Quotes By Ritchie Blackmore

When you're around someone good, your own standards are raised.

I was impressed by Hendrix. Not so much by his playing, as his attitude - he wasn't a great player, but everything else about him was brilliant.

Combing my hair doesn't make me a better musician.

I can turn on some jazz guitarist, and he won't do a thing for me, if he's not playing electrically. But Jeff Beck's great to listen to.

When I was 20, I didn't give a damn about song construction. I just wanted to make as much noise and play as fast and as loud as possible.

I'm very moved by Renaissance music, but I still love to play hard rock - though only if it's sophisticated and has some thought behind it.

The only way you can get good, unless you're a genius, is to copy. That's the best thing. Just steal.

I was always stuck in a musical no man's land.

When you're recording, if you're not really clean in your playing, it sounds like a mess.

What's the point of re-releasing an album? The original sounded good, why change something about it?

But you have to give your whole life to a cello. When I realized that, I went back to the guitar and just turned the volume up a bit louder.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was very intense. Maybe that's what caught everybody's attention. As a player, he didn't do anything amazing.

I don't see myself as such an important guitarist.

I can imagine that Rod Stewart likes giving autographs because he's pure showbusiness.

I criticize my own work pretty harshly.

Jimi... He was the gov'nor and that's it. He was brilliant, wasn't he?

I never work out my leads. Everything I do is usually totally spontaneous. If someone says, 'That was good; play that again,' I'm not able to do it.