Ritchie Blackmore not reuniting with Deep Purple at Montreux

Deep Purple will be saluted on July 15th at the annual Montreux Jazz Fest, but they won't be joined by original guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. There had been speculation that Blackmore might perform with his old bandmates, but he shot down the idea with a post on the official blackmoresnight.com website that reads:

"Ritchie and his representatives have never been approached by the members of Deep Purple, their agents, or the organizers of the Montreux concert. The only way that this office has heard of the show is through the fans who apparently are being mislead by false rumors. As you all know, Ritchie left Deep Purple in 1993 -- 13 years ago. Ritchie will not be making an appearance at the Montreux show."

Steve Morse has been the guitarist in Deep Purple since just after Blackmore left the group. The group's next show is on Thursday, June 15th, in Bonn, Germany.

Blackmore plays Renaissance-style music with his wife Candice Night in the group Blackmore's Night.

Deep Purple's history in Montreux, Switzerland, dates back to December 1971, when they settled in at The Casino to make their album Machine Head. During a Frank Zappa & the Mothers Of Invention show at The Casino on the night before Deep Purple were to begin recording, someone in the crowd shot a flare gun into the building's roof, which resulted in The Casino burning to the ground. The song "Smoke On The Water" pretty much details what happened.