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Johnny’s Band is non-particular
Swiss magazine Tracks has a cover story on the new Deep Purple album in its 2017 issue #2. A 6 page story inside includes an interview with Roger Glover, from where we present you with selected quotes. Usual caveats about reverse translation apply.
On Johnny’s Band lyrics:
It is not about a particular band. It was clear to me that this question would come when I wrote the lyrics. If you look at the stories of bands they are almost all the same. They start with nothing, alone against the rest of the world, they struggle to survive, they create the breakthrough, success brings money, money brings women and drugs, they end in rehab or die or anything else and 20 years later they reform and play again in the small clubs where they had begun. It is a universal story. I called it ‘Johnny’ because John is a very commonplace name.
On why the band have recorded a cover of Roadhouse Blues for the new album:
Just out of a whim. On the last album, we had the fun of Jerry Lee Lewis ‘It’ll Be Me’ and Bob asked, ‘Do we want to do that again?’ There were a few songs to choose from, but I no longer remember who called ‘Roadhouse Blues’. We are a band who likes to choose the path of least resistance. If we have to learn something first – forget it! (Laughs). ‘Roadhouse Blues’ is a song that we can play without having to listen to the original. So we played that in the studio, quite spontaneously and only once. The whole thing was done in half an hour. All live, no overdubs – even the singing is sung directly live with the band, since nothing was changed afterwards. That was fun. I was just a bit uncertain because the song was already covered a lot. Gillan has his roots and influences more at Elvis in the early rock ‘n’ roll time. But he did a great job here.
On Ritchie’s absence from the RnRHoF induction and Celebrating Jon Lord gala at the RAH:
It is not that we do not like each other. He has isolated himself. I would be happy if we still had contact and would talk with each other. This Hall of Fame thing would have been great if he had come. But he had already said months before: ‘I’m not interested.’ But afterwards he said naturally, ‘I was not invited’ or ‘they told me I should not come!’ I’ve sent Ritchie Christmas cards for years, but never got an answer. Somehow I gave up. Of course I know how important Ritchie was to the band. He pushed us in the right direction, he and Jon Lord had this push/pull effect for the band. Ritchie was more the purple architect than anyone else. But it was his choice to get out, just as I thought the band was back on a healthy path. All he did was always his own choice. I would welcome him as a friend. But it is not an option to return to Purple as a guitarist. We’ve been with Steve for 22 years and he’s our guitarist. Basically, all this is a soap opera.
If you can understand German, the magazine is available for your online perusal free of charge.
Thanks to Nigel Young for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Sorry Roger but you can’t fool your hard loving fans. ‘It will be me’ was a bounce track on Now What extended CD. So you come one track short this time and you took the easy route. So don’t fool your fans. Remember MTV and sign of madness tracks. They were never part of the original song sets on albums. As for Ritchie not turning up once again get the record straight and read what Ian Gillan wrote on his website and what the manger wrote.
March 10th, 2017 at 21:22Let the past rest in peace but don’t try to rewrite the past!!!!
Oh, the path to true love were ever thus…. Right, now who wants to be the one to cast the first stone?….
March 10th, 2017 at 22:57LMAO! Why do you care about the track list and an original song? Are you part of Deep Purple? Are they not allowed to choose and pick what they want or don’t want to do on an album, especially at this stage of their career? Lucky it isn’t a covers album like many old bands do….Anyway go ahead and dissect, scrutinize and babble over an aging band’s final album…ENJOY!!
March 13th, 2017 at 16:16NWO@3
March 14th, 2017 at 17:11Cover songs will always fill gaps but it will never add any credit to respectable band.
Just like worthless videos that is added to extended CD packages it will always get lost in the clutter but genuine music will last forever.
Silicon is another good filler as well.
Enjoy
Sorry everybody,I agree 100% with Roger. Blackmore was a huge part of Deep Purple but he chose to to leave.Steve Morse is the guitarist and this is,THE LIVING BREATHING DEEP PURPLE!!!!!!!!
March 14th, 2017 at 23:39Steve spend more time in Deep Purple than Ritchie. That’s a FACT.
Ritchie , Jon and Ian Paice give birth to Deep Purple. That’s a FACT.
All this ” soap opera “is just for idiots who always have something to complain about.
Just imagine if DP have ended in 1993…
Be happy they are still a live band… Very alive band…
Thank you so much all DP family to make me dream for the last 45 years. Yes I discovered my band in 1972…. Our band is alive guys… Enjoy it.
Long live DP.
Richard Legris.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:57