maybe we could get Blackmore, we could do some kind of a reunion.
“Who’s gonna call him? [imitates his former bandmates] ‘I’ll call him. No, I’ll call him. No, I’ll call him.’ And we couldn’t get him on the phone, you can imagine.”
Further, Hughes was asked if all three musicians tried reaching Blackmore. He responded:
“Well, I think we all tried when we got through to [Blackmore’s manager] Carole, you know, and I don’t think he ever got the message, but we tried. Look, I would love to do this with David. We gotta be with [Ian] Paice for it, but it’s not to be, so I am the last one standing, so I’m gonna honor this material.”
