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Doing nostalgia for Australians
In anticipation of his Australian tour, Glenn Hughes recently spoke to The Rockpit:
Andrew : How did you find working with Blackmore? At that stage he was moving more towards a classical style that has distinctively become his over the years.
Glenn : Ok Andrew, let’s talk Turkey here. The Holy Trinity, in my opinion of the early 70s, was Blackmore, Beck and Clapton and then of course, Tony Iommi. I joined the band with John Lord and Ian Pace and Blackmore, who was a very strong soloist as well. It was a different thing for me to do. As i mentioned to you before it worked because they didn’t want to replicate Mark II. Why would they want to have somebody sounding like Ian Gillan or somebody playing bass like Roger Glover? It wasn’t working to them any longer. David and I came in and refreshed the band.
Andrew : Working with a young unknown at that stage in David Coverdale what was that like? What did you find that he brought to the band and especially “Burn”?
Glenn : When he passed the audition they didn’t tell him for like two weeks they kept him waiting. When they did get a hold of him, David came down to see me at my house and we became very fast friends as we were going to be singing these songs together, so my friendship has been very good with him from all these years ago. He’s got a great voice, he is a funny guy and again Andrew, I think the vocal arrangement and the partnership we had vocally on the “Burn” album, “Stormbringer” and “Come Taste the Band” is exceptional.
Read more in The Rockpit.
In other Glenn related news, his former guitar player JJ Marsh is releasing a new album with a project The Master´s Brew, led by keyboard player Tomas Bodin (of The Flower Kings fame). The album is called Elixir, and you can find more information on bodinmusic.com.
Thanks to BraveWords for the heads-up on Glenn’s interview, and to Pär for the JJ news.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
JJ’s solos on GH records are great. I also like Bodin’s contributions to the Flower Kings, which bounce nicely off Roine Stolt’s songwriting and playing. Now, their new album is the real news for me as opposed to Glenn’s umpteenth take on what happened back in 1974. I was born in that year, never cared about Glenn’s opinions back then, do not care now.
October 4th, 2024 at 20:21Glenn told a sacrosanct truth: surely given the internal tensions in MKII, MKIII was a fresh change at the beginning, the peace was short-lived though…
October 4th, 2024 at 21:41Touring Australia again, sheesh it must be all the sunshine & everything else that keeps luring Glenn Hughes out here. Are there that many aficionados out here, well obviously there are & good on Hughes for travelling all this way, not many do for such small concerts, especially repeatedly. I wish he would come down to Van Dieman’s Land. I would most likely kick off me boots & attend. Sorry, Uwe, are you still there, Uwe, wake up, it wasn’t a dream, I did just say that. Hell Freezes Over & even Gregster may attend a concert if Hughes & his band played in Launceston. Sorry for all that shock Uwe. Just have a nice cup of tea & a little siesta, all will be fine. Cheers.
October 4th, 2024 at 22:09Nice interview.
Flash thought: Couldn’t der liebe Gregster go to one of those spoken word shows and casually ask Glenn why he single-handedly ruined Mk III’s and Mk IV’s live performances with all his screaming and was also responsible for Tommy falling into a drug hell? I’d like to hear the answers to that. 😂
Seriously, when I hear Glenn say that no one in the Purple camp saw Tommy’s addiction issues coming, I always take that with a grain of salt (though Jon and DC have said the same over the years again and again). I think one phone call with Dale Peters or Jim Fox of the James Gang or with ex-Energy Stanley Sheldon (at that point in Peter Frampton’s band) would have been enough – and if they wouldn’t have spilled the beans immediately, then you can still hear between the lines of an answer to a question like “Can we reliably take Tommy on a one year tour around the world in huge venues and will he not fall apart if we do?” By Miami (the second James Gang album from 1974), Tommy’s addictions were well out of control, which was a reason why the rest of the James Gang were not too distraught about his departure, they could see where this was going.
Moreover, heroin addiction is not incurable, physically you can get someone off smack pretty quick (quicker than with most other similar drugs), it’s the psychological addiction that lingers, that longing for the heroin high that is supposed to feel like an hours-long orgasm, all warm and cozy (that’s what I’ve heard, I’ve never tried it, it’s a description Steven Tyler once made, himself a smack junkie for decades).
Of course, heroin wasn’t Tommy’s sole demon, no drug was really ever safe from him, he was a multiple-addictive personality.
October 4th, 2024 at 22:12I’m happy if you go, Herr MacGregor, seriously. I’d like to hear what you think of his bass playing live. As a drummer you should have a real ear for it (and he’s well up in the mix! 😂).
October 4th, 2024 at 23:30@ 4 – I agree Uwe in regards to the other Deep Purple members not ‘knowing’ about potential Tommy Bolin issues. However if certain members themselves had issues, the obvious nature of proceedings can get rather delayed or become cloudy, for want of a better description. So ploughing on with the band was the number one agenda, before anything else & then the old British attitude of ‘chin up’ is naturally invoked. Let’s get on with it chaps, etc etc. Cheers.
October 4th, 2024 at 23:51MacGregor @3, I echo Uwe……you might really like what you hear. He’s playing in St. Kilda (Melbourne) on the 12th of this month….it’s only a short ferry ride away! I’ve seen Glenn play several times in small venues….he’s gives it 110% every time.
October 5th, 2024 at 00:58Yo,
Herr Uwe asked…
qt.”Couldn’t der liebe Gregster go to one of those spoken word shows and casually ask Glenn why he single-handedly ruined Mk III’s and Mk IV’s live performances with all his screaming and was also responsible for Tommy falling into a drug hell ?… I’d like to hear the answers to that”…. 😂
*** Oh, I don’t have to go to a show my friend ! GH reveals all & then some within the DVD “Phoenix Rising”…In fact one doesn’t even have to read-between-the-lines with anything in that DVD, it’s all plane-obvious, & everything hangs-out, at least from GH’s POV, if one can endure the prolonged revelations & total GH self-indulgence.
And then one only needs to listen to the Mk-III & Mk-IV DP ( overseas) live series releases to get the full picture… The other band-member comments over-the-years simply add icing & strawberry’s to the cake…The trick to getting through it all is to eat a little at a time, & edit-out the GH addendum within the live albums released.
I dig what he’s doing touring live, & many fans will be pleased, but I have no need to see a show, especially when I recall the torture of enduring the GH addendum already heard in my life-time. It would be worse than going to see a dentist for multiple emergency stage-1 or 2 root-canal-treatments, so *uck that yo !
Also, anyone that’s been to hospital & needed “general anaesthetic” to ease-the-pain will have a very-good idea of what opium is all about, & how truly-awesome the effects are. Aware people realize its better left for medical treatment however, though there’s nothing wrong with being surprised at receiving some opium-blended-hashish in one’s younger daze, & enjoying the moment lol !
It’s a cruel world indeed, & tragic that Tommy fell-over-the-edge…Once one is lucky enough to move through those phases of life, a better POV & experience can be had for sure, but to expand on here, is beyond the scope of the thread…But cigarettes provide a great example of that addiction type, & when you work at sea for months at a time & everyone runs-out-of-them, you soon realize that not smoking doesn’t kill you, & its actually easier to drop the habit than one may think. Mind over matter, & maybe 2-3 nights of restless sleep as your body expels the toxins, & you’re set after that, if you choose to be.
Adonai vasu !
October 5th, 2024 at 01:14DP “Dynasty”
October 5th, 2024 at 08:27At the end of the DP Mk IV journey 1975… soap operas happened… Hughes kidnapped Bolin’s girlfriend, Glenn’s girlfriend ended up with Jon Lord, and her twin sister got into a relationship with Ian Paice.
Glenn is (as I’ve said before) a hero of mine, a gifted musician and vocalist who at times operates in the same sphere as Chris Cornell… which imho is high praise. I’ve caught him live many times, and feel he now strikes a wonderful balance between the sublime and the ridiculous… granted the late period MK3 into 4 shows are sometimes a little hard to listen to, but that’s not all on Glenn… David’s voice was shredded, Blackers at times disinterested, or Tommy just plain woeful… why single out Glenn? who by his own admission wasn’t exactly on the same planet as most of his during those indulgent screaming moments.
When he reaches for the stratosphere these days, it’s at the right times and doesn’t detract from the performance… indeed it defines him somewhat and (for me) is a part of his soul that he needs to display for it to be a true GH show… Personally I love him for it, and (especially at his age) he blows his contemporaries out of the venue and straight into the local retirement village.
Hughes far from ruined Purps, he took them to places they’d have never gone otherwise… awesome diversions for a band that sounded so different during the MK2 days… a logical progression perhaps, but not one that would have been possible without the Hughes/Coverdale axis… it’s made the band more interesting, more diverse… it’s strengthened the legacy not destructed from it… no Hughes, no Bolin… no awesome CTTB… I’d much rather Glenn had added his contribution to the history of this wonderful band…
October 5th, 2024 at 09:11@10: Exactly! Thanks for writing exactly what I think but am too lazy to write. Very true, every word.
October 5th, 2024 at 09:19@11 thanks Svante… apologies for the typos, should say: “detracted from it…”(not destructed lol) “planet as us” … that’s what an impassioned rant brings about !
Rock on 🤘
October 5th, 2024 at 09:37RB had checked out by WDTWA, and the fire was no longer there. Enter GH and DC and we got a new band, which would only get better on Stormbringer. RB had his eyes set on Rainbow by then, which isn’t really noticeable, given that Hold On has one of his finest solos and the musicianship and arrangements were classier than ever. Then there’s CTTB with the best bass sound and drumming on any DP album. The rest of the guys knew what they were doing when they asked DC, GH and Bolin to join.
October 5th, 2024 at 11:06Hey, if y‘all start liking him, I‘ll stop! 😂
To his defense: Glenn and Karen Ulibarri didn’t become an item (they eventually married and she became Karen Hughes) until after the MK IV split. Tommy and Karen (still on the Private Eyes cover) had split after ages together – Tommy’s addictions played a role – and she getting together with Glenn (fresh from a relationship with Linda Blair) had Tommy’s blessing, he in fact told Glenn “to watch over her”. Glenn’s and Karen’s marriage would not last though, I believe to remember from his bio that both of them could not have stopped their coke habits had they stayed together.
October 5th, 2024 at 11:22Ivica, I always thought that all that wife- and gf-swapping with DP showed good communal band spirits, aren’t all dressing room amenities meant to be shared?
Ouch. I know, Karin, that was terrible, an abyss of sexist and misogynistic depravity really. I’m a moral cesspool.
But I couldn’t resist! Ivica made me do it. 😂
October 5th, 2024 at 12:37Iommi’s Fused & 1996 Dep Sessions remastered were washed upon my doorstep from the Amazon.
It is time for penance. I never really liked Fused, that nu-metallish sub-Pantera stuff Iommi plays on that album …
But, but, but … I now marvel at the vocal melodies Glenn could still conjure from this brutal riffage, he was really creative. Mind you, the album is still unfunky as hell, but Glenn has explained that only recently in an interview when he said that he leaves his funk fedora at home when he writes with Iommi because the Birmingham Godfather simply doesn’t have that in him.
There is a bonus track called Let It Down Easy that sounds like a twin to the Sabs’ Hot Line on Born Again, mind-numbingly stupid, but great at the same time. I am a man of simple tastes.
https://youtu.be/bbvEJzotvKU
And then there is another track where Glenn does so many melismas towards the end it sounds like he is applying for a job as a Pink Floyd chick background singer. 😂
https://youtu.be/J9Xuack_kq4
Now for the remaster … It sounds crisper and they’ve turned up Glenn’s vocals quite a bit, maybe that is why they have caught my attention more than 19 years ago when this was first released. Recommended.
Haven’t heard the 1996 Dep Sessions yet.
October 5th, 2024 at 16:39What a secretive closet Hughesian Svante is. When I needed his help most against the dark forces here, he was nowhere to be found.
https://youtu.be/hsDyrZVqipA
October 5th, 2024 at 21:22#10 Kosh
can you explain the parallel between Glenn & Chris Cornell, because I struggle to understand it?
thanks
#13 Daniel
October 6th, 2024 at 01:35Does Hold On really contain one of Ritchie’s best solos?
the man in black said several times that that song made him want to vomit and in protest he played a solo with only one finger on each hand, instead of using all of them!!!
he said it was his way of protesting…amazing!
Now listening to the 1996 Dep Sessions, also a crisp remaster with Glenn’s vocals to the forefront. Unsurprisingly, this album is much closer to what the two are known for, i.e. Trapeze circa Medusa era and Black Sabbath somewhere around Vol. 4. The album has a real late 60s/early 70s vibe, as if Tony Iommi had joined fellow Brummies Trapeze for a short spell. Nice. The album sounds perhaps more relaxed and less forced than the “we’re gonna make this sound modern” Fused, yet it is much more inspired than the Seventh Star opus which I found almost reactionary and a bit dull when it came out in the 80s. I know, it is loved by many.
PS: Tony invented the diminished fifth interval to all intents and purposes for pop music when he wrote Black Sabbath, but does that mean he has to somehow squeeze it into every little riff like he does on this album just to show what a demonic badass he is? 🤣 Satan will claim his soul as a lump sum royalty! 😈
October 6th, 2024 at 03:33Check out Glenn’s bass playing on opening track Gone. The groove master in action 🙂 Many rumours circulating when it comes to Ritchie and Hold On, that he played the solo with a screwdriver etc. Anyone can hear that is not the case. Regardless, it’s a great solo.
October 6th, 2024 at 11:28#18
I’d say it’s a latter day timbre more than his early years… I heard a BCC track the other day, and I heard it then… I hear it in his voice live (again, now his voice has matured and his performance with it) at times… it’s not a constant thing, but an edge where I hear Cornell … I could imagine Glenn singing Fell on Black Days and him utterly slaying it…
Ultimately two of the greatest singers of all time, and Glenn has got better with age, wisdom, judgement… alas, we won’t get to hear Chris mature 🙁
October 6th, 2024 at 11:52Yeah, Glenn doing this… I can hear it… I’d love it:
https://youtu.be/ySzrJ4GRF7s?si=QQynQBKbk4fmLei1
October 6th, 2024 at 11:59#21 Kosh
I have never found any similarity between Glenn and Chris, but it could be…
October 6th, 2024 at 13:36I think it depends on the type of composition Glenn has to sing, if you listen to Coffe&Vanilla it’s a whole other atmosphere, there is the area of his myth, Stevie Wonder
Glenn is certainly the only ex-DP member with a sizable Grunge influence in his music post-early-90ies. Though I have never been a fan of theirs, I think both the harmonies in Soundgarden and in Audioslave would have appealed to him, just right up his alley.
The solo on Hold On is one of the great moments of Blackmore‘s off-the-cuff brilliance. The way it develops and moves over the full chord structure of the song, setting new highlights whenever you think it is just about to finish, is breathtaking. Even my Jimmy Page and Slash loving son has conceded “that is incredibly clever and to the point”.
October 6th, 2024 at 15:01@ 19 – “Satan will claim his (Iommi’s) soul as a lump sum royalty! 😈 Will? He already has, the moment Iommi & or Geezer stumbled upon that already existing chord. Things like that happen instantly Uwe! Selling your soul to the devil etc. Remember Faust & his pact with the devil, ‘I will give it to you, but at a cost’. Cheers. Below are a few takes on the ‘diminished fifth’ & we were here with this not that long ago. Cheers.
https://www.fender.com/articles/chords/the-devils-chord-the-eerie-history-of-diabolus-in-musica
https://medium.com/@michaelkaulkin/what-is-a-tritone-and-what-isn-t-it-a675c4f1bf02
October 6th, 2024 at 21:44You know something is VERY wrong when drummers start talking intervals!
🤣😂🤣
October 7th, 2024 at 19:47Yo,
@25…
Those articles were pretty lame. Sensationalism only…
1. The b5 or #11 is the bluest note one can play, if you’re playing the blues according to popular opinion from noted musicians that were asked lol.
2. The position of this note (s) splits an octave precisely in 1/2.
3. When viewing the wheel, C is at 12-‘o-clock, Gb / F# is at 6-‘o-clock.
4. There’s no such thing as the devil. Only you can create him / it in your mind.
5. Anything to do with religion regretfully means that you’re allowing yourself to be pulled into that way of brainwashing.
6. The Dominant 7th chord is the most musical chord, as it allows for the most varied amount of scales to be played over it, simply because of its building blocks being a Major 3rd interval, followed by 2 x successive minor 3rd intervals. ( Within an octave ).
7. The interval between the 3rd & the 7th of a Dominant 7th chord is the #11 / b5 interval. It’s what gives it its sound, & is found everywhere throughout music.
I’ve posted this information countless times now, I wonder how many more times will be necessary before it sinks in lol !
Adonai vasu !
October 8th, 2024 at 14:07Never thought about it before, but yes, latter-day Glenn does sound a bit like Chris Cornell.
When Soundgarden first came out, always thought Chris sounded a lot like David Coverdale.
October 8th, 2024 at 21:39I didn’t publish those articles. And to think it was Frank that queried, ‘does humour belong in music’. The devil is in the detail indeed. Cheers.
October 8th, 2024 at 21:53@28 & @24… Well said… it’s a timbre – a slightly more gravel toned Soul Mover onwards Hughes that suggests Cornell to my ears…
The BCC song I heard on the radio (didn’t get the title) really hammered this home…
I’d love to hear Glenn have a crack at some of the more suitable Soundgarden tunes, like I said – he’d add something similar but different to the stoner/downbeat vibe. Never going to happen I know, but one can but daydream.
October 9th, 2024 at 12:17Talking about someone who must have sold his soul to get away with so many awful things, endorsed by his wife, …..
Because for some weird reason the Hall of Shame decided to induct him for the 2nd time I followed some threads and learned he once shot 17 of their cats.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/tragic-day-ozzy-osbourne-shot-17-cats/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGFClNleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQYjlYQI238Od-_sI8E0EBdLmyKhdrCKGl0_80dlrE4zoDJlNj8WThxLCQ_aem_f091JY6MLsAGldQkt2rPjQ
OZZY fans never seem to mind how much he robs off others and even this fact did not make them leave the hail Ozzy church.
This 2nd induction reeks of politics.
Hell, no Dio or Rainbow in there, not to mention all the other greats.
I m still unsettled the Purps, esp Glenn bowed to this shit institution.
I understood even Dolly Parton had the balls, no not them, to say no out of integrity?
October 22nd, 2024 at 22:50