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On the greatest authority

Glenn Hughes at Hell Blues Festival 2007

In an interview to Geoff Barton of Classic Rock, Glenn Hughes recalls his days of blow and hookers more blow. With champagne on top. And a little seance in between.

“I was loaded on coke and the champagne was flowing. But I’ve never smoked a lot of pot, so my memories of those times are pretty vivid,” the bassist/vocalist declares. Hughes’s cocaine addiction got so serious it threatened to destroy him. But he pulled himself back from the brink and has now been clean and sober for 30 years. Let those vivid memories commence.


Ritchie Blackmore

When I got the gig as bass player in Deep Purple I was only aged 21. We went to Clearwell Castle to work on the Burn album. Ritchie rigged up my room with hidden speakers. In the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of all these ghost noises. I was scared shitless! The next night me, Baz Marshall [Purple roadie] and Ritchie held a séance. Baz was a farmer and he’d recently lost one of his cows.

We started the séance and suddenly the room echoed with the sound of a cow mooing. Only this time it wasn’t a wind-up! Blackmore freaked and ran out. When it came down to it, he was a bit of a scaredy-cat. But Ritchie was the king of the prank – we all know that. Even today, he always carries a water pistol around with him. I have it on the greatest authority.

Continue reading in Louder Sound.

Thanks to Gary Poronovich for the info.



6 Comments to “On the greatest authority”:

  1. 1
    Micke says:

    I used to carry a pea pistol around.. 🙂

  2. 2
    sidroman says:

    I wonder if Blackmore and Moon ever played a prank on each other? That would be an interesting story!

  3. 3
    Telboy says:

    I have heard that a new autobiography has had to be rewritten because he name dropped that much, he forgot to write about himself 😉

  4. 4
    Dan Russell says:

    It’s been a long time, but I remember telling the story of Coverdale meeting John Wayne at a bar in Malibu. As I recall it, Coverdale said to Wayne something like ‘Can I get an autograph for my . . . (somebody else)’ and Wayne says:

    ‘Who are you kid?’

    And Coverdale responds that he’s David Coverdale, the singer in a band named Deep Purple. And Wayne says,

    ‘Well son, my daughter thinks the sun shines out of your a**hole. Can you give me an autograph for her?’

    Again, it’s long ago recollections of what I read. But I’m pretty sure I’m right.

  5. 5
    Uwe Hornung says:

    You guys are dreadful – LOL!!! Glenn could be giving the time of day and you’d still find something to complain! Yes, he’s cocky, after all he was Trapeze’s front man when Purple poached him. And I’d be surprised if that cockiness was not part of why they wanted him after Roger’s image had been ‘”the quiet, calm one”. I believe Blackmore wanted to liven things up a little with Mk III, both musically and visually. It came to haunt him.

    I read about that John Wayne comment to DC too, way back in the 70ies in a teen mag. So your memory is still fine, Dan@4.

  6. 6
    Albania says:

    I love Glenn as a musician, especially on Burn and Stormbringer, but, man, so much Kiss & Tell…

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