Jurgen Blackmore, son of Ritchie Blackmore: photos, biography, music, facts

I'm sure many music lovers have at least once and once caught themselves thinking: what do they do? children of rock idols? Did they follow in the footsteps of their stellar ancestors, or did they find themselves in a completely opposite sphere? Do they keep in touch with their "elders", or do the intergenerational relationships leave much to be desired? How do they even look like, and do they go to concerts of their idol fathers? There are a lot of questions, and today we decided to give answers to some of them on the example of... Blackmore Jr..

Yeah, yeah, we're talking about son the iconic guitarist in black, who is well known in the industry not only for his skills but also for his grumpy temper. However, is Richie as rude as people say he is? For example, his son Jürgen totally disagree with that.

"An inherited passion for the guitar": the early years of Blackmore Jr.

Jürgen was born on 7 October 1964. At that time Ritchie himself was not yet 20 years old... Ritchie got interested in music early on. It's no secret that in the early days he played with Screaming Lord Sutch and some other musicians, and this led to small travelling concerts and interesting acquaintances, one of which brought the future Deep Purple storm with a charming German woman. Margrit Volkmar was the same age as him. But despite their tender age, they married and soon had a son - Jürgen, as you may have realised by now.

The happy family lived in Germany for a while, but soon Ritchie realised that his career beckoned him much more than the family turmoil. And he decided to move on - to look for talented like-minded people, to record, tour and conquer the world charts. The peaceful life in Hamburg was at odds with his rock'n'roll nature. This led him to join the ranks Deep Purplebut I had to sacrifice my family...

Well: Jürgen was raised by his mother while his father pursued a career. But apparently, passion for the guitar - It's hereditary with the Blackmores: already at the age of 10 the boy began to show a genuine interest in the six-stringed instrument. Many years later, he would tell journalists a funny story about his first guitar:

"Since we hardly ever spoke to each other, I didn't really know who my father was. But one day we were walking with my mum past a music shop and I saw it - it was a guitar worth 50 German marks. Mum couldn't pull me away from the shop window. I grumbled and begged her for a long time that she bought it for me after all..."

Jürgen was grasping everything on the flyand soon he became... bored with learning to play the guitar.

"I was already easily playing everything we were taught in the course. When other kids couldn't do something, the teachers would say: 'Jürgen, show us how you do it!'. Then I started improvising and making up my own stuff..."

His son's successes couldn't help but touch Richie, who gave Jürgen his own Fender Stratocaster! It wasn't the same guitar for 50 German marks. Many rockers could only envy the boy....

Following in his star father's footsteps.

With his new guitar, Jürgen began to practice and improvise even more. Over the years, his skills have been honed to perfectionand he began to take confident steps towards his goal.....

"I always shared my father's ideas: do things for pleasure - your own and the public's. Never do anything purely for money. Because even if it's an endless stream of money, you won't be yourself..."

He took a pseudonym J.R. Blackmore and released 4 albums, which are mostly instrumental rock. He has collaborated with many rockers, in particular - in 2008 Jürgen formed the band Over the Rainbow with his father's former colleagues. The band performed in Europe, North America, Russia and Japan, performing hits from the classic Rainbow. At that time, Blackmore Jr. demonstrated his skills as a guitarist in all their glory....

After a few more years, Jürgen joined Deep Purple to perform the cult hit "Smoke on the Water" during a concert in Hamburg.

"Contact established."

As we have already emphasised above, the first years of Jürgen's life. hardly knew of his father. Their meetings became regular only when the boy began to delve into the art of playing the guitar... As a true guru in this craft, Richie taught his son some techniques and... inspired him, of course.

"I think it wasn't until I was about 10 years old that I finally had some idea of what my father was doing. We didn't see each other often, but every time was a holiday! When my dad played in Germany, I used to go to his concerts - but they wouldn't let me backstage: they just didn't believe I was Ritchie Blackmore's son! That taught me to arm myself with a passport..."

Conclusively "contact has been made."when Ritchie managed to instil Jurgen. love of football - the iconic guitarist's favourite sport. Legend has it that Ritchie once allegedly fired those who didn't share this passion with him from Rainbow. But is it really true that Blackmore Sr. is that rude and reckless? A word to his son:

"In photos you see him with a kind of angry look on his face most of the time, and the media portray him as a kind of tyrant: they say he fires musicians without reason, grumbles and sasses... Actually, I always laugh when my father is portrayed like that in the press. In real life he's unrealistically friendly, funny, and when we're together we always have a great time. He has a great sense of humour! Example: he rings the doorbell, I go downstairs, I open the door and no one is there, I leave, the doorbell rings again, I go downstairs again and it's the same picture again. Suddenly my father jumps out in front of me - he had time to hide behind the door!"