Ritchie Blackmore, famed guitarist from Deep Purple, recently opened up about an incident involving Eric Clapton that took place during their early days of touring. In a new episode of his YouTube series, Blackmore reflects on a time when his band decided to crank up their amplifiers in a Melbourne hotel in protest of noisy maintenance work at 3 a.m. Unfortunately for Blackmore, Clapton was staying in the adjacent room.
After several early morning disturbances from the hotel staff, Blackmore and his friend resolved to carry out their threat to make noise in retaliation. They set up several Marshall amplifiers and began blasting music, only to find out that Clapton was next door, not on another floor as they had believed. Blackmore recalled, "We got a bang on the door and it was Eric's security." The incident led to an embarrassing encounter, as Blackmore had initially made a good impression on Clapton when his band supported Cream back in 1968, but this event left him feeling awkward and regretful.
In the story, Blackmore notes, "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". The incident highlights the sometimes unpredictable nature of life on tour in the rock and roll era. For more details, you can follow Ritchie Blackmore's ongoing stories on his YouTube channel.