The normally reclusive Ritchie Blackmore recently sat down for an interview with Newsweek and one of the questions asked was, “When you re-formed Rainbow for the shows last June, were you disappointed that you weren’t able to invite original singer Ronnie James Dio, who died in 2010?”

The answer was no. Blackmore says, “I’d finished with Ronnie a long time ago, and we kept in touch now and again but I went on to other things and he was in other things. We kept it very convivial and that, but I think neither one of us really wanted to get back together. He’s a strong alpha male, and so am I; he wanted to go one way, I wanted to go the other.”

Instead of ringing up any of the other previous Rainbow singers such as Graham Bonnett or Joe Lynn Turner, Blackmore went with an unknown, Ronnie Romero, who is originally from Chile but now lives in Madrid, Spain. Blackmore’s Rainbow has one date on tap for this year — June 17th in London.