The Mayor of Moscow Once Tried To Get This Iconic 70s Band Back Together (And They Still Said No)

Being in a band is like being in a marriage with a coworker. It’s emotionally vulnerable, professionally stressful, and the sheer act of putting an ensemble together requires several artists’ egos to coexist with everyone else’s in harmony—or at least close to it. Some bands could never quite get that delicate balance just right, including iconic groups like Pink Floyd, The Eagles, and Deep Purple.

Deep Purple has undergone several lineup changes over its decades-long tenure, but one of the most tumultuous periods in the band’s history began in the early 1970s. Tensions between vocalist Ian Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore became unmanageable. Following a tour in Japan, Gillan left. Two years later, Blackmore was gone. The band persisted, but so, too, did the icy connection between the former bandmates.

Still, this particular lineup (Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice) was the one behind one of the band’s most ubiquitous hits, “Smoke On The Water”. Consequently, fans have often been sentimental—sometimes aggressively so—about the possibility of this lineup returning to the stage.

The Deep Purple Vocalist Had an Intense Encounter With the Mayor of Moscow

Fans asking bands for reunions is nothing new. We, as humans, are nothing if not suckers for nostalgia. Rekindling old friendships feels good. Watching that happen on stage while those friends play incredible music can feel even better. During a 2026 interview with The Telegraph, Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan recalled a rather intense interaction with a Moscow politician over his ex-bandmates.

“It’s been offered many times,” Gillan said of a possible reunion. “The mayor of Moscow had me by the throat virtually in a bar in Moscow. He said, ‘I give you a million dollars to perform in Red Square.’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘…with Ritchie Blackmore.’ I said, ‘Forget it.’”

Maybe a million dollars is chump change to a musician who helped define 1970s rock ‘n’ roll. But even more likely is the fact that once a band breaks up under such acrimonious circumstances, getting back together doesn’t just seem impossible. It seems unpleasant.

“When you get divorced, it’s hard to go back,” Gillan said in a different interview, per Loudwire. “You must always respect and enjoy the memories and the nostalgia. But would you do it again? Probably not. No. Just enjoy what happened, because it could so easily be damaged by something like that.”

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