Glenn Hughes, the former bassist, and singer of Deep Purple is getting ready to hit the road across the UK with his ‘Glenn Hughes Performs Classic Deep Purple Live – Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the album Burn’ throughout October 2023.
Over the last couple of years, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee has been fronting supergroup The Dead Daisies. However, the legendary figure has recently turned his attention back to his own projects and creative outlets. “I’ve gone back to playing with my own band again,” he says. “I’m halfway through a Black Country Communion album. So, I’ve been very busy. And the rest of the year is going to be the same.”
Glenn Hughes recently headlined one of the nights of the inaugural Maid of Stone festival in Kent. This being a precursor to his full headline UK tour later in the year. Coming back to his homeland is something the artist relishes. “I’ve been living in LA for 50 years. But coming back to Britain is a high point for me. I’ve got a great fan base that are very enthusiastic. I mean, I’ve got young fans and older fans. It’s a huge conglomeration of love. To return to my homeland is always an honour,” confirms Glenn.
Being able to celebrate the music of Deep Purple MKIII and MKIV is something that the Voice of Rock endeavours to do in each of his live shows. But in this upcoming tour, Glenn will be focusing entirely on that period of his career. “I’ve always tried to do a couple of Purple songs in my show. I started doing the classic Deep Purple live shows in 2018. Then I joined the Dead Daisies in 2019. For me, it was an opportunity to honour those songs particularly,” he says. “Now the Burn album is 50 years old, I play arrangements from the Made in Europe era, the real dynamic arrangements that we did with Jon [Lord] and Ritchie [Blackmore]. So, it’s more of an honour to play that kind of arrangement rather than just the album tracks. It’s kind of a sacrilegious moment to honour 1974, if you will.
The recording of Deep Purple’s seminal album Burn ushered in a new era for the legendary rock group. “I joined the band in May of 73. So, let’s just say in the summer of 73. David [Coverdale] joined in early September. We found ourselves in Clearwell Castle with no songs. We went down into the crypt and wrote the Burn album together,” recollects Glenn. “Five guys in the room, all chipping in with ideas. And what you got was the Burn album. Then we went to Switzerland to record it. We were a brand-new band. When you’ve got two new guys in a band of five, it’s considered a new band. David and I bought fresh blood, as you can imagine. I thought we were firing on all cylinders back then.”
Strangely the title track of the album was the last song to be recorded for the release. “We had written about seven songs and Blackmore said, we don’t have an opening track. He thought we didn’t have it. He said, why don’t we write a song about burns? The working title was called Burn,” he says. “We were down the pub, and we walked back to the castle. We went down into the crypt around 11.30pm and within two hours, we’d wrote Burn. It was one of those moments where it was written in the sand. I just think it was preordained for us to come back from the pub, go down into the crypt pretty drunk and write that. It just wrote itself.”
Perhaps a lot of artists will agree that their best work comes together very fast. “Some of my best work is written really quickly and very clearly. That’s the best work you can do,” says Glenn. “I’m not wanting to sit around writing a song for two or three days. I write my songs immediately as they come to me. I do write a lot on my own by the way as you know, but I write from the heart. I don’t do anything other than write from the heart.”
But how did it feel for Glenn to be stepping into the shows of Roger Glover and Ian Gillan at that time. “I was the lead singer in Trapeze. They asked me to join Purple as a singing bass player. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have joined,” explains Hughes. “When you hear the Burn album, or Stormbringer, David and I had a really good vocal relationship. There were never any problems. So, I guess what David and I brought into the band was fresh new ideas. We weren’t trying to replace Roger and Ian. I don’t sound like Roger, and David doesn’t sound like Ian. So, I thought it was a very honourable thing to do.”
One of the first shows that Deep Purple played together with that line-up was the legendary California Jam. An event that attracted around 250,000 people. The show was memorable in more ways than one. “The thing about that show is that the festival was running ahead of schedule, so they wanted us to go on early. Ritchie was very upset about that. He was really, really angry,” recollects Glenn. “What you got was a very p*ssed off Blackmore, and you got real aggression from all of us. There’s no danger in rock and roll anymore, there’s none. But with Deep Purple and The Who, in 1973, you got a lot of danger. We all could have died that that night because we didn’t know how much petrol he shoved on the amps. It was very dangerous.”
In terms of the format of Glenn’s upcoming tour, it’s all about the music of classic Deep Purple. “We really do go for the sound of Purple. If we’re going to do a show like this, you’ve got to have Hammond, you’ve got to have a Stratocaster, you got to have a Fender Precision. It’s got to sound like the band. That’s why I’m doing it. I can’t be putting too much of a Glenn spin to all of this. But of course, I do certain things that are Glenn-ish. But we’re honouring the mid 70s Deep Purple. So that’s why I’m honouring that sound,” he says.
Classic Deep Purple aside, Glenn Hughes has been working on the new Black Country Communion album. When the supergroup featuring Glenn’s colleagues Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian come together magic happens in the studio. “I have a deep respect for all of these guys,” says Glenn. “Jason and I have known each other a long time. I was best friends with his dad. I’ve known Jason since he was in nappies. Joe and I were writing before Black Country Communion. So, I have a great relationship with these guys. When we get in the studio, Joe and I pretty much write all the songs and then we get together. Then we have really a quick run through. We do a song a day, and the song is learned in the studio. We record the song three or four times then we edit what is the best way to go about it. We made the album in about six days. I haven’t sung it yet, but I’ll be singing it in the next couple of weeks.”
For the remainder of the year Glenn Hughes will be on the road. “I start my North American tour in New Jersey on the 16th of August, and it runs to the end of September. Then I fly to Sau Paulo with Matt Sorum, Gilby Clarke, Robert DeLeo and Steve Stevens to do a Kings of Chaos show. Then I come home for two days, and I fly to the UK to start my tour in Holmfirth, Yorkshire. At the end of that tour, I think I finish in Manchester, and I have a day off, but I fly to Brazil to do my South American tour.”
Glenn Hughes will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Burn throughout the UK in October 2023. Special guests are The Damn Truth. For ticket information and further details please visit: https://www.glennhughes.com/.
Words by Adam Kennedy
Photo Credit: Eric Duvet
