Ritchie Blackmore has finally confirmed one of rock’s strangest and most long-debated stories: yes, Christopher Cross really did step in for him at a Deep Purple show. The tale goes back to August 28, 1970, during Deep Purple’s In Rock tour, when the band was set to play two shows at the Jam Factory in San Antonio, Texas. Blackmore played the first set, then became ill before the second, leading to the unexpected fill-in.
The story had circulated for years, but it was long treated like rock folklore. Cross had already recounted it in his 2018 book The Yacht Rock Book: The Oral History of the Soft, Smooth Sounds of the 70s and 80s, saying he was asked to step in after Blackmore got sick following flu shots and that he played the show with a Flying V, long hair, and a set built from songs he knew, plus some blues jams. He said Deep Purple told the audience Blackmore would not be there, and that Blackmore later thanked him at the airport for covering the gig.
Blackmore has now backed up that version of events. In the new interview cited by Louder, he described feeling suddenly “very dizzy” while heading to the show with Jon Lord, then collapsing and being taken to hospital. He said the doctors did not know what was wrong and that they kept giving him shots. Blackmore added that he stayed miserable in the hotel while the band went ahead without him, joking that Deep Purple played with “his name is Christopher Cross or something.”
The article notes that the incident happened on the San Antonio stop of the In Rock tour, and that Blackmore recovered quickly enough to return to the stage the following night at the Civic Auditorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That detail helps place the whole episode in context: it was not a myth from the distant past so much as a one-night emergency that turned into one of rock’s funniest crossover stories.
The reason the tale endured so long is that there had always been skepticism around it. Louder points out that the late Jon Lord reportedly denied it in later years, while Cross kept insisting it was true. Blackmore’s confirmation settles that argument from the source himself.
What makes the story especially amusing is the contrast at its center. Blackmore was one of hard rock’s most formidable guitarists, while Cross would later become known for smooth, radio-friendly soft rock and yacht-rock classics. Seeing those two names linked by one emergency Deep Purple show is exactly the kind of absurd rock history that sounds made up until the people involved confirm it.
