Ritchie Blackmore - Personal Life

Personal Life

On 18 May 1964, Blackmore married Margit Volkmar (b. 3 January 1945) from Germany. They lived in Hamburg during the late 1960s,. Their son, Jürgen (b. 1964), played guitar in touring tribute band Over the Rainbow. Following their divorce, Blackmore married Bärbel, a German former dancer, in September 1969 until their divorce in early 1970s. As a result, he is a fluent speaker of German.

For tax reasons, he moved to the U.S.A. in 1974. Initially he lived in Oxnard, California with American opera singer Shoshana for one year, so she provided backing vocals on Rainbow's first album. Shortly after Blackmore met Amy Rothman in 1978, he moved to Connecticut. He married Rothman on 16 May 1981, but they divorced in 1983. Soon after, he began a relationship with Tammi Williams . In early 1984 Blackmore met Williams in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she was working as a hotel employee. In the same year, he purchased his first car because he had finally learned to drive a car at 39 years old.

Blackmore and then-fashion model Candice Night began living together in 1991. He moved on her native Long Island in 1993. After being engaged for nearly fifteen years, the couple married in October 2008. Their daughter, Autumn was born in 2010. Their second child, Rory was born in 2012. He plays football once a week, and always watches German language television on the satellite dish when he stays at his home. Blackmore has a collection of approximately 2,000 CDs of Renaissance music.