Cozy Powell played a practical joke on me once. It was two weeks after my 16th birthday, on the morning of Sunday 27th February 1977. I was hitch hiking from Wantage, at the foot of the Berkshire Downs in southern England (near the villiage of Harwell where Cozy lived at the time, not that I knew that) to visit with friends near Rowstock Corner, five miles down the rather tricky A417. First up was a Ford Granada. Looked like a sales rep and he wasn’t giving the time off day to anyone. Second was an Austin 1100 with an elderly couple out for a Sunday morning drive after church. They weren’t stopping either (or likely to exceed 40MPH). The third car was something else. It was roso red and had to have been the most beautiful automobile I had ever seen (I later discovered it was a 1977 Ferrari Dino). And it stopped! The driver had long black hair, Aviators, a white silk shirt, black leather trousers/pants and alligator skin boots. “Rowstock Corner” I asked optimistically? “Jump in”. And we were off! The first thing was how it became apparent very quickly that this guy could drive. I mean really drive. The next thing was we came up behind the Austin 1100 on a stretch that it is impossible to overtake/pass on. Too bad I thought, having been enjoying the ride up to that point. At which point the driver dropped the car into second gear and sort of put this Austin behind us as if by sleight of hand. I didn’t know they invented a car that could do that? It was as if time had stopped for everything outside this exotic leather cocoon. Once I had recovered my sensibilities I became emboldened enough to ask “so are you in the music business”? “Yeah”. “Go on then, who are you”? “I’m Keith Richards”. Shortly afterwards I told my friends “you won’t believe who just gave me a ride”! At which I told them and they said “correct. We don’t believe you” at which point someone turned on the radio to a news story about how Keith Richards had been arrested for heroine possession in Toronto earlier that day. It took me two years to find out who it really was! So that was it. Cozy Powell yet again giving some random kid the ride of his life (I still remember it 45 years later) but being sure to have a little fun for himself along the way. To be fair he and Kieth Richards did look a bit similar back then… Rest in peace Cozy. I had a tire blow out on me once, at speed, and should never have lived to tell the tale. Yours was just bad luck. At the age of sixteen I knew you were a drummer and because of your generosity of spirit I had also discovered you could drive at least as well as you played your drums. Since then I have come to understand just how good at playing your drums you really were.

Drummers of the rock era were INSANE! 70s rock was the greatest period of music

Rest in peace cozy Powell nice to hear Ritchie Blackmore talk about the past

Your a very blessed man Mr. Blackmore....

Rock In Peace Ronnie, Jimmy and Cozy...🙏🙏🙏

what a brilliant storyteller Ritchie is ! wanna listen all day long those awesome r&r stories

Cozy, „over the top“ as usual… My favourite drummer. RIP CP.

Oh my God She is beautiful ❤️❤️

There are some really good stories out there about Richie's pranks, too. Cozy was an insanely good drummer.

Cozy was such a great drummer, i saw him twice with the "Brian May Band" in Hamburg/Germany. He died far too young.

Cozy was great,that rainbow line up,down to earth,donnington,ritchie,cozy,roger,graham,don,was probably one of the greatest rock line ups of all time,phenomenal

Cozy Powell was an amazing drummer. He didn't really get the recognition he deserved. His double bass was BadAss. He really could play the hell of the drums.

You should do more of these and longer, Ritchie, great to hear you tell these stories.. Cheers.🎸

R.I.P Cozy, one of the greatest drummers ever.💝💝💝

Cozy was the man....RIP

Read a story, where Cozy climbed in a hotel window, thinking it was a crew member's room and sprayed the sleeping figure on the bed with a fire extinguisher. After escaping the way he'd came in, a short time later the police arrived and were questioning guests. It turned out the sleeping figure was actually a German tourist who had taken a bad turn after being sprayed with the contents of the extinguisher.

To me, Cozy’s signature song will always be Stargazer.

Very nice to hear from the wizard himself ! Please do more stories about lesser known singers, songwriters and musicians.

"Rising", "On Stage", "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll" are pure gold. Cozy was one of the greatest drummers of all time. R.I.P.

Great story. Thanks Ritchie for sharing.

Cozy is a great Rock Star name. It's really a great name in general.

Love these stories... Keep 'em coming'.

Hearing this im surpriced he lived as long as he did, but on the other hand it seems like his death was due to being an "on the edge" kind of guy as well. Rock In Peace Cozy, Ronnie and Jimmy.

Candice looks utterly amazingly beautiful in this interview.

Cozy - On Stage - period ❤

Having seen Bonzo, Baker, Peart and Palmer I found Cozy the best. I saw him with Hammer and many other bands always very exciting to watch.

All these skills as well as being an excellent drummer who unlike most drummers was always adapting his technique as you can hear through the various bands he was in Rainbow, Whitesnake, ELP, Sabbath to name just a handful. He had a reputation as a power drummer but was much more than this and had good snare technique too. Listen to his work with Jeff Beck Group. The only drummer capable of joining LZ at that time and it was discussed but never happened.

Your stories are fascinating

Imagine in the 1970s Cozy, Bonham, Ringo and Moon causing havoc after a few drinks.

Love Cozy

Happy Summer Solstice

Tell you what Richie lad, you're punching way above you weight with that beautiful wife of yours! You lucky bugger!

R I P Cosy 😢

❤

Cozy Powell sounds so much cooler than his real name Colin Flooks

thats the funniest story ive ever heard !!

I saw Blackmore's Night Twice, that's was once too many.

Cozy and I gave a lot in common…..

Did he do any practical jokes in the bands other than Rainbow?

That's a great 'rug' Ritchie can you tell me who makes them for you? I'm bald myself lol Amusing stories lol!

Gotta love the character, humour and personality of that woman on the right... wait... she's an American

What a band Rainbow was! It all fell apart after Cozy left IMO

Why put these frozen image touching his nose? This means or tryng to see blackmore as his just snore ?

Who is the woman sitting next to Ritchie?

;) like! (#2;)

.... Blackmores's woman is finer than frogs hair....See, guys, this is why you wanna be a rockstar or at least filthy stinking rich/successful. Women love a guy with money.

My dad said, if you get to watching a band after their show, and you find one of them being crazy, then you've just recognized the drummer. 🚀🏴‍☠️🎸

Does this Ritchie ever age wow looks like 60

Da würgt sich der Kehle. Wir wissen alle, wie er ist. Soll er doch so sein, wie er ist.

Interesting as always, but the thought of having to endure all those juvenile pranks and nasty practical jokes, make me glad I was never in the rock world. There’s something pathological about this kind of thing.

Is that a wig ?

Sounds like he was trying to out do kieth Moon.

Que lastima que no está en castellano

For a man who's almost 80, I think its time he laid of the hair dye bottle and vanity and go for a natural look.

his BS stories are priceless 😂

What a great bro I'm 67 and still climb ladders I play everything guitar drums and bass but I got to work for a f u c k i n g get my self-medication so I can rock and roll I refuse to join this cult system

Nobody finds Ritchie Blackmore more interesting than Ritchie Blackmore...

Cozy as a hero because he and people like us don't join this f****** system music is more important that's why they try to conform us to play their crap

That's really a great story. You might think that's a nice little story but, man this is a great deep story! This is a story about people. Man... Check, him, out. Man... This is real people. Not even kidding. When is the last time, you heard a story like this one? Mm, mm, mm? Huh? What happened? This isn't like hiding the coffee cup in the laundry basket... The most that, goes on today is, when thousands of pigeons try to make a statue disappear. Like, where is Doug Henning? Or his twin brother with the sledgehammer and watermelon... Oh, ho! I've seen this before. Hey man, where did you get the infield tarp from? Sale on garbage bags, eh.. oh, shoot! They don't do that anymore, either.

Ritchie is boring as hell..... Wait check that because he'll is I imagine not that boring