“Ritchie Blackmore was playing licks to sound check. Andy started answering him. Their conversation with guitars was enough to impress Ritchie”: Ted Turner on eating biscuits with John Lennon and how Deep Purple gave Wishbone Ash their big break

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - AUGUST 06: Ted Turner of Wishbone Ash performs on stage at Alexandra Palace in London, England on August 6, 1973. (Photo by David Warner Ellis/Redferns).

With Wishbone Ash, Ted Turner and Andy Powell created a proto-metal dual-guitar attack that Iron Maiden and Judas Priest took all round the world. “It’s just a natural cycle,” Turner tells Guitar World. “I was inspired by someone, then they were; that’s how it works.”

He’d like to have discussed with his counterparts in the two other bands, but jokes: “They’ve never called me. They don’t even write!”