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The guitarist has confirmed he’ll make a surprise appearance during the band’s headlining show at the Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York, on Wednesday night (12.08.26).
The 81-year-old rock legend joked that the cameo was meant to be “a secret” before admitting he planned to join the group for an encore. Blackmore last performed with Deep Purple in 1993.
He said he reached out to frontman Ian Gillan - via what he jokingly called his “AI pigeon” - to ask whether he could jump in for a single song “for old times’ sake”. Gillan and the rest of the band gave him the thumbs up.
During an Instagram Live with his wife Candice Night the day before, Ritchie said: ?"There is something we wanted to mention about tomorrow night… Well, it is a secret and I don't want anybody to know, but I'm probably get up and do an encore with the band, Deep Purple. But you can't tell anybody, and I know that this is gonna be kept a secret. And will it? I suppose so."
Regarding how the idea for his guest appearance came about, Ritchie said: "I actually called up... I didn't call him up, I sent my AI pigeon to [Deep Purple singer] Ian Gillan in Portugal, where he lives at the moment. And I said, 'How would you feel about if I got up just for an encore? Just one of the songs. I don't want to intrude.' And I said, 'No pressure - just kind of [for] old times' sake.' I'm 81 now. So he seemed to love the idea, put it to the band, got a thumbs up, and it looks like we might be doing that."
The guitarist revealed he already has a small but loud amp set up for the gig and even changed the strings on his Stratocaster for the first time in 25 years.
One song that is ruled out is Highway Star, as the band is opening the show with it.
