Ritchie Blackmore

Richard Hugh Blackmore was born 14 April 1945 in England and started his professional run in the 1960s with outfits like the Outlaws and Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages, filling session slots for singers including Glenda Collins and Heinz. He co-founded Deep Purple, where his classically inflected solos helped define the sound of early heavy metal, then left to form Rainbow and later Blackmore's Night, a folk-rock project that swapped distortion for lute and mandolin. Guitar World and Rolling Stone have named him among the most influential players in rock history, and Deep Purple's inductio…