GLENN HUGHES

GLENN HUGHES Talks About Being Scouted By DEEP PURPLE - "I Would Not Have Joined If I Couldn't Have Sang"




GLENN HUGHES (BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, ex-DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH) spoke with Matthew Parker from MusicRadar
recently about a number of topics including being scouted by Deep
Purple in the '70s while he was toiling with TRAPEZE. Here are a few
excerpts from the chat:


MusicRadar: What was it about your playing that made you a good fit for Deep Purple in the early '70s?


Hughes: "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."


MusicRadar: What were you offering that they weren't seeing in other bassists?


Hughes: "I think they were looking for a second singer - almost like
a partnership. They couldn't really ignore my voice. I would not have
joined, I wanna make this clear - and they know this - if I couldn't
have sang. Then when David came in, it was so easy to work those vocal
parts out. I really enjoyed the camaraderie onstage with those guys.
Early 'Purple was a pretty dangerous stage to be on. You never knew when
something was going to be thrown up in the air, or when something was
going to blow up, so the thing for me was to keep that groove going on
all the time - regardless of all the shenanigans onstage, bottles being
thrown or whatever."


Read more at MusicRadar.