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A different Hughes interview
Music Radar has an interview with Glenn Hughes, from which we learn what he thinks of his days in Deep Purple, as well as the nerdy stuff like the fact that Geezer Butler has Glenn’s old Rickenbacker. And he won’t sell it back to Hughes!
What was it about your playing that made you a good fit for Deep Purple in the early 70s?
It’s a fine line to walk here, because Deep Purple were more traditional, in-the-box, white rock ‘n’ roll. Trapeze were really heavy funk/groove/American, but ‘Purple was distinctly British. They had really, really iconic players, like Lord, Paice and Blackmore, who were virtuosos on their instruments, both as soloists and as components for writing those songs in MK II.
Here come MK III with me and David [Coverdale, vocals] and everyone knows I’m not Roger Glover – A) I can sing and he doesn’t sing and B) Roger is a completely different bass player to me. He basically follows the riffs, pretty much, whereas I found those ‘holes’ on the first album [Burn], like Sail Away and Mistreated. It wasn’t funky in Deep Purple, it was more groove-orientated. The word ‘funk’ has been thrown around, so much but that’s a word that really belongs in American music.
Read more in Music Radar.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Terrible picture it needs to go please!
February 27th, 2013 at 21:14“[…]Deep Purple were more traditional, in-the-box, white rock ‘n’ roll. […] He [Roger Glover] basically follows the riffs, pretty much, […] It wasn’t funky […]”
He hasn’t got a clue, has he? Poor sod.
February 28th, 2013 at 00:01Codswallup ! Roger can sing well as proven in his own recordings ! Hughes seems a bit up himself !
February 28th, 2013 at 05:41No, the image looks typical to me, Hughes looking in a mirror! Seriously though, or should I say hilarious, is the Geezer Butler comment regarding the red Rickenbacker, ” I don’t sell me basses ” followed by “you can come & have a look at it if you want” classic Butler, you have to laugh, well at least I did.
February 28th, 2013 at 06:49Hey Bottoms
Maybe we can use your picture? : )
Cheers.
February 28th, 2013 at 12:55Yes I concur with the Buttockss here….what on earth is going on here? Why are you guys continuing to use this picture of Prince/Sharon Osbourne? All I can think when this picture shows up is Ozzy screaming “SSSHHHHAAAAARRRROOON!”
CheerZ!?
February 28th, 2013 at 13:29Right, Glenn says “Blackmore, Paice and Lord three virtuosos,” has got Deep Purple and fourth virtuoso, distinctive high-register to vote
singer Ian Gillan
Glenn is likely to get a job in Deep Purple because of the similarity, the first in a range of voice with Ian, he could sing Ian’s vocal parts, / David was more bluesy, hoarse voice / great bass player
and
the longest hair, longer than Gillan and David / California Jam 1974 /
hehe
BCC listen, good band, Glenn has found musical expression
February 28th, 2013 at 13:55back to the roots
“old good, hard rock”
“Terrrible picture?” I say: Terrible bullshit” coming from Glenns mouth, again!! He nicely avoids mentioning that it wasnt just Lord, Paice and Blackmore who wrote all those MK II songs, the “other” two guys (Gillan and Glover) had a hell of a lot to do with too, something Glenn fails to mention. He says “I can sing, Glover doesnt….” Well, I wouldnt call what Glenn does as “singing” especially not that kind of “singing” he did in MK III, but ok, it must be hard, always be compared to MK II, and always come out short….
February 28th, 2013 at 19:44Who cares what poor Glenn has to say these days………….Now What?! is coming soon…………about the picture, well, that is GH these days, a far cry from the ‘bad ass bass player’ of the Cal Jam days
February 28th, 2013 at 23:27cheers
I ll always favour Gillan’s singing in several periods over Glenn’s but to suggest(Tony)that he cant sing or that Roger is even on a a par?!
Roger did some fine vocals on his solo albums, but hey, that is in the studio!
Never heard a decent vocal part of Roger on stage, whereas(Yeah, we all hate his overindulgence in non Gillan like screaming)Glen n still is better than most others.
But ofcourse people often have shit in their ears.
March 1st, 2013 at 11:17You can’t dispute the fact that RG and GH are outstanding Bass players but it’s like comparing cookies and crackers. RG steady and strong while GH moves and grooves…..both outstanding musicians.
March 1st, 2013 at 14:29As much as respect Glenn as a musician,his singing especially live with MK, was atrocious to say the least,I mean Cocaine had to do with that too,not funky music he says,the reason that Ritchie left was the “funk ” ideas induced by Glenn! he totally ruined those live shows with his over the top screaming and the reason I cannot listen to those live shows anymore!
March 1st, 2013 at 18:16cyclone @ 11 – Roger Glover is a good, solid & experienced bass player, who gets the job done 100%, but not a great or outstanding bass player in my book.
March 1st, 2013 at 22:08Glenn Hughes has always been a more interesting bass player in many people minds. Much more interesting looking at it from a drummers point of view at least! Funk does have some great grooves to it, but just not in a British hard rock group from the early 70’s, who played classically influenced blues rock!
al @ 12 – Hughes singing is awesome with MK2 as long as he doesn’t carry on with the proverbial “whoop & holler” over the top live “I am off my face everybody” trype! But when he just sang the vocal parts he was required to, he was superb, live & in the studio!
Roger Glover did sing live once apparently in the early 70’s, when Gillan went down suddenly with an illness!
He didn’t love the job & it only occurred once from what I remember him saying on a rock documentary I watched back in the early 1990’s I think. But at least he gave it his best shot rather than cancel the gig! Who knows what he did sound like on the night, maybe they would have been better off cancelling the concert, but he had a go at it & kudos to him for trying! I haven’t heard his solo recordings so I have never heard him ‘sing’, I will have to have a listen!
Glenns’ vocals on Burn and Stormbringer were simply outstanding, he was the perfect foil for DC. His drug induced live performances were what really ruined (as some think, myself included) his reputation with a lot of Purple fans. The vocal work he did w/Trapeze was also incredible…………….need to get those old vinyls out. I absolutely prefer Roger on bass for Purple tunes.
March 1st, 2013 at 23:30cheers
Someone needs to tell Glenda that it’s OK to lose the old lady goggles.
March 2nd, 2013 at 02:03@13 that ‘s what I meant dude,I never meant to say he doesn’t know how to sing! I love some of his solo stuff and Iommi/Hughes,(Fused) albums,the HTP 2 of course BCC albums as well!Granted, Glenn doesn’t come across as the most modest man but hey he can back it up,his body of work backs it up ! I hope he continues to make and sing rock and roll for the years to come!
March 2nd, 2013 at 04:0013
he must have musterd some confidence because he sang backing vocals for Space Trucking during the Perfect Strangers tour.
As with the Naked Thunder tour, I was apalled Ian had to do that!
Maybe if Jon had stayed of the ciggies he could have helped Ian out way back?
Most of us probably think of Jon as mainly a classical composer but I feel there was more in the can, but he needed the right singer and band ofcourse!
Using PAL ofcourse gave a different output then when he made ” Blind” together with Rod Evans.
Blind is an outstanding MK I track, often overlooked by Deep Purple fans.
And thats because when they get into the band they usually take the main route of MK II, meanwhile reading that DP MK I was such a weak incarnation and that the 1969 album did not do anything.
One of the many gems, that album, cannot say it enough : )
March 2nd, 2013 at 10:25@13 many great Bass players did not cut the mustard with the greatest guitarist of all….Blackmore….but apparently Glover did.
March 2nd, 2013 at 17:21Glenn and David sang beautifully together and I really like the vocal parts they shared. They sounded bigger together although neither of them had a voice that was as beautiful as Ian’s. Individually they couldn’t match his timbre to my ears. Glenn’s upper vocal range always was even bigger than Ian’s but it didn’t sound as good (although close enough).
Later on during the last months of Mark III and throughout the Mark IV period I thought that Glenn totally went over the top. But that’s what drugs do. Today Glenn still got this enormous voice. Just listen to the BCC stuff and to “Highway Star” on the Machine Head tribute album. I was blown away by that. Who wouldn’t?!
When listening to Purple’s tracks before Glenn joined the band, I can’t deny what he said about Roger. He was neither a (backing-) singer nor a similar bass player. He indeed followed the riffs most of the time and played simple and straight forward. But there’s nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, that’s how the songs were built up. The groove of Mark III is different. The song “Burn” is (to me) the best opening track Deep Purple has ever written, even slightly better than “Highway Star”, because it has these extremely good drum and singing parts. One can argue what guitar/organ solos are better but both tracks are outstanding, no question.
March 2nd, 2013 at 22:57al @ 16 – I know what you meant, so many of us get peeved at times with the Hughes carrying on over the top. The real disappointment for me more recently regarding Hughes lead vocal, was the Iommi Fused album. I tried listening to it again only a few weeks back, but I cannot handle Hughes nasally, whining type of vocal on the verse sections of the songs! It is beyond irritating to say the least, he is great on the chorus & sounds like Hughes of old. But who or what was he trying to sound like with the verse sections in each song? A few other people I know who listened to it were appalled as well, & they are bigger Hughes fan than I am. They don’t listen to the album either for the same reason I cannot! He destroyed the songs in a way by doing that!
March 2nd, 2013 at 23:31cyclone @ 18 – I remember Glover himself saying he didn’t think a lot of his bass playing abilities, on a rock (Machine Head classic albums) dvd documentary perhaps. He is more there for his songwriting & production values, it just happens to help that he is a solid bass player & gets the job done also! The great or outstanding bass players are Jack Bruce, Geddy Lee, John Entwistle, Chris Squire, Tony Levin & on & on & on we could go! A busy bass player doesn’t ‘fit’ in Deep Purple or Rainbow, It isn’t the type of music that requires full on bass playing, meaning the progressive jazz influenced lead sort of playing! Just my opinion. Cheers.
I always thought Glenn was the wrong choice for DP because his influences(soul,rb.funk) were completely alien to the kind of band Deep purple were in the 70s.
March 2nd, 2013 at 23:35BUT, the blame has to be with DP, because they chose him after seeing him w/Trapeze on numerous occasions.
It’s hard to believe the band didn’t realize how much his musical influences would affect his playing and singing.
On the other hand, Glenn should have recognized that DP were first and foremost a hard rock band and amended his style somewhat to fit in with Deep Purple’s type of music.
Listening to “Holy Man’ and “Can’t do it right with the one you love”, I can’t believe they made it on to a DP record,(Stormbringer)!
Just an amendment to my previous comment:
I understand why some of you literally wait in the starting blocks to critise Glenn’s attitude towards other musicians, especially Purple for that matter. Although I stated before that in principle Glenn is right about Roger not being a singer or a bass player of similar style, I also get the feeling that he pigeonholes Roger to a certain extent which isn’t a good thing to do with any musician (or human being). I don’t know if he really intended to minimize Roger’s contribution to Purple or as a musician but, to be honest, I wouldn’t put everything he says on a scale. Keep in mind that Glenn is one of the best rock singers about and also is a fine bass player. There are many other musicians with an even bigger ego who couldn’t compete with him on any level musically.
March 3rd, 2013 at 17:3218
I read Blackmore asked Craig Gruber way back to sound more like Roger Glover.
March 4th, 2013 at 10:12i’m a great fan of EVERY Deep Purple incarnation. …well, not including the 1980 bogus version… 😉
March 6th, 2013 at 09:49it seems to me, as if GH would like to work with DP again, even if there is no “reunion” possible. as far as i know, he was involved in those rumours a few years ago, when the late JL was doing several projects and guest appearances.
now, it doesnt’t matter what he’s up to, neither with prominent fellows like Tony Iommi, with Chad Smith, nore the “all-star line-up” in B.C.C. – he cannot bring back the success he had in his purple days and he cannot turn back the time to “re-live” his lost years (late ’70s to 1990).
sad but true.
there’s no need to argue about his personal abilities. but there’s also no need picking on RG. like others said before: different styles of playing, that’s all.
…AND Roger is comfortable with a “backing role”, not being in the focus of interest as a person. i love his production work on “Abandon”, but he prefers to step back and recruit personal from outside.
GH is more kind of front man. in Germany we might call it “rampensau”. 😉
well, hopefully Glenn keeps on doing fine music, whether solo or with prominent assistance.
cheers.
?AAAAARRRRRHHHHHH!
Man, I just happened to stop in here to see if anything new had been written and when that horrid picture of Glenn Hughes popped up first, I was immediately awakened as to what may be the problem….
Did he actually look in the mirror before that pic was taken and say to himself…”Yes, that looks great”?
Dude, you definitely need a total makeover while BCC is in hiatus. New guitarist and New Hughes. Actually, this made me think of the perfect guitarist who can also sing and would be quite the attraction. PRINCE! Hell of a jammer and the perfect compliment to the Hughes look. I‘m actually not kidding about the Prince thing. Check out his solo at about 3:30 in the clip below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y
CheerZ?!
March 20th, 2013 at 16:00