- On the phone with Philip Anderson - Nov. 21, 2000
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- Amongst the many different groups of musicians and artists, there are the up-and-coming, the has-beens, the never-weres and the legends. Barring the phrase "dinosaur rock", there are a few musical legends out there who appear timeless and never seem to grow old. These are the musicians who have contributed over and over and never fail to provide fresh, updated ideas to their repertoires. One of these legends is the mythical Glenn Hughes.
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- Having joined the granddaddies of rock, Deep Purple, at a very young age (for being in such a supergroup), the then-bassist, brought his spunk to the band while learning a lot of the ropes from his older peer counterparts. He had been a member of Trapeze before that, which featured several prominent musicians in its own right, and since leaving Deep Purple, has been in and out of some grandiose projects - half of which included his own name in the titling. This was only proper since Glenn has left quite a legacy on the sound of rock while still churning out new concepts in his foray for the "perfect" rock songs. Of course, he is known more for his singing, although his bass playing has left its mark, Glenn has certainly mastered his domain.
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- As he has a new album out, "Return Of Crystal Karma", we thought we'd give him a proper chatting to see what was going on with his current career, while catching up with his past for those who aren't so familiar with his name (and it is readily out there). Glenn is quite friendly as well as knowledgeable about who's who in the industry. This is not some "classic rocker" who is ready to lie down any time soon. He's got the voice, he's got the gusto and now we've got some words from him to share.
 K2K: You've been in the business quite a while now. When did you actually get started?
- GH: Oh, I think my first instrument was - I was playing in the school orchestra when I was 11, trombone, of course, but it wasn't pop music, it was classical. My parents bought me my first classic "Elvis Presley" guitar when I was about 12. That was it. I got an acoustic guitar when I was 13 and an electric guitar when I was 14. I played with my little friends in my garage, in my mom and dad's house. Then it was a band, a school band, called The Intruders.
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- K2K: How old were you then?
- GH: Fourteen. No, 13. Wait a minute, I was 11. Twelve. I was 13. (He finally settles on the answer.) In 1964, I was 13.
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- K2K: So you started off doing instruments before singing?
- GH: Absolutely. I was a guitar player first and then I started playing classical piano at school. I joined a band to play bass because the guitar player, he was my idol, he said bass player was leaving. I was always in bands that were five or six or seven years older than I was. I was still at school and I had the chance to play bass. The rest is history.
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- K2K: I never realized how young you actually are, in comparison with a lot of people whom you've played with.
- GH: Well, you know, some of the guys were, like, ten years older than I was.
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- K2K: But, in looking at the Hughes/Thrall album that I have, you look like a kid on there.
- GH: Thank you.
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- K2K: How many bands have you actually been in?
- GH: Well, the school band, Trapeze and Deep Purple. Then a little bit in [Black] Sabbath. Just a few. I've had my own bands for quite a long time now. You know, my career has been spotty because there was about fifteen years there were I wasn't really doing a lot of anything, just basically sitting around getting high and stuff.
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- K2K: What's the chronology here?
- GH: I formed Trapeze right out of school.
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- K2K: That was in 1969?
- GH: Exactly! How did you know that?
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- K2K: I learned how to read - and then do fact checking. (laughs) After that you joined Deep Purple. When was that?
- GH: April. May or April of 1973.
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- K2K: You were on "Burn" and "Stormbringer"?
- GH: "Burn", "Stormbringer", "Come Taste The Band", "Made In Europe" and "Made In Japan Part II". "Made In Europe" and "Made In Japan" are live.
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- K2K: Here's a question from a fan. On the Deep Purple album, "Burn", were those real candles that were made for you or were those just props?
- GH: Real. I found them at an auction about five years ago. They were going for a ridiculous amount of money. They were candles that were made. They were beautiful.
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- K2K: How come you guys never ended up with them?
- GH: Well, they got lost. Somebody found them at an auction about five years ago, at some rocker auction, and got them.
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- K2K: How much were they going for?
- GH: I haven't got a clue, but somebody told me about that.
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- K2K: How would you even know if they were the authentic candles?
- GH: You don't know.
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- K2K: After Deep Purple, what did you do then?
- GH: I did a solo album called "Play Me Out", which was so un-Purple sounding. I was the first guy out of Purple to make a solo album. I'd just come off of this world tour. All these people who knew Glenn Hughes knew that I was extremely into R&B and funk. The album I made after Deep Purple was a very, very heavily American R&B soul-based album. Funky. It blew a lot of people's minds. It got incredible reviews but some people who don't understand that [style] hated it. To me, it was the most natural thing for me to do. I am a writer and I have never been stuck for writing.
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- I want to say something about Deep Purple. They have really helped me over the years. They paid all my bills. It's been a great, great life. I want to thank them for it, but I couldn't express myself totally in Deep Purple because I was advancing very quickly as a songwriter. When I listen to Deep Purple albums, since I left the band, they're sort of stuck in a time warp. All I can say is that I can't be playing with somebody, or writing with somebody, who's not going to grow.
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- K2K: It's kind of funny that I have been noticing something. Fans, they're kind of funny. On one side, you need them, but on the other side, they sometimes don't want to let you move.
- GH: No. I've got a fan base now who are understanding the R&B blend.
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- K2K: Right. If you have a fan base who appreciate you for your creativity alone, it's a lot better than, say, a Deep Purple fan who doesn't like you because you now refuse to "be" Deep Purple.
- GH: Right.
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- K2K: So, how was your time with Deep Purple?
- GH: It was really good. I learned so much. We did four world tours. We were on the road a lot and we recorded a lot. It was very, very hectic and I learned a lot in that period. I became an entertainer. I had been writing for a few years before then, but I certainly found out how to sing since we did a lot of shows.
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- K2K: You were 21 when you started with them?
- GH: That's correct.
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- K2K: You were just a young pup then.
- GH: I was.
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- K2K: I had read on a message board post that Ritchie Blackmore had had some animosity towards you. Is that true?
- GH: No, I don't think so. When I joined the group, he knew that I was a singing bass player and he also knew that I was funky. Ritchie Blackmore, bless him, and I'm not being - wait until I've said this - Ritchie Blackmore doesn't have a soulful bone in his body as far as music. He doesn't really, but then again, I have to take that back because on "Stormbringer" he played really funky. He doesn't like Black American R&B soul music. He calls it "shoeshine music". So we had a bit of a difference there. I think that I may have been the catalyst as to why he left the group. He just couldn't stand "Stormbringer", the album. He couldn't stand it and the influence that I ended up in the band was very strong as far as, we brought a lot of R&B soul into it. Deep Purple were never an R&B group, they were a heavy metal group. In the 70s, you had Led Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple, Yes, Pink Floyd and none of it was really heavy metal. Black Sabbath was heavy metal.
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- K2K: Even though by today's standards they were just hard rock.
- GH: That's right. Metallica are a pop band, and a good one too.
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- K2K: That's interesting that you would say that. I never thought of them as heavy metal, except for the first album, maybe. I always thought they were hard rock.
- GH: But I must say, and I'm going to jump on a limb here because I'm a really nice chap, but I think a lot of the music I hear today is so atrocious as far as the content and the singing and as far as everybody cloning each other. There should be only one Kid Rock and there should be only one Limp Bizkit and there should be only one Chili Peppers. I like to think of it as just bubblegum, really.
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- K2K: I've been preaching that for years. Now, these days, if something sounds good, the record companies jump on with "Great! Let's make ten more of that." It's funny that back then you wouldn't be allowed to record ten or so albums in a year, but these days there are at least ten or twenty albums of the same sound coming out per year. It's an odd mentality.
- GH: I don't listen to it very much. When I'm on tour, I sometimes have to listen to it on the radio. It's greatly produced. All this music sounds really good, but as far as the songs and the content and the vocals - I'm a singer. I'm sorry if I'm getting old but, where the fuck are all the good singers these days? What I'm saying is, Chris Cornell was the only cat, in the 90s, that I thought was going to come a kick my ass.
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- K2K: Who sounded like who? Robert Plant.
- GH: Right. A little bit, yeah. As far as I'm concerned, I'm still waiting for a guy to come and kick my ass totally and it's not happened. And believe me, I want it to because I want to get scared.
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- K2K: In speaking of your voice, you have a very unique vocal style. Did you work at it?
- GH: Thank you. You're going to have to take this as it comes, it is a gift. This comes not from me, it comes from a higher power. I have been given this gift to sing. I'm going to tell you some things that might be freaky, but I think when I'm in the studio, or on stage, I just open my mouth and breathe and close my eyes and it just comes out. I don't know where it comes from. I did a concert last February, in 1999, where I - and this is no joke, it's going to sound iffy-ish - but I left my body and, I tell you what, I sang some shit that was so amazing that it was unbelievable. I don't know where it came from. It was beautiful. I've been clean and sober for about ten years, so it wasn't drugs or alcohol.
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- K2K: Well, whatever works is what matters. But you definitely have a style that doesn't sound like anybody else.
- GH: I try not to. I think earlier on in my career I sounded a bit like the R&B American guys, a bit like Wilson Pickett, and definitely like Stevie Wonder. And you know, that's OK because I tip my hat to those chaps. When I was 14, people were listening to the Stones and the Beatles and the Kinks, in England, while I was listening to Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Al Green and people like that. That's where I come from. I mix British hard rock with American soul.
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- K2K: Well, that's where all the best music used to come from anyway.
- GH: While Robert Plant and Paul Rodgers were listening to the blues, I was listening to more Motown and Memphis, and Detroit.
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- K2K: About your new album - It was very refreshing in how you've maintained the sensibilities of older styles but you are up-to-date.
- GH: I think so. I wanted to incorporate Hammond as well as regular Fender guitar and bass and not so many synths. I wanted to be very big sounding on the drums, almost like a 70s thing. I didn't want it to be a lot of pretty changes. I wanted it to be more "in your face". I've got a lot of different chord changes that don't apply to rock.
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- K2K: Have you heard the latest Frank Marino [Mahogany Rush] album? It's full of everything from alternative to heavy blues to jazz... I'm sure it would throw some people off.
- GH: How is it?
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- K2K: I think it's brilliant. I think that a collaboration between the two of you would be something special.
- GH: You know, I have a mutual friend of his who has been telling me this for years. I'll have to get a copy of that.
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- K2K: Yeah, you're vocal style and songwriting, compared to some stuff that he has been coming up with would be cool. Plus, you wouldn't have to be afraid to put in some of those changes that you were talking about.
- GH: I've only heard that one song of his, "Strange Dreams". I'm not familiar with Frank, but I know a lot of people who like him. So, just from that one song that I've just mentioned and you telling me that this chap is that good...
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- K2K: Back to Deep Purple for a moment. While you were in the band, was that with Ritchie Blackmore during the whole time?
- GH: Purple was started in 1968 and I joined in 1973. [Ritchie left] in 1975.
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- K2K: So you played with Tommy Bolin then?
- GH: Yes I did.
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- K2K: One of the most phenomenal and underrated guitar players around. How was it playing with him?
- GH: He was brilliant, man. I have to tell you, he was brilliant.
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- K2K: Yeah, I have tried all I can to promote him and keep his memory alive.
- GH: Cool. He lived with me. Tommy was, like, I'd have to say like my brother. He was very, very cool.
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- K2K: I was hoping then that you could clear something up, since you knew him so well. In view of Tommy's passing and it being reported as a drug overdose, I have now recently read and been told that it pointed closer to a murder. I understand, from some people who knew him, that Tommy had never really heavy into drugs.
- GH: Not heavy. Like I told Rolling Stone Magazine and the FBI and everybody else... Listen, Tommy lived with me. I recreationally used drugs with him, but not heroin. We were hanging out together and Tommy wasn't into heroin. Maybe just a little, but I don't know. I was a bit naive, myself. Pretty much after he left Purple, he was dead.
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- I know for a fact that, the month he left Purple, his manager [Barry Fey] took a million dollar insurance out on him. And his manager sent out, on the road, a bodyguard [L.C. Clayton?] who had been a linebacker for the Denver Broncos - a 6'8" black guy. He used to inject Tommy with drugs. The night he died, seven people watched Tommy die. They were all too fucked up to call 911. When, in the morning, he was next to his girlfriend, dead and not breathing, she called the cops. They were all too fucked up. You know, you've got to understand that my girlfriend, at that time, was Tommy's ex-fiancee, so it was a double whammy for me. He died at 25 years old. I always thought there was a conspiracy, I tell you. At Tommy's funeral, Columbia record execs were all there talking about how there were going to "put together...". It was very sick.
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- [Editor's note: In the original police report, Clayton had stated that he found no needle marks on Bolin's arm. The coroner's office concluded finding four fresh needle marks, but no tracks. This indicated that Bolin was in fact not a junkie. All involved admit to not taking Bolin to the hospital in order to avoid bad publicity. Bolin died of suffocation from muscular arrest four hours after being put to bed.]
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- K2K: I understood the conspiracy involving Tommy telling the record company to fuck off and that he was going to audit them.
- GH: He did do that. I've said this a million times that I've been through all of this. I knew exactly what was going down and Tommy did not inject himself on the night he died. That, to me, should have been brought up.
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- K2K: Well that's murder right there.
- GH: Right there! It was never investigated properly.
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- K2K: I just wanted to get it cleared up from someone closer to Tommy.
- GH: I'm not looking for any kudos here, but I do do a lot of work with benefits and tributes. I did the live Tommy Bolin tribute record. I sang on it. You should get it.
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- K2K: Oh, I wanted to talk to you about Trapeze, which I know very little about. Educate me here.
- GH: Oh, that was a great band. Trio. It was a five-piece originally. I actually let a couple of the guys go and then played bass and sang lead vocals. The guitar player was Mel Galley who joined Whitesnake. The drummer was Dave Holland who later went on to play drums for Judas Priest. As a trio, we played America about five or six times. On the last tour, we were selling to about ten thousand, fifteen thousand people per night. That's when Deep Purple came and snagged me. They snagged me. They offered me too much money.
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- K2K: Well damn them! (laughing)
- GH: We were a cross between Grand Funk Railroad and The Police. It was very funky and musical. It was almost like Metallica with Prince singing lead vocals. Yeah. (laughs)
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- K2K: With you singing? Hmm... that is an odd visual.
- GH: Yeah, very odd. That's what it was like when I was in Sabbath. That's what Tony Iommi said.
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- K2K: Were you singing for Sabbath or playing bass?
- GH: I did one album and one tiny tour. Singing on "Seventh Star".
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- K2K: What's your recollection of that time? Was it worth doing? Was it fun to do?
- GH: Yeah, not really. It was a bad time for me. I did it as the Tony Iommi solo album and then Warner Bros. got greedy and called it Black Sabbath.
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- K2K: You're not the only Purple member to have played with Black Sabbath either. Ian Gillan sang with Sabbath too.
- GH: Right, right.
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- K2K: How was Tony Iommi to play with? Was he a dapper gentleman?
- GH: Fantastic. He was great! I have nothing but nice things to say about it.
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- K2K: That's what I had figured. Oh, tell me about Hughes/Thrall. How did you put that together?
- GH: I saw Pat Thrall playing with Pat Travers in 1981 and I stole him from the Pat Travers Band.
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- K2K: Have you ever played with Pat Travers as well?
- GH: Yeah. I'm actually making an album with him right now.
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- K2K: With Shrapnel?
- GH: No. Oh God, no! (laughs) We haven't got a deal yet. We're shopping a deal.
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- K2K: You're not doing another blues project album with him, are you?
- GH: No. We've been talking about it for a while. We're making a very intense, hard rock, funk album. It's got nothing to do with blues, it's total funk R&B. It's very, very hard. I'm basically producing it. It's a little bit more than Pat's used to.
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- K2K: Yeah, well his early albums were pretty rockin'.
- GH: Well this album that I'm doing with him, rocks!
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- K2K: I loved his earlier stuff and then he got into his organ and keyboards and that blew it for me at the time.
- GH: I understand that.
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- K2K: Have you worked with any other major bands?
- GH: I did a thing with Gary Moore, in England, for a while. That was very cool. It was around 1985.
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- K2K: Have you ever played any of the Day On The Greens in Oakland [California]?
- GH: Nope.
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- K2K: With all the people you've played with and you never had the chance to play one?
- GH: Never played one.
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- K2K: If you had a chance to play with any band around today, who would it be?
- GH: I do like Stone Temple Pilots. You know what it is about them? Number one, I think Scott Weiland is pretty cool, but I also think that the DeLeo brothers are fucking brilliant. Their writing is great. I love those two cats. The brothers - guitarist and bassist. Those two cats I relate to. I'd also love to do a record with Todd Rundgren.
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- K2K: Really? He just produced the new Bad Religion album.
- GH: Is that right?
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- K2K: So, aside from current bands, if you had a chance to put together your ultimate band - with musicians alive or dead - who would be in it?
- GH: Umm... bloody hell. I have to say I like the fat black guy that Prince had on drums about three years ago. I don't know what his name is. He's still playing with him, for the last eight years. Huge guy. On guitar, Jeff Beck. Bass, I'd have to say myself. Vocals, myself. Keyboards, who would I get for keyboards? I'd have to get... hmmm... (ponders it seriously). I don't know. Just the trio right there would be great, wouldn't it.
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- K2K: What style of music would you do?
- GH: All of it. A hybrid of styles.
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- K2K: Would you have a horn section?
- GH: Good idea! Of course it would have a horn section. Don't ask me who because I don't know. You're talking to a guy who's totally gone way past rock. I make records like the one you just got ["Return Of Crystal Kharma"]. My fan base loves it but there's so much more to music than just rock. I want to transcend this shit, man.
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- K2K: What about classical? Have you ever ventured into that?
- GH: Not really.
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- K2K: So you're more dance [funk] and feeling oriented?
- GH: It's all about the song and all about the notes you choose. I used to think lots and lots and lots of notes and now it's the tone of the voice that is most important.
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- K2K: It's like George Carlin said, regarding blues though, "It's not enough to know where to play the notes. You have to know why you're playing them."
- GH: Right.
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- K2K: Are you going to be working with [ex-Rainbow singer] Joe Lynn Turner?
- GH: Oh, right. I'm going to Japan with Joe next month.
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- K2K: He's singing, I'm assuming.
- GH: He's singing and I'm singing too. Basically it's his tour and I'm going to guest with him and do a couple of songs.
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- K2K: Do you see yourself primarily as a bassist or a singer?
- GH: Lead vocalist.
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- K2K: Who are some of your influences? For both.
- GH: Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye - those five are the catalyst of who I am today. Bass playing-wise, Andy Fraser from Free and Jaco Pastorius. Those two guys.
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- K2K: Jaco was another musician who we lost much too early, and he's another one who many people today don't know enough to respect.
- GH: Yeah, he was a brilliant bass player.
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- K2K: Favorite place that you've ever played?
- GH: I'd have to say Buenos Aires, Argentina. Incredible. The audience was incredible. From 15 to 50, all singing all my words. In the meet-and-greet - I had played to about 5,000 people - at the meet-and-greet there was about 4,000 people. I had never seen anything like it. It was very cool.
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- K2K: Weirdest place that you've ever played.
- GH: Indonesia. In Jakarta where my bodyguard got killed.
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- K2K: Do you still keep in touch with anyone from Deep Purple?
- GH: Only when I see them when I bump into them at airports.
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- K2K: Not incredibly "buddy buddy"?
- GH: Nope.
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- K2K: What other projects do you have coming up?
- GH: Hughes/Thrall II. We're 3/4 of the way through in New York. Hughes/Travers. Hughes/Thrall will be out next summer 2001. Hughes/Travers will be out in April [2001]. Emerson, Hughes, Vonilla will be out in January, hopefully, live. (Referring to keyboardist Keith Emerson and guitarist Mark Vonilla - ed.) It was recorded in San Francisco at the Masonic Temple. A Christmas CD from Glenn Hughes at Christmas with Christmas songs. A new video next month - "Making Of" and "The Days Of Avalon".
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- K2K: Wow! So when do you ever have time to rest?
- GH: After I finish speaking with you. (laughs)
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- K2K: What do you do for hobbies?
- GH: Go for walks with my girlfriend.
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- K2K: Ah! So you're a romantic at heart.
- GH: Very much.
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- K2K: That comes from the Motown, doesn't it.
- GH: Oui! I'm a loving guy.
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- K2K: (laughs) When are you going to get settled down and pop the question?
- GH: We are getting married on November 25th.
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- K2K: You are? Great! Good man.
- GH: Thank you. I'm very happy.
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- And with that, I thought it only fair to let Glenn go and get his well-deserved rest. Humble, yet confident, this living legend of music is someone who believes in what he has and does the best with it that he can while always in search of new ways to explore and expand. Glenn Hughes is one of those career musicians who will always be doing something for quite some time to come. We wish him all the best success with all his newest releases and urge everyone to do yourselves a favor and check them out. An musical influence such as Glenn's doesn't happen very often.
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