“I actually called up – I didn’t call him up, I sent my A.I. pigeon to [Deep Purple frontman] Ian Gillan in Portugal, where he lives at the moment,” Blackmore said. “And I said, ‘How would you feel about if I got up just for an encore? Just one of the songs. I don’t want to intrude.’ He seemed to love the idea, put it to the band, got a thumbs up, and it looks like we might be doing that.”

“I hope I can compete with the [current Deep Purple] guitar player [Simon McBride],” Blackmore added. “Because I can see that he has very big amplifiers behind him … He’s a very good guitar player – as was, and is, [former Deep Purple guitarist] Steve Morse, a great guitar player.”