Congrats on the new marriage Uwe! Any idea about who else will be on stage for the Rainbow shows?
Nothing yet. Blackers is being his opaque best. He has stated though that the singer is "yet" unknown, but "will probably become famous" based on these gigs, "he is that good", being supposedly "a cross between Ronnie James Dio and Freddie Mercury". So now we all know.
For all his flaws, Ritchie has always had a hand for picking good people from obscurity and giving them a career once he had dumped them again. With the possible exception of Cozy Powell and Roger Glover (both not exactly superstars known outside the heavy rock world in the 70ies), the carousel of newly-picked Rainbow musicians never included anybody even remotely famous. Make up your mind whether that shows how Blackmore wants to always retain ultimate control or has a penchant for fresh talent. Interestingly enough, no one who has played with Rainbow (the whole dozen or so!) has ever had an axe to grind with the Stratmeister. With the distance of a few years, they were all grateful. Bain, Carey, Stone, Dio, Daisley, Bonnet, Airey, Rondinelli, Rosenthal, Burgi, Turner and White especially have always said that he set them off on a career. The orignal Elf members (other than Dio) are the exception because they (rightfully so) feel that he hijacked their band, poached their singer and then dumped everyone else. But the original Rainbow line-up was a studio affair only, Blackmore had no intention to tour with them. Whether he told them that is another matter though.
Blackmore also favored unknown Ian Gillan over better known Rod Stewart (back then on the way to fame with Jeff Beck Group) when it came to replacing Rod Evans in original Deep Purple and was instrumental for the band getting in David "
unknown boutique saleman from Redcar" Coverdale as replacement for Gillan when Mk II folded.
