Ritchie Blackmore rejoins Deep Purple on stage after 33 years

Ritchie Blackmore walked back on stage with Deep Purple on Wednesday, August 12, for the first time in 33 years, joining the band for Smoke on the Water at the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York. He co-founded the group in 1968 and had not played with it since he left in 1993.

He gave it away himself the day before. On an Instagram live with his wife, Candice Night, Blackmore said he would probably come up and do an encore with the band, then asked people not to tell anyone, which he seemed to know was hopeless. He said he wanted fans who had waited decades for it to have a chance to get there.

He also said it would not be Highway Star, because the band planned to open the night with it, and admitted the whole thing made him nervous. He is 81, has not played rock in 25 years beyond a short Rainbow reunion in 2016, and has spent that time on acoustic guitar. He joked that they would all be on crutches and in wheelchairs, then said the rest of them were fine.

Smoke on the Water comes from Machine Head, Deep Purple's sixth album, recorded in Montreux in December 1971 and released in 1972. The song is about the fire that burned down the Montreux Casino during those sessions. It is the piece of music the band is best known for, and it made the choice of encore obvious.

The estrangement had been public and long. Blackmore did not turn up when Deep Purple were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, and most fans had stopped expecting anything like this. When the song ended, Ian Gillan told the crowd that a local lad had asked whether he could come and jam, then called him the founding member and a legend, and Blackmore left the stage.

Nothing further has been announced, and one encore is all this is so far. The band's dates sit in the tour guide with the rest of our rock coverage, next to long-gap returns like New Radicals coming back after 28 years and Dave Rowntree saying Blur will reunite again at some point.