He accepts there's unfinished business between the pair, but even if they settle their differenced he wouldn't want Blackmore to return to the band. He insists that would be the case if the band were ever inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. And he's slammed the organization's bosses for labeling Purple a one hit wonder, demanding to know which of several hit singles they're talking about.

Gillan tells Rolling Stone: "I'm saying what I'm about to say not to wind Ritchie up, if he's reading this. He knows we've got to talk about these things. So I say this with no rancour.

"I was just as much of an a**hole as Ritchie was - but Ritchie carried it on for a little longer. Had he stayed with the band, it would have been all over. It would have just ended. The day he walked out was the day we had to rebuild. We had Joe Satriani for a year, and he got us over the crisis, and then we got Steve Morse and started to rebuild. Within a couple of years, we started playing arenas again, and it's been fantastic ever since." - more on this story

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