“Ritchie has firm ideas about how things should be, and there were things that we disagreed on”: Ritchie Blackmore once asked former Deep Purple bandmate Ian Gillan to join Rainbow

Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore holding a guitar and Ian Gillan singing onstage.

Former Deep Purple bandmates Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore have had a long and frequently tempestuous relationship. Gillan’s first stint in the band came to an end in 1973 after one too many run-ins with the guitarist, who recruited singer David Coverdale in his place.

Gillan himself went on to pursue a solo career, first with the jazzy Ian Gillan Band and later with the hard rocking Gillan, whose brief but productive career is the subject of a new box set, Gillan: 1978-1982.