Christopher: OK. How do you remember his appearance with Deep Purple on 6 April 1974 at California Jam Festival?
Shoshana Feinstein: The California Jam was coming to town and I had a friend who wanted to go with me. We didn’t have tickets. I had heard that Deep Purple was also performing in that show. The last time I saw Richie was May 1973 when he performed in Rhode Island at the Civic Center. Now I decide to forgive what happened in spring 1973 and forget because I don’t hold a grudge.
I told my friend, “Hey let’s just go to the California Jam. I’ll get us in.” I had on a long fitted cotton dress with batik red and blue birds on it, lavender suede wedges and my hair was down to my waist. To this day, I do not know how I found my way to the tarmac because I did not know where I was going, nor do I know why or how I avoided the security police but I did.
Here we come to the chain link fence about ten feet tall separating the tarmac landing strip and road that obviously leads to the concert venue “CALIFORNIA JAM.” My Lebanese friend is the brother of my girlfriend, he was about 17 (I can’t remember any one’s names now) and he is all excited to go to this concert, so he is blindly following me. Okay, so I climb over the fence in my long cotton dress with my wedges platform ankle strap purple suede shoes. Yes, I did and he followed me. Can you picture this me like a monkey scaling the chain link fence right over and down the other side? This is the uncanny fated moment. As soon as I walk onto the tarmac along comes a black limo heading down to us. I am standing there with my long black hair flowing in the California sunshine, with my Lebanese buddy by my side. The limo stops. The door opens and there is Ritchie in the back seat. He greats me with, “well hello,” or something like that, but before he could say another word I reply, “Hello Richard (I never called him Ritchie, he was Richard to me) it’s me, Judith. (Richard always called me Judith never Shoshana) I want to apologize to you for being such a bitch last time we were together. All is forgiven (I was so naive). He wondered how I suddenly reappeared in front of him and he asked, “Where in the world did you come from?,” with a big smile on his face (he rarely smiles you know that). Get into the limo.”
Off we go in the limo along with my friend and us to the California Jam! Richard never lets me out of his sight. Sits me on a speaker behind him but close enough for me to see the entire spectacle of this momentous event.
I think that ELP went on first. Amazing. Ritchie is holding me close as well as plying me with alcoholic beverages. Those were glorious romantic and exciting days.
Then Deep Purple goes on. This is the time that Ritchie gets so angry that he smashes the guitar straight into the network television camera. Now we have to fly via helicopter. Well, this is exciting; a bit like MI6, James Bond Style. Next moment we are at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and off I go with Richard into his suite.
Now I’m in Ritchie’s Suite at the Beverly Wilshire getting looped on champagne back in his arms and he is not letting me go. It was like a fairy tale.
I had to go back to my apartment that day. I leave. Ritchie called me immediately after I left the Beverly Wilshire. He had his longtime friend/band manager Ian Broad drive him over to me and he stayed with me for a week or so until he has to fly back to England.
We became very intimate on a soul levels when he remained with me in L.A. He saw my genuine soul and I saw his. He told me my eyes were like rainbows, always changing color. We talked for hour’s days and he opened up a part of his soul very few had seen at that time in his life. We became very close, very fast. He knew that I loved playing piano, so he bought me an old mahogany upright piano.
He also bought me an album that he signed (I still have it) ST Martin of the Fields “Sir Neville Mariner Greensleeves” (he would play that on his guitar to me during Purple concerts, just suddenly break out of his solo into excerpts from “Greensleeves.” That was our song. He also recited ‘The Owl and The Pussy Cat’ to me. He told me that he was my Oile (German for Owl) and I was his Pussycat. I would have to say the Mr. Richard Hugh Blackmore was a romantic gentleman.
We spent his 29th Birthday together on April 14th. He had to leave after that go back to England. He asked me to come live with him in England. I said, “yes.”
Christopher: What happened next? Did you meet the other members of Deep Purple when you were in England?
Shoshana Feinstein: When I arrived in England on May 17th, 1974 (I remember dates, not names) we were getting ready to go to Cardiff Castle in Wales, where Deep Purple was rehearsing with Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale. We soon to be whisked off to this castle for the new Deep Purple rehearsal and recording. I had just thrown myself into this relationship with a “soon to be divorced” Richard, left L.A. and moved across the Atlantic for love.
Now I am in Camden Surrey in his and his wife’s house. Babs remained in Los Angeles with friends. He kept promising me that he was divorcing her. We fought about that too. Ritchie and I would record on his Revox in his home in Camden Surrey where I lived with him a short time.
Next, I’m in a beautiful castle in Wales eating dinner with Deep Purple and the crew. I was a vegetarian then so I had special meals prepared by the chef who was very nice to me. I was always treated with respect and kindness by each band member and roadie. I got to know them well and I would hang out with them in the castle when Richard was recording or rehearsing. David Coverdale didn’t talk to me at all. He seemed insecure. Glenn Hughes was in his own world as a rock star. Ian Paice was a phenomenal guy and drummer. Martin Birch their engineer was a stand-up guy.
When I first met Richard he did not talk to me about his band or his aspirations. He knew that I was a musician but now I know that he was only interested in me as a woman not as a musician. I felt that he didn’t fully respect that part of me. I was tough to handle. Very head strong and independent. We would argue over music theory and who was the all-time best, composer. He loved Bach and loved playing Bach on his guitar. As much as we loved each other, our personalities clashed at times.
When I lived with him in England, he did open up to me about him leaving Deep Purple and starting a new Project. He wanted Paul Rodgers from Bad Company as a vocalist but Paul was under contract to Swan Song Record Company I’m not sure about the name, I asked him why not use a female vocalist (such as myself). He told me that women’s voices are not powerful enough to front a rock band. That may have started one of our many arguments. Richard always told me that my voice was ‘too pure” for rock and roll and too pure for the music business. I think in some way he wanted to protect me from the business. Ian Paice did offer to produce a solo project of me marketing me like a Streisand soloist. At that time, Richard and I were on the outs and I did not feel comfortable pursuing this venue with Ian. I often wonder what my life would have been HAD I been more assertive concerning this opportunity. Also, Richard was departing DP and beginning Rainbow. There were uncomfortable feelings from everywhere; I just had to get out.
Then we moved to L.A. We rented a house on the beach in Oxnard California. He would talk to me about doing a Renaissance Project. Something that he wanted to do but did not think that his fans would be ready for that. He was very good on the cello. I have pictures of him somewhere playing the cello. I thought that he and I someday would do a musical project together but it was not meant to be.
I only put two conditions on my living with Richard. I needed my own room and a piano in it. I never asked him for clothes or money. Everywhere I went if we stayed long enough like in Munich where he was recording at Musicland Studios at the Arabella House he had a piano put in the room for me.
Ritchie, my friend Mirjana and her friends met at night club called ‘’Why Not?’ on September 19, 1974. It was during the ’74 Deep Purple Tour. I did go on the ‘74 Deep Purple Tour and flew in the Deep Purple jet all across the country. It would be the last Deep Purple Tour that Ritchie was on prior to forming Rainbow.
The next day, September 20th Deep Purple was playing at Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany. Ritchie had invited Mirjana to come to the Arabella House (where Richard and I were staying) to catch a ride with both of us to the show. Afterward MIRJANA, Richard and I hung out in our room in the hotel.
