Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945)was one of the founding members of Deep Purple in 1968. He got his first guitar aged 11, and was taught to play by English guitar legend Big Jim Sullivan. In an interview with Sounds magazine in 1979, Blackmore said that he started the guitar because he “wanted to be like Tommy Steele, who used to just jump around and play”. Deep Purple were originally formed as a psychedelic rock band, but they shifted to a heavier sound with their 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock. Deep Purple, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the “unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies” Even as Deep Purple were breaking through he wanted more, and formed his own band Rainbow who broke into the mainstream with the hits “All Night Long” and “Since You Been Gone”. Blackmore was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2016.