The Story of Rock and Roll details how important Rainbow was to me because of my friend Roger’s love for the band. The fact was that for the first time I had someone who could really explain to me what was actually going on musically. The first band that I first understood this way was Rainbow.
Long considered the best metal vocalist of all time, Ronnie James Dio in Rainbow moved the band into the upper echelons of rock and metal bands in the late 70’s. Richie Blackmore was in my view better in Rainbow than at anytime before of after. In Deep Purple he was brilliant but he shared the spotlight with Ian Gillan and Jon Lord and in many ways took a broody awesomely talented back seat. In Rainbow there was no doubt about who was the boss and the result was the two all time classic albums in Rainbow Rising & Long Live Rock & Roll.