Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter, who began his career as a session musician as a member of the instrumental band The Outlaws. Blackmore was one of founding members of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard-rock music which mixed simple guitar riffs and organ sounds. During his solo career, he established a heavy metal band called Rainbow, which fused baroque music influences and elements of hard rock. Rainbow gradually progressed to catchy pop style hard rock.