“Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and I wanted to be a hard rock band - we want...” — Ritchie Blackmore Quote

“Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and I wanted to be a hard rock band - we wanted to play rock and roll only.”

“Pete Townshend used to crash chords and let the guitar feed back. He's overrated.”

“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.”

“As long as all four of my limbs keep moving and I can still sit up straight and play hard rock and roll for 2 and a half to 3 hours, I'm gonna keep doing it, and I'm gonna do it the way I do it.”

“All that stuff about heavy metal and hard rock, I don't subscribe to any of that. It's all just music. I mean, the heavy metal from the '70s sounds nothing like the stuff from the '80s, and that sounds nothing like the stuff from the '90s. Who's to say what is and isn't a certain type of music?”

“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.”