7. RainbowLong Live Rock ‘n’ Roll

It was kind of weird because I had forgotten how much I listened to that album. I was introduced to Ronnie [James Dio] at an early stage, loved his voice and Ritchie [Blackmore], as a guitar player, was someone who was just beyond the grasp of my little mind at the time. He was so unique. When you go through all the different eras and songs, there’s such variety. Songs like ‘Kill The King’ were interesting, but by far my favourite was ‘Gates Of Babylon’. It has such a hypnotic, dancing gypsy riff. The singing and all the production is just tremendous and if you can copy Blackmore and master what he’s doing, it’ll take your playing to a whole new level. Not many people have done it either. Yngwie [Malmsteen] did it very well of course, but Yngwie is the master and was influenced by not just Ritchie.