Allow things to happen
Glenn Hughes recently spoke to the Rock History Music podcast. Here is what appears to be the selected bits of the conversation:
Thanks to Uwe for the heads-up.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan2.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride2.jpg)
Glenn Hughes recently spoke to the Rock History Music podcast. Here is what appears to be the selected bits of the conversation:
Thanks to Uwe for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I hope that Joe will put the blues on hold for a while and focus on hard rock,RnR, and BCC will continue in continuity, at least one more studio album and a big world tour. Glenn is still a fantastic singer and bassist. BCC incredible band,for me the best in the 21st century, a lot of talent… maybe I’m exaggerating ?, I’m still under the impression
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lverrdlTFrk
and return to the setlist song
July 30th, 2025 at 07:30“I Can See Your Spirit”
Glenn is starting to look like Cliff Richard.
July 30th, 2025 at 08:59Glenn H: the voice of rock!
Well, ok, but come on folks, can’t we at least agree on this fact:
July 30th, 2025 at 11:33Ian Gillan is THE VOICE of rock, and all the other singers can fight all they want of who is number 2, 3, 4 and so on and so forth ☺️
Come on karin admit it….gillan cant sing any more well over time to retire
July 30th, 2025 at 12:57Ivica @1. For over 15 years I have been hoping and praying for that to happen…to no avail. Up to the present day, JoBo has continued to disappoint in that regard. Seems JoBo would rather take 100% of the gate receipts in a modestly successful solo venture, versus having a 25% split of the gate in a band in which he has to share the spotlight. I’m not holding my breath any longer for JoBo to commit to BCC. I love Glenn Hughes in all his incarnations….I wish he would just find a different guitarist and move on in whatever other direction that takes him.
Karen @ 3….yes indeed Glenn IS indeed the Voice of Rock…..singer for Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Gary Moore, Hughes/Thrall, Black Country Communion, The Dead Daisies, Trapeze, Iommi/Hughes, Phenomena, Voodoo Hill, etc etc et al. I have always loved Ian Gillan best of all, even over Ronnie James Dio, but I have no problem whatsoever stating that yes, Glenn is truly the enduring Voice of Rock. I can provide several examples of Glenn in full flight if you’d like.
July 30th, 2025 at 13:55@4
Dave, so nice to answer your question, and let me do it in all sincerity, honestly and with the outmost respect and seriousness required 😇
When I hear Ian sing, I am not only hearing his voice at it is now. No, indeed I hear how it was when he started (my first records with him as the vocalist is when he attended Episode Six), how the voice developed as he became a mature man (see Max und Uwe, men do indeed mature too, at least outside these holy halls of opinions 😂) and how, when he hit the 50s of age, it became more deep and masculine.
You are of course right Dave that when we hear Ian this day and age, it’s easy to recognise that he isn’t a young man anymore.
But all these sensory impression put together, I enjoy very very VERY much to listen to this fantastic vocalist as he sounds today 😊
(And no, Caramba isn’t paying me anything to have this sincere opinion! It’s my own 😊☺️)
I do think it is marvellous that a man that turns 80 years old next month still can sing as Ian does!
Is my answer fulfilling and in-depth enough?
July 30th, 2025 at 14:36@5
Well, let’s agree to disagree ☺️
Thank you for your kind help to understand the depths of Glenn H., but Uwe has already provided for my, well, can I name it education?, I guess I can.
July 30th, 2025 at 14:38Why does some people think it is their job to tell when someone else should retire?
July 30th, 2025 at 14:39@8
Indeed Svante, that is a question I ask myself on a daily basis ☺️😉
July 30th, 2025 at 15:06Karin, Glenn has fairly and squarely the elder proprietary rights to the title The Voice of Rock, it was coined for him 33 years ago by The KLF who explicitly credited him as such in the release:
https://youtu.be/O_253-HURY8
America: What Time Is Love?
Arranged By [Orchestral Arrangement] – Nick Coler
Electric Guitar, Bass, Drums – Rockman Rock*
Keyboards – Nick Coler, Rockman Rock*
Mixed By – Mark ‘Spike’ Stent*
Music Consultant [Groove Consultant] – Tony Thorpe
Narrator [Closing Narration] – Melissa Belland*
Narrator [Introductory Narration] – Scott Piering
Programmed By [Programming] – Andy Wright, Nick Coler
Rap – Bello B
Recorded By [Additional Recording] – I. Richardson*
Vocals [“America”] – Carolyn Hargreaves, Karl Morgan, Mark J. Luther
Vocals [“I Wanna See You Sweat”] – Wanda Dee
Vocals [“Mu Mu”] – Katie Kissoon, P.P. Arnold
Vocals [“Ooohs“] – Cressida (2), Lindz E. Love
Vocals [The Voice Of Rock] – Glenn Hughes
Vocals [Wild Yelps] – Cressida (2)
Written-By – W. Drummond*, I. Bello*, J. Cauty*, L. McFarland*
And if you unlike me don’t own the 12” version too, your DP collection is lamentably incomplete:
https://youtu.be/aEeYtwwh3SE
So, devastating as this may be for you, Karin, just like Rob Halford is “The Metal God”, Glenn is “The Voice of Rock”. Your Ian will have to content himself with the thorny crown of ‘only’ being “Jesus Christ Superstar”. 😈
It pains me to state that Ian’s similar exploits into Euro dance rap electronica just weren’t as successful as Glenn’s:
https://youtu.be/chPe4yJ1PHY
Ray (Slijngaard) also did a dance version of Black Night together with Ian (who did a then fresh vocal take of the number),
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Ml0AAOSwRoRlvHO9/s-l1200.jpg
but that doesn’t seem to be available on YouTube, lamentably so.
Ray is of course the Ray from 2 Unlimited in case you had forgotten …
https://youtu.be/r6FVk2k4qsM
July 30th, 2025 at 15:13Karin, Gillan will always be my favorite singer. If you don’t have it, try to get the CD, Ian Gillan, Cherkazoo and other Stories. Fantastic (to me) CD!!
July 30th, 2025 at 15:26Well Svante, maybe when you’re riding on a plane and hear the pilot ask where this bus is heading to….
July 30th, 2025 at 16:36But otherwise you’re so right…. and last time I checked noone is forced to pay to hear IG sing. I do and I enjoy his singing – and talking in between! – immensly.
“my first records with him as the vocalist is when he attended Episode Six”
You’re not saying that you listened to IG with Episode Six BEFORE you first heard him with DP, Karin, are you? That would put you into a minority of one even here. You were still a toddler when their singles came out!
His 1965 single with Wainwright’s Gentlemen precedes anything he did with Episode Six btw:
https://youtu.be/cBakKSLS26k
July 30th, 2025 at 18:03When I heard this interview, I began to make grumpy remarks as Glenn veered off into his usual spiritual pseudo-religious California mumbo-jumbo as he does in basically every interview. Inner voices and all that crap, my loudest inner voice is when I take a fart. I’d rather hear Glenn list his shoe size and preferred bass string gauges (he prefers lighter strings, 100- or even 95-40).
Edith, who was doing something else, but listening with half an ear, at one point offered laughingly the following deep insight, ever the understanding wife: Why do you always scoff when he gets into that esoteric stuff? He’s a former addict and his new drug of choice is spirituality, he can’t stop talking about it. It’s an Ersatzhandlung, nothing more, but he’s neither hurting himself nor anybody else with it!
I guess she’s right. 🙄
July 30th, 2025 at 18:49Karin in @6, I agree word by word with your magnific exposition. Glenn has a fantastic, unique, voice, as Dio, Plant, Daltrey, Mercuri… But Gillan is THE voice, for me.
And @8, that’s the question, that’s the attitude, absolutely. Thanks for making the point.
July 30th, 2025 at 23:39Dear Admin, dear gentlemen
This just popped up in my feed at YouTube:
https://youtu.be/guhAfvns1eI?si=U5nrQmZ0pe3rcik_
New album on Ian’s birthday!?
What a treat for us if that’s true 😍
July 31st, 2025 at 10:43@13
“You’re not saying that you listened to IG with Episode Six BEFORE you first heard him with DP, Karin, are you?”
July 31st, 2025 at 14:52– no, I’ve never said that! First I heard Ian sing was indeed with Purple. But later on, much later on, I heard him with ES!
But in my head there is this funny mechanism that makes me able to place things, that have happened in different times, chronological!
Don’t know if you are aware that some humans can do that?! 😄
@15
Thank you Ma’m 😄😃😃
July 31st, 2025 at 14:54Coverdale’s voice is shot, Ian lost the vocal elasticity of a young man decades ago and sings today with diminished, carefully calibrated power (but has developed an “elder statesman” vocal style for new material which works well), Joe Lynn Turner isn’t as sparkly in the highs as he used to be anymore either and even Glenn doesn’t sing today like he did in the 90s though his range and power is still impressive, especially for a man his age.
Their voices have all aged – and how could they not? – though to different degrees. That has to do with individual genetic dispositions, whether you roundabout stayed in your natural range (David didn’t) and how much strain you put on your voice via incessant international touring in large venues (Ian and DC have certainly more such gigs under their belt than Glenn and JoLT) plus smoking and drinking where Ian was no saint (I’m skipping the “messing’ around with wimmin’” because that alone apparently doesn’t have an adverse impact on your vocal chords).
I don’t see the point of juxtaposing Glenn against Ian, their vocal styles are wildly different, except for the few Mk II tracks Glenn had to do they never even played the same music and they have led vastly different lives. Glenn has essentially always emulated a Black RnB singing style while Ian has a white English voice honed on
July 31st, 2025 at 15:12Elvis, excuse me, the-man-who-may-not-be-named-when-Karin-is-around and Little Richard’s and Arthur Brown’s screaming histrionics.I think that announcement is just wishful thinking/made up crap, Karin, don’t be so gullible. If a new album is announced, Ear Music certainly won’t do it with a video of a song from the last album.
And August (Ian’s birthday is on the 19th as I am sure you are aware) is a traditional holiday/summer slump month, no one in his right mind would release a new album then. That is asking for a less than optimal chart placement as the same number of sales are then stretched out over a longer period.
Don’t you want the next DP album to hit #1 as well, woman?
July 31st, 2025 at 15:35@5DeeperPurps
Without Joe BCC as a band makes no sense (same without Glenn) that band grew out of the ruins of BCC, I didn’t like California Breed
July 31st, 2025 at 16:20I remember Joe’s statement from 2013 after the first breakup of the band
“I just didn’t have fun anymore, Glenn’s media appearances where he called me out on some things certainly contributed to my decision. I can’t stand on stage and pretend I’m cool when I’m not”
Blues and hard rock combined are far from obsolete, but they can easily launch us 40 years back.
. Everything that blues and rock combined can be today, is Bonamassa with his guitar together with Glenn, Janson and Derk, and it is. BCC still gives us hope that rock’n’roll as it was played once didn’t die out. and we know it is.
@11
“try to get the CD, Ian Gillan, Cherkazoo and other Stories. Fantastic (to me) CD!!”
– thank you Leslie, I will certainly try to get my crooked hands on this 😊👍🏼
July 31st, 2025 at 16:41To be honest it’s doesn’t matter what is the agreed opinion or the disagreement regarding the voice of Ian Gillan at this stage of life.
July 31st, 2025 at 19:09Ian Paice has clearly said on several occasions that they will keep going as long as they are doing a great job.
Deep Purple are primarily an instrumental band and that’s true to an extent as they always write the music then put the lyrics after.
It’s a very good strategy to take any pressure of him and to relax on stage and sign his best.
Peace ✌️