Ritchie Blackmore reveals that he and Ronnie Romero have been recording new material.

Last year (2016) Ritchie Blackmore made a welcome return to music as Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow much to the delight of fans. Despite forming only to revive the old Rainbow songs, Ritchie has now revealed that he’s been recording new material that they “may release as singles”.

The Highway Star translated, from an interview in Japan’s Burrn! magazine, that Blackmore and Candice Night talk about recording the new tracks. Candice says, “It first started as a 20th anniversary thing for Blackmore’s Night, re-recording some old material, but we came up with new songs. We have no plans for release right now, we were just having fun, but we may release when the right time comes but not right now.”

Blackmore also talked about his love for Romero’s vocals, likening them to Freddie Mercury or Ronnie James Dio. He also confirmed that Romero is the singer on the new material, “Yes, I wrote one new song, and also recorded one of the old ones. Ronnie, who is in Madrid now, added his vocals and sent it back. Rather than make an album, we may release as singles.”

“The reason I did not ask Joe Lynn Turner is because I thought European fans wanted to hear the Dio lineup of Rainbow.” He continued, “I was very surprised that tickets sold out in 15 minutes. It was nice to know so many people wanted to hear Rainbow at this time.”

Joe Lynn Turner had previously slammed Blackmore for his unauthentic line up and stated that “fans deserve better than a cover band”. Despite this, Blackmore has had much success with last year’s tour with praise from Glen Hughes. Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow will continue to tour for the rest of this year.