Ex-Rainbow Singer Opens Up on Working With Ritchie Blackmore, Reveals What Writing With Him Was Really Like

If you take a gander at the early albums by Rainbow , you will notice that usually only one or two gentlemen are listed in the songwriter credits: Ritchie blackmore plus one other member. However, according to a former member, it sounds like others contributed to the creation of their songs.

During a chat with Disturbing the priest with brandon battick, former Rainbow singer graham bonnet discussed how the group’s songwriting worked on the lone Rainbow album he provided vocals for, 1979’s “Down to Earth”. And shockingly…even the drummer had a say!

“Basically, the first person that would write the bloody song would be Ritchie, then he passed it on to somebody else,” Bonnet explained (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “Like, Don [Airey] to do some keyboard parts, and then obviously Roger [Glover]. Roger would come up with words that I couldn’t write.”

“Because I thought, ‘What the hell am I gonna write for these songs?’ And he gave me a rough idea of how to sing it. He’d say, ‘Well, this bit here, do it something like this.’ And he would, y’know, ‘La la la’ to me, and say, ‘Yeah, sing it like that.’ ‘OK.’ ‘Now try it again, but do it a different way with those words I’ve written.’ And that was what happened there.”

But perhaps most surprising of all, Bonnet explained how drummer Cozy Powell would also have a say in the creation of the songs. Especially when it was discovered that he possessed a keen ear for editing out unnecessary or extended bits.

“And then Cozy would come in and say, ‘That song’s too bloody long, that’s too short, you should have a different section here.’ Cozy was very much involved in the songwriting, even though he’s a freaking drummer.”

“He would involve himself in the way a song should be. Because you know with guitar players, I’m sorry to say, they go on forever and ever. For a year. If you just have them keep going, they will. So, he had to cut down a lot of the things that Ritchie did.”

However, Bonnet did credit Blackmore for teaching him certain elements of songwriting.

“But I learned a lot of stuff from Ritchie on certain songs. He was playing me something on his acoustic and that was easier for me to sort of imagine how it would be when the whole frickin’ orchestra [would come in].”