There are some guitar riffs that every guitar player strives to learn…the opening riff to Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” is one of them.

The National GUITAR Museum has announced that Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore – the creator of that famous riff – is the 2025 recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award.

He joins fellow guitar luminaries BB King, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Eddie van Halen, and Jeff Beck.

The Museum presents the award to players who are “recognized for a lifetime of contributing to the legacy of the guitar and having a singular historical importance to the development and historical appreciation of the instrument.”

NGM executive director HP Newquist spoke on Blackmore saying, “most people know Ritchie from being the driving creative force behind two of the defining hard rock bands of all time-Deep Purple and Rainbow. But before starting those bands, he had a long career as a London session musician, performing on records by numerous artists, including The Outlaws. And then-after helping to define hard rock guitar in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s-he formed Blackmore’s Night, incorporating medieval and Renaissance acoustic music into his immense repertoire.”

Newquist added, “it’s difficult to find any modern guitarist who has incorporated so many diverse styles into their playing-and then fused them all into something recognizably their own over their entire career. Ritchie was one of the first electric guitarists to add classical melodicism to his playing, along with classical speed and finesse. I think that most of the early ’80s guitarists who played lightning fast riffs and claimed to be learning from Bach and Mozart were, in fact, borrowing from Ritchie.”

Blackmore spoke on the announcement saying, “I’m rather thrown by the magnitude of this honorable award. I am grateful to accept this award and this recognition.”

National Guitar Museum Lifetime Achievement Award recipients:

2010: David Honeyboy Edwards
2011: Roger McGuinn
2012: B.B. King
2013: Vic Flick
2014: Buddy Guy
2015: Tony Iommi
2016: Glen Campbell
2017: Bonnie Raitt
2018: Liona Boyd
2019: Jose Feliciano
2020: Eddie Van Halen (in memoriam)
2021: Al Di Meola
2022: Jeff Beck
2023: Tommy Emmanuel
2024: Alex Lifeson
2025: Ritchie Blackmore