Ritchie Blackmore, the Deep Purple guitarist, once enjoyed a friendly rapport with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in the early 1970s, with Jagger publicly praising him as the best guitarist he had ever seen. That goodwill collapsed after Blackmore criticised the Stones in print, ending the friendship and setting off decades of pointed remarks from Blackmore about the band he once counted as admirers.

Blackmore has repeatedly dismissed the Stones over the years, telling The Trouser Press in the mid-1970s that he considered them "idiots" whose sound was little more than a "nick from Chuck Berry riffs", and later suggesting they relied on "tomfoolery" to hold an audience and that their genre was "too limited". The article situates this as part of a wider pattern of feuding involving the Stones, who have themselves traded barbs with figures including Johnny Rotten, The Stranglers, The Clash and The New York Dolls, while also facing criticism from peers such as Roger Daltrey and Paul McCartney over their musicianship.