At 81, Ritchie Blackmore Reveals the 5 Guitarists He Actually Respects

At 81, Ritchie Blackmore is still the hardest man in rock to impress. He dismissed Jimmy Page. He said he never saw what was in Eric Clapton. He called Jimi Hendrix a brilliant attitude but not a great player. So when the Deep Purple and Rainbow legend says he genuinely respects a guitarist, it means something. Across fifty years of interviews, Blackmore named only a handful of players who earned it. There's a Telecaster genius the world never caught up to, a Swedish prodigy who learned from Blackmore's own records, and the man who replaced him in Deep Purple. There's the teacher who gave him lessons in a London front room in 1958. And there's the one guitarist Blackmore jokingly says "cheats." From his 1975 cover story to his 2026 reunion with Deep Purple after 33 years, this is the short list of guitarists Ritchie Blackmore actually respects, in his own words. Who do you think Blackmore got wrong? Tell us in the comments, and we'll read the best answers in the next video. #RitchieBlackmore #DeepPurple #GuitarLegends #RockHistory #JeffBeck