Not at all - two of my favorite DP albums (Come Taste the Band and Purpendicular) don''t feature Blckmore at all. He was both their spirit and the millstone around their neck - it was time he left when he did (for the second time) in 1993. A song like Rosa's Cantina would have been impossible with Blackers, he is so incredibly set in his ways, it's either his way or no other.
As Ian Paice quipped: "Ritchie is happy now. I hear he's playing acoustic guitar with his girlfriend and they are being managed by her mother, so I'm sure it must be all very professional ...".
That's Don Airey you hear (on the teaser track, the Rosa's Cantina track features Lord of course and he is at his rhytmic forte there), technically a more proficient player than Jon Lord (who in many ways was to the Hammond what Keith Richards is to the Tele, i.e. not a Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman at all, a lot of his playing was all about the groove, people tend tp forget that a Hammond is a rhythm instrument). Airey is second gerneration DP family if you will. He played with Cozy Powell's Hammer, Colosseum II, Rainbow, Jethro Tull, Gary Moore, Black Sabbath (that is him on that instrumental track of Never say Die), Ozzy Ozbourne (he wrote the intro to Mr Crowley, toured with him etc), Whitesnake (those are his synths on Is it Love and Here I go Again), The Animals, Michael Schenker ...
That now makes him sound more like a journeyman than he is. Ever since - at Lord's recommendation - he took the spot with DP he's been a happy man. He once joked: "When I heard Jon was retiring from touring with DP, I went to my wife and asked: Will they call me?!!!!" They sure did.
