Over the years, I’ve had a number of opportunities to interview the wonderful Glenn Hughes and what always strikes me is the courtesy with which he invariably treats his interviewers as well as the disarming honesty with which he approaches each question. A veteran rocker, his tenure in Deep Purple saw the band unleash the apty-titled burn, the mighty stormbringer and the still-underrated come taste the band and it is to this period of his career that Glenn has turned his attention, recruiting a crack band and launching himself into a sizeable tour in the process. For some, witnessing The Voice Of Rock tackling these songs once more is a vital trip down memory lane, for others it is an opportunity to see these songs performed with gusto by a musician who never fails to instil his entire being into whatever project he is tackling at the time. We sat down with Glenn for a chat about the tour – read on and find out more about what promises to be one of the great rock tours of the year. 

 
Hi Phil, how are you?

I’m great thanks, Glenn, it’s lovely to have the opportunity to speak to you once again, how are you?

I’ve never felt better!

So, you’re revisiting a really crucial part of your past, and I’m very interested in the approach because there’s a big difference between honouring the past and simply copying what was done before and I’d love to know how you’re approaching the music this time round?

That’s a good question and I’ve not been given that angle before, but the angle you’ve opened up is that yes, I am playing those songs and I am playing songs that I recorded in the past. But what I’m not doing is playing identical versions of the songs that were recorded all those years ago. I’m doing arrangements taken from the band in the live setting, either via video or audio file. Each song is an arrangement that Tommy and I, or Richie and I and the guys were doing during that period. So,  for instance, we may tip the hat to Cal Jam or maybe Europe or Live at Long Beach. What I didn’t want to do was bring these songs just in the studio version of the song. I just thought it would be more interesting and slightly dangerous to do something a little different.

I think it’s really exciting because it’s an opportunity for people, such as myself, who never got to see you play with Deep Purple, to not only experience that music but also the spirit of the band.

That’s exactly why I’m doing this, Phil. It’s because I want to do something that’s more aggressive rather than just something that’s slightly self-centered. There’s some attitude. It’s not choreographed. I think you know I’m not a choreograph type of guy, I’ve just chosen the right people to play the songs with who are more inclined to sound like Mk III and Mk IV and it’s a bit of a production and it’s a show! It’s a two-hour show, it’s more of a… I don’t want to live in the 70s! I’ve been in the 70s. But what I want to do is… a large portion of my audience wants me to take me back to 1974, so I’m going to do that.

The important thing is that the Mk III and IV line ups were really innovative and the sound was always evolving, so that must be an inspirational thing to revisit…

It is, because back in the days when the band was there and Zeppelin and the Who and Sabbath – they were all on the road – we were a touring commodity that would play. As you know, as an historian, you’ve seen how many versions of Smoke on the water, or whole lotta love or paranoid there were and, you know, my thing is that I don’t like to stick to an original thing. I don’t change the melody. I don’t change the lyric. But I may change the angle, I may change the dynamic, I may change the attitude of the song. It just depends on how I’m feeling, and I’m feeling good, so yeah.

I read the material that came out when you did the first branch of this tour in Australia and New Zealand and you talked about “getting into the character of Glenn Hughes in the 70s” – is it challenging to get into character to play this music?

I was half-joking when I said that. I may have told you ten years ago that I’d never grow my hair again and I suppose, right after the Hall of fame, two years ago I started to grow my hair and my god, it seems to have taken on a life of its own! And I think growing the hair, when I started touring in Australia, it was quite long and I started to think that if I grow my hair a little bit and wear the seventies clothes, it kind of puts me in that time frame. You know, if I can say this to you, I feel like I’m an actor portraying these songs. As you know, Tommy lived with me for six months and he was the ultimate actor / singer and he always said to me every day “you change each day! You’re like walking through the fear and you’re always able to do that!” and I’ve always taken that on board.

Touring in Australia and New Zealand – you also played as a guest with the Music of Cream – there’s obviously a love of the classic rock spirit.

I think, in general as you know, without disrespecting any other kind of music, the classic rock of the 70s, for a guy my age and their children, who are now 40 years old, maybe 35. Classic rock right now is making a huge come back and it just so happens that I’m doing this in that time. I’m selling more tickets than I’ve ever sold in quite some time and I don’t do this for money. I do it because I love doing these songs at this moment. It may not be this way in five years, so why not do it while I’m feeling it.

The band you’ve put together is one hell of a line-up…

I’ve changed it all again, by the way! What I want to do, Phil, is… imagine that I am in a football team and I am the manager of a football team and we’re going to go and play in a market place like the Eastern bloc, where it’s big and rugged and maybe they play a different style and I have to keep my team at the top of the league and I’m doing that with that. I’m actually honouring Deep Purple Mk III and IV. Let’s just say that I need people… I need a new centre-forward, I need a new goalie and I need a new wing-back. That’s what I’ve done with this new band. Jeff Kollman is back by the way. I’ve got Mike Mangan (who plays with me in Kings of Chaos with Matt, Duff and Slash), who is a Hammond Organ specialist. I’ve got a great, Ian Paice- sounding drummer – Eduardo Paulos, from Sao Paulo Brazil. What I’m doing, Phil, is I’m bringing the guys into play, they’re coming off the bench to score goals and win games. That’s why I’m doing it.

That’s a great analogy and it’s an amazing band that you’ve put together –the chemistry on tour must be phenomenal…

…And as you know, with soccer teams, sometimes you’ve got to change personnel and you know me well enough, you know I don’t change personnel for years and years and years but sometimes you’ve got to do that. Especially now as I’m getting older, I needed it to be the right vibe for the right audience and I think they’ll allow me to do this.

…How do you feel about revisiting the remarkable tracks that you wrote with Deep Purple?

How do I feel about it? I think that…. If you’d have asked me to do this three years ago, I wouldn’t have said “no!” but I’d have asked for some time to think about it. When David did the purple album with Whitesnake and hearing that the guys in Deep Purple are closing down… I don’t know what they’re doing… I just think there may be a window of opportunity for me to pay my respects to those songs that I was an architect for. And, remember now, people say to me “how can you sing better now than you did in the seventies?” Well, you take away the drugs, the booze and the smoking and the womanising and you get a very lucid Glenn Hughes and I am at the top of my game right now. Physically, mentally and, more importantly, spiritually. So, why wouldn’t I want to go out and pay respects to a band that I was in and give it the best of my ability.

Do you think that, in going back to look at these songs, it might also inform your next creative project?

I am… for me, Phil, if you know me well as a vocalist and bass player I never come in not prepared, if I’ve got a mission, I’m going to carry that message. I had to say to myself “am I ready to do this right now?”, like was I ready to do the Satriani / Smith record or another BCC album… I have to think about things before I do them because it’s a year-long opportunity for me, everything that I do, but this is a year-long tour. So, in answer to your question, I am so dedicated to this touring window for Glenn Hughes performs classic Deep Purple live, that I have completely dedicated myself to this and I probably won’t be doing anything else other than this.

It’s incredibly exciting – this opportunity to see you playing these songs because you haven’t played many of these songs for a long time.

Phil, a big thing for you to know – I haven’t ever done, never in forty-four years, a complete Deep Purple show. I am doing a set list of songs and all these songs that I’m doing, every single one was played by me, David, Jon, Ian, Tommy and Richie. There isn’t one song that wasn’t played. Therefore, I feel it’s important for me to carry that message all these years later.

It’s great that a whole new generation can witness this…

It is! I’ve just been on tour for seven months – South America and I just came back. I’ve met a lot of my fans; I know a lot of my fans. I’ve found now that they’re bringing their kids now and out there in South America, they know all the words! They know all the words to ‘burn’, you know!

It’s a great sign that music is such a great leveller for so many people for you to be able to go out and bring something that connects so many people from so many different countries – it must be very important to you.

It is. As you know, I meet and greet all over the world and I’m not saying anything about other artists… you know what, let me tell you why I do them. I do them so that people can look me straight in the eye, and I’m looking at them in the eye and I have this yearning that people can see me and leave going “he was looking at me in the eye, dad, he was actually talking to me!” When I sign an autograph, I don’t just put my head down and move along. I always… I learned a lot of this from my dear friend Ronnie. I loved the way Ronnie treated his fans, and I’d known Ronnie since 1972, and he’s not hear any longer, but I’m carrying the message that he instilled in me. It’s important for me to have that connection with my fans.

…and that, I think, is a big part of the Glenn Hughes experience – that connection and the fact that you always return to the Black Country to honour your roots.

There’s a definitive message now. You know, the last couple of years I’ve come through a couple of operations, I’ve survived a heart operation which was a bit scary. I had a couple of new knees put in, I lost both my parents, I lost my dad when I was being inducted in to the hall of fame… it’s been a bit of an education for me to lose both my parents and still not need to take a drink or a drug. So, it’s important for people to know that I’m a human being who has feelings and I’m very sensitive. But I’m also an actor that can go out and fucking rock!

It’s amazing that you allow people this access to you and I think that’s important…

I go out of my way… I go out of my way to make sure that no one gets let down. When I was twelve years old, an artist knocked me out of the way coming back stage. I asked for an autograph and he basically told me to fuck off and I remember, all those years later, that I could never do that. People talk about me in a lot of ways, but the one thing they can never say is that I’ve been mean to a fan or snubbed someone for an autograph. I’ve never let people down.

Thank you, once again for taking this time to talk to me…

You’re welcome man. It’s always a pleasure.