![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse3.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey3.jpg)
Jesus that speaks with tortoises
A couple of long term Gillan’s talks. You’ll need an hour and a half to go through them, so plan accordingly.
On September 11, 2025, Ian Gillan was a guest in a Zoom meeting organized by The Third Age Trust. Here he talks about all thing in his life, from the early childhood to celebrating his 80th birthday, and music that transcends cultures and ideologies.
The takeaway news of the moment are that there are plans for a massive Deep Purple world tour next year, starting in May and finishing in November.
The speech in Scotland that Ian mentions above was his talk on September 3 at The Scotland Forum in Edinburgh Castle. It partially repeats the previous talk (or, it is rather the other way around).
Thanks to Igor’s Rock Universe for posting the U3A talk, the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy for the Scotland Forum videos, and to steve4422 for the heads-up on it all.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
2026 in Europe, Asia, South America, North America, then Europe again, UK, and closing in with the Royal Albert Hall show in London. WOW ♥️
September 13th, 2025 at 22:33He is awesome!
September 13th, 2025 at 23:07Plus a new album as well!!
September 13th, 2025 at 23:36A good chat, summarized below:
Biographical book next year.
Does Big Ian suffer from diabetic retinopathy? Did I understand correctly, diabetes?
Did he lose feeling in his feet in the past due to neuropathy?
Ladies and gentlemen: Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore get along now!
Away from touring and the studio, Purple barely speaks to each other on the phone, and they haven’t even reunited to celebrate Big Ian’s 80th birthday.
European tour in May/June 2026, and then a second tour in the fall!
They’ll play the Royal Albert Hall… will it be Purple’s farewell concert?
Finally,
September 13th, 2025 at 23:50I deduce (from a certain repetitiveness of some stories in these three videos) that the notes on the papers Ian has with him are precisely the guidelines or drafts of his book, which will be released next year!
Those floating hearts rising up the left side of the screen are not from The Lady of the North are they? They don’t seem to stop at times. Trying to say something or alluding to something. Or has Karin simply missed out and all the other admirers have jumped the queue. Cheers.
September 14th, 2025 at 03:48I saw Ian during this Zoom reunion. He was very emotional and interesting. I admire his courage, humor and disponibility. A very great human being. Thanks a lot to him. I hope there will be another reunion of that sort for others Q&A because a few persons could participate, alas. 11 of September 2025 was a great musical and friendship afternoon. 💜💖
September 14th, 2025 at 03:52@6
Hello Marie 😃
And at his Facebook page we can see it all 😊
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see it, due to my work, but it’s nice we can see it a bit late ☺️
September 14th, 2025 at 09:54We are being invaded by Ian’s Amazons!!! He must be breeding them … 😱
September 14th, 2025 at 13:12@8
“Ian’s Amazons!!! He must be breeding them … “
– 😂
I really don’t think he has to breed anything!
September 14th, 2025 at 19:33I know he is 80 etc …but I did think he looked rather frail ( hand shaking while holding the mic etc ) and he did seem a bit absent minded and rambling on a bit …I sincerely hope he is OK…..he’s still my hero though and I’m eternally grateful for all the music and fantastic times he’s given us , over the past 50 odd years !
It does look like the Albert Hall then …where it’s all gonna end ( and that’s kind of where it all started )
September 14th, 2025 at 20:12I finally got to sit down and listen to this tonight.
September 14th, 2025 at 23:56I have tears of joy pouring down my face listening to Ian tell of the years of his life, and of Deep Purple.
We really are lucky to have such wonderful musicians enhance our lives.
The music they have given us makes everything else seem a little less important.
Music is medicine, the best medicine.
Get up, go to work, pay the bills, have a drink, and listen to Deep Purple.
Solace.
Wonderful.
Thank you!
I see Ann Linde there, former Minister of foreign affairs for Sweden. Social democrat. They seem to have gotten along just fine. 🙂
September 15th, 2025 at 18:40Steve#10 I agree, he did seem a little disorganised and i suppose he is not used to public speaking. At 80 , I think he has started a little late to this medium. Us fans know all the old stories about the family’s musical background and it does get a little tedious hearing these again. I think he spoke to the Scottish parliament saying that politicians from all sides should appreciate a good idea, rather than dismiss it because it comes from the other side. Good luck to them all and I hope they can get through the “final” (there I have said it and predicted it) tour.
September 17th, 2025 at 16:31Scandinavian wimmin politicians are always hot, even as prime ministers!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CfzB6WdtN6_/?utm_source=ig_embed
https://preview.redd.it/sanna-marin-finlands-prime-minister-v0-g9r1czmdjma91.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=e76875ce5d75a87258a8096425d229f22ab3cec7
September 17th, 2025 at 23:21@14
Ohh she is Uwe! 😃
September 18th, 2025 at 07:26Unfortunately she isn’t prime minister in Finland these days.
She was kicked out for dancing at a party, what a world we live in. The patriarchy is alive and well, if ailing, and can still sometimes rear its ugly head.
September 18th, 2025 at 14:15@ 14 You could argue that Sanna Marin is not Scandinavian, on the other hand she have a very swedish sounding name.. also you could argue that the almost 300000 swedish speakers in Finland are just that, Scandinavians. (Former Vikings..) Sorry to scare some of you.
September 18th, 2025 at 16:20I also happen to know that quite a few swedish politicians have told that Deep Purple is one of their favourite bands. The older generation of politicians.. 🙂
September 18th, 2025 at 16:26Viewed from the south, Finland is Scandinavia (with a sprinkling of Russian …). 🤣
But those legs … must be Swedish, yes. 😇
September 19th, 2025 at 07:30@16
Actually Uwe, she was forced to give a narko test, because some people thought she was having ‘too much fun’ at that party! Which, btw, was a private party with her close friends (well one of them wasn’t that friendly since he/she let the video slip to the media)
September 19th, 2025 at 07:44And the test showed she was absolutely clean, just a sweet woman enjoying herself.
@17
Vikings rule – or sumfin’ 😄
September 19th, 2025 at 07:45It was a despicable witch hunt against her – truly disgusting. Women politicians are treated misogynistic all over the world. I hate that.
And not just there. Take Ghislaine Maxwell, yes, she was a reprehensible part of a system that talked naive teenagers from broken homes to actually believe that you could take flights on private jets to Caribbean luxury resorts to meet VIPs and celebrities at a wage without any expectations attached (something I would have ruled out to be possible on this good Earth even as a 15-year-old, anybody inviting me into a private jet back then I would have automatically assumed to be after my butt; if something sounds too good to be true it probably is), but it was a system set up by and for the entertainment of men. And who is the only culprit who gets a 20-year sentence and goes to jail? The only woman involved. That leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Burn the witch to cleanse us all, alright.
September 19th, 2025 at 11:50@ 22 Burn the witch hmm yes. To save a very mighty guy in the states perhaps. Can’t say more since the US/DDR stasi/intelligence guys might be Purple fans and read this.. 😀
September 19th, 2025 at 14:34@ 22- Uwe’s holier than thou bullshit again………………….So wise as an ‘elder’ looking back at this youth, amazing……….NOT. And while I don’t want to even go here as it isn’t about any music at all, who was in jail waiting for his fate????????????????? And who was given enough time to sort out her fate??????????? You know how it is sometimes…………..no mention of the victims though……………..! Now back to the music involving, well anyone to get away from this tabloid tripe………..
September 20th, 2025 at 23:03I just had a healthy distrust of everything the adult world did as a teenager, Herr MacGregor, I didn’t want to turn adult nor did I think that adults/assorted figures of respect had necessarily best intentions with me. So that – you might say juvenile, moody and belligerent – street mutt attitude insulated me pretty well against unwarranted approaches. It wasn’t my world view then that people would be nice to you without some hidden agenda. I was mostly a grumpy, aloof teenager.
https://media.tenor.com/6kglGAQjLH8AAAAM/wednesday-addams-jenna-ortega.gif
Any adult promising the world to me would have simply met my incongruous distrust and a nagging why should (s)he want to do that for me of all people?
September 21st, 2025 at 15:05@24 (and a little bit @22)
MacGregor, I do need to tell you that I agree with you.
Maybe I wasn’t as smart as Uwe when I was 15, but had I been allured into something sounding “right” (ohh girl, you are here to give poor old men massages) by a very kind and sweet woman, WITHOUT having a proper family back home to help me cope, I might have fallen for that despicable trick…..
And I guess that is the key word here: girls without any decent family background are very often victims of sexual harassment and abuse from men who REALLY ought to know better.
Or maybe if the grownups are making themselves friends with a girl who may or may not be very confident, but certainly most youngsters are quite gullible at that age.
I find ms Maxwell as guilty as Epstein, maybe even more, because she was the one befriended the girls 😨
And to sum it all up with some lovely music:
https://youtu.be/hqckO1ez-vc?si=JrrphQ9g0ajsVPua
Which, if I may add, actually tells the story how very young girls were very attracted to certain members of the band, and how they were put in a taxi (the girls, not the members of the band) and told to come back when they were grown up (again: the girls!) and ohh if all men would behave like this, then girls and boys all over would be a lot more safe!
Years ago, in my native country, it was said by people who clearly had EVERYTHING mixed up wrong, that young girls often were to blame because they were alluring to the grownup men! 😳 well excuse me, but in my book it is, has always been, will always be the grownup’s responsibility to say NO in a manner so the young person understands it. No.Matter.What.!
Just sayin’!
Let’s have some more music in a somewhat lighter note:
September 21st, 2025 at 15:36https://youtu.be/ItDfBjr7Slw?si=PerJsQdugX65NpAW
@25
“I was mostly a grumpy, aloof teenager“
– you! A grumpy teenager?!
I don’t believe it:
https://youtu.be/mLNrLI3OBwg?si=696FtoQ9rIXkF9KA
“It wasn’t my world view then that people would be nice to you without some hidden agenda”
– then this is a very big congratulation to your dear parents!
Most teenagers are believing what they are told, at least until a certain age.
And a lot of clinical studies made by very experienced psychologists tell that boys are even more vulnerable than girls, until a certain age (has everything to do with the cerebral lobes, I’m told) (and no, I don’t bother getting tons of proof to what I’m saying is correct, just believe me 😄)
So if you REALLY were as you described, I will go to the city tomorrow, buy myself a very nice hat, and will take it off, just to salute you!
“distrust and a nagging why should (s)he want to do that for me of all people?”
September 21st, 2025 at 18:40– and I guess this is why you became a very successful lawyer! Thanks to your two left hands you didn’t need to develop any skills, you had it already in your bright mind.
😊
Karin wrote:
“It wasn’t my world view then that people would be nice to you without some hidden agenda”
– then this is a very big congratulation to your dear parents!
But in a different way than you think, Karin! I had very responsible, but not overbearing parents and they took good care of me and all, but there was no love for me. They weren’t trying to be mean or anything, it’s just that I did not elicit that type of feeling in them (my brothers did, but correspondingly also had a lot more conflicts with them, I didn’t, typical middle child). You can’t force anyone to love you, not even your parents. I rationalized that already as a child “you’re not loved, but they do treat you well, if the universe doesn’t circle around you, then there is no reason to despair about this, just carry on, things could be a lot worse”.
So that “provided for, but not loved” perception I had of myself shaped my outlook on the world even as a kid. I saw adults as making the world function as if they were manning a huge complex machine, but I found nothing aspirational in being an adult. They were a bit like a different species to me – with me being the marooned alien that looks like them, but is really from another planet. I had no sense or desire of belonging and conversely things like peer pressure or group discipline were irrelevant for me. I never wanted to be part of a larger group, I was happy to stand out. Or put differently: I managed my own expectations of me thus that I deemed conforming to anything well out of my reach and settled for being odd. I guess I got a slight dose of autism along the way when they cut me out my mother’s womb – I’m a cesarean cut.
All this sounds slightly more dramatic than it actually is, I’m not complaining (I rationalize!), circumstances shaped me in a way that would show benefits in later life and in my professional career. I also love my children and they love me, there is no generational curse in the family. Though my son never wanted to be part of the pack either – and I understood that! 😂
Going back to our initial subject, of course someone could have sexually abused me as a teen using physical force (I always joke about that today by saying: But I doubt it, I was already sexually unattractive at an early age …), but with my outlook (and self-perception) I was pretty much unseductible. The typical “altar boy scenario” wouldn’t have worked with me, least of all because I would have never wanted to become one just like joining a soccer team was never an option. Any interest of adults in me always met my puzzled (why me?) inherent skepticism. My default assumption was always that there must be ulterior motives. No adult could have really talked me into anything, I was that insulated.
September 22nd, 2025 at 14:55Has this gone off topic?
Moderator please!
September 22nd, 2025 at 15:22Yeah, back to music, please!
September 22nd, 2025 at 17:48I only got around to listening to his The Third Age Trust Zoom interview now, I could listen for him a lot longer, he’s a great raconteur (watch Uwe get all literary!). Best Quote: “I’m the only person who has played Jesus Christ, sung with Black Sabbath and played Charles Darwin as well, so I have a broad understanding of these things.” 😇
Eyesight issues at old age are of course a pest, but a sight impairment that makes biknis go away? That’s Glück im Unglück!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKgaHbrWslY
I always wanted to have a pair of those …
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0d/a8/ca/0da8ca6d515ae3407e74e877fe374e7f.jpg
September 30th, 2025 at 00:26