"If you wake us up again tomorrow we will bring all our amplification into a room and play at 3 o'clock in the morning": When Ritchie Blackmore had an "embarrassing" encounter with Eric Clapton (2025)

"If you wake us up again tomorrow we will bring all our amplification into a room and play at 3 o'clock in the morning": When Ritchie Blackmore had an "embarrassing" encounter with Eric Clapton (1)

Fans can thank Candice Night for convincing husband Ritchie Blackmore to sit down in his private tavern in front of a camera and share some of the great rock stories he's been telling his inner circle for decades. "Candice here is always asking me to write these stories down and they're kind of private, and sometimes silly," says Blackmore in the video below. "I would never write a book but I have stories I will tell my friends when I'm in the bar drinking, like now."

In the latest of these stories, he looks back on meeting Eric Clapton when Deep Purple supported Cream in 1968. Things were so cordial Clapton even gifted Blackmore a toy wooden duck on his birthday during the tour, but years later an incident in an Australian hotel was less warm.

Ritchie Blackmore meeting Eric Clapton in 1968 - YouTube"If you wake us up again tomorrow we will bring all our amplification into a room and play at 3 o'clock in the morning": When Ritchie Blackmore had an "embarrassing" encounter with Eric Clapton (2)

Watch On

So we went ahead and brought in some Marshalls, stacked them, and my friend actually started playing the guitar – he started playing some bad blues actually

"Another time, we were in a hotel, I think it was Melbourne, Australia. What happened was, I knew that Eric was with his band in that hotel," remembers Blackmore. "We'd had three days there where we'd been woken up very early with hammering – the usual nonsense that goes on in hotels. We were so sick of it we actually threatened the front desk, 'If you wake us up again tomorrow we will bring all our amplification into a room and play at 3 o'clock in the morning, and see how your patrons like hearing this noise.

"Which we did," confirms the guitarist. "The next day of course the hammering started as per usual, they took no notice of what we said, so we went ahead and brought in some Marshalls, stacked them, and my friend actually started playing the guitar – he started playing some bad blues actually. And what happened was, as soon as he started playing we were so loud we got a bang on the door and it was Eric's security…"

They were not amused – and neither it seems was Eric Clapton, who trying to sleep and was much closer to the cacophony than Blackmore could have anticipated.

"Believe it or not, Eric was in the next room to where we were," remembers Blackmore. "I thought Eric was on another floor way away from where we were. And that was embarrassing, so we stopped playing."

Another awkward encounter further underscored Blackmore's embarrassment.

Get the MusicRadar Newsletter

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.

Ritchie Blackmore - Thanks Eric Clapton For His First Stratocaster (Rare Interview) - YouTube"If you wake us up again tomorrow we will bring all our amplification into a room and play at 3 o'clock in the morning": When Ritchie Blackmore had an "embarrassing" encounter with Eric Clapton (3)

Watch On

"The next day we had some words with his security and I said, 'I'm really sorry, I didn't realise we were next door… that was embarrassing, especially to think that Eric might have thought it was me making this racket on the guitar. I was in there having a drink, but I wasn't playing. That doesn't get me off the hook – it was really my idea to make all this noise."

But it wasn't all bad news – Blackmore's hotel protest tactic would soon come in use again.

"When we came back to England we noticed in the hotel that we stayed in there was a chalkboard, and written up on this chalkboard was, 'There will be, at 7 o'clock in the morning, a fire drill' and we went, here we go again – we're going to hear noises. So we said, 'If you do that, we will bring our amplifiers in and we'll start bashing away, doing what we did in Australia. And luckily enough one of the guys behind the desk said, 'What a minute – we've just read about this in the paper. These guys will do that.' So they changed the time of the fire drill to a respectable 1 o'clock in the afternoon. So our reputation preceded us."

Ritchie Blackmore discusses how 'Child In Time ' was recorded from Tales from The Tavern. - YouTube"If you wake us up again tomorrow we will bring all our amplification into a room and play at 3 o'clock in the morning": When Ritchie Blackmore had an "embarrassing" encounter with Eric Clapton (4)

Watch On

The Deep Purple and Rainbow legend is clearly an admirer of Clapton, and as well as revealing in the video above how he ended up buying one of the blues great's old Strats that he later used for the recording of Deep Purple's Emmaretta, Blackmore also explains he's more recently corresponded with Slowhand regarding myopathy arthritis that Blackmore suffers from. Clapton revealed in 2016 that he experiences nerve damage that has affected his guitar-playing abilities.

Check out Ritchie Blackmore's official YouTube channel for more videos.

  • The 1977 Rainbow gig when Ritchie Blackmore played one of his greatest performances – after two long nights in a police cell
"If you wake us up again tomorrow we will bring all our amplification into a room and play at 3 o'clock in the morning": When Ritchie Blackmore had an "embarrassing" encounter with Eric Clapton (5)

Rob Laing

Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK.When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.

More about guitarists

“These are all guys I admire, but to pick one specific solo out?": Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell picks his 6 favourite guitar soloists of all timeDave Navarro emerges from Jane's Addiction drama with a new release: a Supreme Cry Baby wah pedal

Latest

"He was a crucial co-writer on many of our most popular songs": The Eagles pay tribute to their collaborator, celebrated songwriter JD Souther, who has passed away aged 78
See more latest►

Most Popular
"Professional sound quality that fits in any backpack": IK Multimedia promises studio-grade sound in a portable package with the iLoud Micro Monitor Pro studio monitors
"I still find it quite strange that when people think about starting to playand buying their first guitar, going to visit a store is not necessarily something theywould consider": Why the Gibson Garage London could change people's minds
“They got a little (rough) with her. I called them out and said they were sexist, chauvinistic and why shouldn’t she (do it) so basically shut the hell up!” How Cyndi Lauper defended Yoko Ono against the British press
"We went to Jamaica in person to acquire this desk": Helios mixing console used to record Bob Marley's No Woman, No Cry goes on sale
The ultimate portable guitar and bass rig? Neural DSP reveals the Nano Cortex – its portable follow-up to the Quad Cortex
“I always try to get her to play as much as she’s willing to on our records”: Finneas on encouraging Billie Eilish to pick up the guitar more and her “number one piece of feedback” on his playing
“It was left to me to protect the legacy. This I have done on behalf of both myself and my former bandmates”: Johnny Marr hits back over Morrissey’s Smiths trademark claims
“It’s fantastic to see them celebrating their own pathway to Wembley by giving back to the grassroots music venues that supported them”: Coldplay announce stadium shows that will give back to the grassroots
Need to calm down? Try Rockabye Baby’s ‘Lullaby Renditions’ of Taylor Swift songs
Best Pioneer DJ controllers 2024: our pick of Pioneer DJing tools to suit your needs
This free synth and sampler plugin comes with over 2GB of samples from "the world's rarest synthesizers"
"If you wake us up again tomorrow we will bring all our amplification into a room and play at 3 o'clock in the morning": When Ritchie Blackmore had an "embarrassing" encounter with Eric Clapton (2025)

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Aracelis Kilback

Last Updated:

Views: 5807

Rating: 4.3 / 5 (44 voted)

Reviews: 83% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Aracelis Kilback

Birthday: 1994-11-22

Address: Apt. 895 30151 Green Plain, Lake Mariela, RI 98141

Phone: +5992291857476

Job: Legal Officer

Hobby: LARPing, role-playing games, Slacklining, Reading, Inline skating, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Dance

Introduction: My name is Aracelis Kilback, I am a nice, gentle, agreeable, joyous, attractive, combative, gifted person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.