Ritchie Blackmore Quotes

Music is music; you don't have to put a label on it.

All along, I did what I was comfortable doing, which was to play the music I enjoyed and try to stretch the parameters a bit. Country and bluegrass and folk were my foundation.

I've always had a close connection to both rock and classical music.

I don't want to limit myself musically. It would be really limiting if we'd neglect something we really want to do, like explore other styles of music.

I never excluded any genre on my first record.

I don't like rock. Honestly, I like to listen to it, but it's not for me. There's a lot of musical genres that I find interesting, but they don't suit me. It's one thing to listen to different genres, but to perform a genre that isn't yours is counterproductive.

Listen, man: I am not the industrial godfather, king, whatever. I don't relish that title. I don't like it. I think it's limiting. I do country, I do blues. I don't just go straight.

When I was younger I didn't really know what genre of music I'd want to do because I'd always done so many different types, so many impressions.

Creating any type of art is all about mood. I've been making extreme music in one fashion or another for decades. And truthfully, Down has a big enough fan base to where I could remain content to do only that, but music is a vast territory and I am an explorer. And I'm a lover of all things considered extreme in music.

Just the type of music that was around at the same time as I was writing. Some of it was wicked, definitely. But there was just one direction which I thought could be pushed that no one was pushing.

I love that I can play around with all types of music.

When I first started singing, I didn't know which direction to take - I sang rock & roll and all kinds of things.

I'm suspicious of the idea of categories in music and this idea of things being in boxes. To me, that seems unnatural. I write the music that somebody with my biography would write, and the thing that's always driven me is an enthusiasm for the material. I sort of follow the notes to where they want to go.

I listen to all kinds of music and sometimes I try to do something that's referential to an era or a genre, but it still sounds like me.

Who's to say a blues man can't play rock and roll?

I like making all kinds of music, it really depends on the moment. Sometimes I feel like making a weird trap song, and sometimes I can't even attach a track to a genre.

I like hearing fiddles, steel guitar, acoustics up loud - really rock & roll stuff but with a country sound behind it. That's just who I am. I'm not trying to prove a point; I am just doing what I like. But I don't have any problems with any other artist coming in and doing their own thing.

Like everybody else, I love a good pop song. You know, there's nothing like it. I also just really like music that goes off on extended forays of extrapolation into different areas. So it's kind of nice to be able to move between those two poles.

I didn't want to box myself into writing just rock music because you can try to force it into moments that don't want it.

Now I listen to all kinds of music except rap, which all sounds the same to me.

I don't have to save rock. I don't even like rock that much.

The reflection of the world is blues, that's where that part of the music is at. Then you got this other kind of music that's tryin' to come around.

I've done the country, done the pop-rock, done the super-hard electro.

I can make any type of music, so I wouldn't want to describe myself as having one type of sound. I think music is about keeping it diverse.

I'm quite an eclectic musician.