RITCHIE BLACKMORE Pays Tribute To DUANE EDDY: 'He Will Always Be My Number One Inspiration'

DEEP PURPLE's Ritchie Blackmore has paid tribute to Duane Eddy, a pioneering guitar hero who died earlier this week at age 86. Eddy passed away of cancer Tuesday at the Williamson Health hospital in Franklin, Tennessee, according to his wife, Deed Abbate.

On Wednesday (May 1),Ritchie took to his social media to share the following message: "Just heard about the passing of the wonderful Duane Eddy who was my first guitar idol with songs like Rebel Rouser, Shazam, Some Kind Of Earthquake. I would always rush out and buy his long playing records. My favorite all time tune from him was The Lonely One.

"He was a brilliant guitarist in his own right. He was the first guitar player with that deep bass sound which I loved. Unfortunately, I never saw him live, although I tried to see him playing on a couple of occasions. One particular time, when I was 12, I went to London airport to meet him. I sat there for hours waiting, so I could get a glimpse of him. After 2-3 hours, I asked the ground staff what time his plane would be in as it was obviously delayed. They told me his plane actually came in early and I missed him. That was my first of many futile attempts to see him. But I would play his music night and day.

"He was very kind to me last year, because I had missed him on so many occasions, he sent me a Gretsch Guitar as a present for Christmas. I couldn't believe it.

"He will always be my number one inspiration from the time I took up the guitar until now. He was so unique in his playing.

"The world has lost a great guitar player. A truly unique guitar player.

"Our hearts are with Deed and his family."

The Grammy Award-winning American guitarist Eddy had a string of instrumental hits spanning more than four decades. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1994. Eddy devised early in his career a technique that involved playing lead guitar on bass strings, thus producing that characteristic low reverberant "twangy" sound.

Eddy, who moved to Nashville in 1985, recorded more than 50 albums, but was not very active from the 1980s on, "living off my royalties," he said in 1986.

"Duane inspired a generation of guitarists the world over with his unmistakable signature 'Twang' sound," Eddy's representative said after his death.

"He was the first rock and roll guitar god, a truly humble and incredible human being. He will be sorely missed."