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A drug addict with a music problem
Classic Rock has an extensive interview with Glenn Hughes. He talks about his career, from playing trombone in a school orchestra, to his mum saving him from joining ELO, to the most Ritchie Blackmore thing that Ritchie Blackmore did, to the latest solo album Chosen.
Your first instrument was the trombone. This could have been a very different conversation.
When I was twelve years old, the principal of my school was looking to put an orchestra together and somehow they chose me to play the trombone. So I started to learn how to play trombone and read music. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but playing the trombone led to playing the piano and then to playing the guitar.
Why did you end up gravitating to bass?
Well, at thirteen I was a guitarist. There was a kid three of four years older than me named Mel Galley, who also played guitar. I used to see him playing gigs in Cannock and he became my idol. I loved watching him play. I used to mimic everything he did, I tried to look like him. And he knew I was this budding little guitar player.
Mel joined a band called Finders Keepers, and about a year later their bass player left. And he said: “I know a young kid from my home town, maybe he could switch from guitar to bass.” Within twenty-four hours I was learning how to play bass, simply so I could play in a band with Mel.
Continue reading in Louder Sound.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I was wondering how long before this article appeared here. Maybe Uwe has been asleep at the wheel, it has been around for a week or so. Not to worry, this should perk him up a little. Cheers.
October 13th, 2025 at 07:18Ok, GH says this:
“But every single thing has happened to me for a reason. I believe we live predestined lives. I believe my life was laid out for me before I was born.”
– if this is his belief system, then I quite don’t get the next he says:
“But I should never have left Trapeze. I should never have left that band.“
– ok, if all his life was predestined, then there really not ought to be any regrets….. or maybe that’s just me ☺️😉
(And why did his mom need to call Roy Wood and explain why GH couldn’t be a part of ELO? – I mean if it all was laid out before he was born!)
So sorry guys, I have a really hard time believing that an awful life filled with deadly drugs somehow should be predestined! I also think of all other drug addicts who have my deepest sympathy 😓
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy he survived all the drugs, but somehow some awful drug dealers may have been partly responsible (the other part is himself snorting everything up his little nosie) and not something predestined.
Or maybe the drugs have messed up his brilliant brain so much that he needs to think everything is predestined… (it can be really difficult to take responsibility for every bad decision in your life, trust me, I have been there many times 😏 and so comforting to blame some predestination!)
I have listened to him, his music I mean.
I’m truly sorry if Ian really was so awful with him and DC (but I would love to hear Ian’s interpretation of the situation) and of course I can hear he can carry a tune and I guess the way he plays the bass is very good (doesn’t make my brain blow up in beautiful colours like this guy:
https://youtu.be/55CBXBI5M7s?si=ZWAI5zFKYecAeZ5z
October 13th, 2025 at 08:04But RG is really something spectacular in my book)
(Ohh Uwe, really looking forward to hear your opinion 😃)
GH; “I didnt enjoy being in Deep Purple”
October 13th, 2025 at 12:01Well Mr GH, theres a flip side to that coin..many of us didnt enjoy you being in Deep Purple.
Cheers!
What a delusional, silly, petty little man. A great talent, undoubtedly, but what a waste.
October 13th, 2025 at 12:38@4
I blame it on the drugs 😞😢
October 13th, 2025 at 12:46@4 Not fully subscribing to your statement, I would agree that in many cases the creative accomplishments of rock musicians are more impressive than their personalities and the lives they live. Glenn is a good example.
October 13th, 2025 at 14:12Of course you’re right here, Karin. I read GH interviews out of curiosity – but heaven forbid I take them seriously. I’m having a hard time thinking of anyone who came up with a equal amount of bullsh’t over the years. I honor the musician, I like a lot of his work…but he might be coked outta his mind.
October 13th, 2025 at 15:25@7
Max, I often wonder how much talent goes to waste in drugs.
Otoh: I really don’t blame them for taking ‘something’ extra to cope with the pressure and stress of performing.
I couldn’t do it! I can’t even make a public statement without blushing like a stone cold crazy woman ☺️😉
October 13th, 2025 at 18:03I really get bored with Glenn Hughes interviews. Great musician but he owes it big to Deep Purple. I know that he made a lot of music after he got sober, but nothing will top his years with Deep Purple the band that he ruined with his “funk” shit
October 13th, 2025 at 18:37That’s a great interview because it reveals how Glenn was turned onto Black Music.
The second I read his admission that he didn‘t enjoy – hedonistic excesses aside – his time with Purple all that much, I knew the usual suspects here would swoop down on him like a flock of vultures. Yet he‘s explained it all:
– He‘s a single child and looked up to Mel Galley like an elder brother – Trapeze were three Brummies from the same neck of the
woods, uhum, steel mills. He liked the family aspect of being in a band. All that DP could not provide to him, they were a hugely successful business venture and an established mega-band when he joined them. Ritchie is nobody‘s comforting elder brother like Mel Galley was, the Man in Black only takes an interest in people as long as they are useful to him. What’s wrong then with Glenn longing for some Midlands camaraderie while with DP where the guitarist told the touchy-feely bassist early on to not interact with him while on stage and leave him alone in his righthand corner of solitude? Talk about a culture shock coming from a buddy band like Trapeze …https://media.gettyimages.com/id/179605590/photo/london-19th-january-guitarist-mel-galley-and-bassist-glenn-hughes-from-rock-group-trapeze.jpg?s=612×612&w=gi&k=20&c=jtvOgz9bS3MOAsvtB1EtsRBYsv4psObl8ISb0wBGE18=
– Glenn has ardently loved Black Music since he was a teen. Trapeze were as RnB-infused as you could reasonably be as an English rock trio from the Midlands in the early 70s. He says he respected DP, but found MK II too “classic, square white-boy-rock“ (which btw it was!). All this was known to Ritchie, Jon & Little Ian, they had checked Glenn‘s voice and bass playing out live several times before making him an offer and anybody who’s ever bothered to hear a live recording of Trapeze from 1972/73 knows that they played the funk card to excess.
https://youtu.be/M8hVEl8aKyU
https://youtu.be/BBgPKa9YmNk
Glenn did not force himself into DP, he was poached from Trapeze. When will people get their head around the apparently uncomfortable fact that in 1973, Ritchie was on the lookout for a funky bassist because he wanted DP to sound more like Free and had grown tired of Roger‘s no doubt melodic and smooth, yet rather straightforward bass playing? Glenn is always being judged with hindsight bias. In 1973 he was a fresh-faced talented bass player, not a raging drug addict writing songs that Ritchie deemed offensive two years later.
“Funk shit” … 🙄 – as if it was anathema to what DP represented. When DP Mk III toured Germany for the last time in 1975 they even had German funk rockers Randy Pie open for them
https://youtu.be/zLf1fKuWB9Q
and by all accounts the Hamburger quintet went down fearsomely well with the Purple crowds. That is how much Purple were already immersed in the funk trend of the mid 70s.
– Yet Glenn did in the end go for the filthy lucre and gave up his beloved Trapeze in favor of DP (and for the record: I do not believe for a moment that Trapeze would have ever scaled the commercial heights of DP, their music was nowhere as commercial and accessible, especially not in Europe, home of Mk II’s success, where Mel, Glenn and Dave amounted to pretty much nothing). So then a 22-year-old signed in the spring of 1973 after some trepidation on the dotted line of a contract with Deep Purple Overseas fully well knowing that his signature would turn him into a millionaire within a year or so, buying his parents a nice house in Cannock. Those of you convinced to have acted without sin under similar circumstances may cast the first stone …
I had to get all that of my chest. The discussion about Glenn seems sometimes time-warp-stuck in 1975 when half-informed music mag journos who had never heard a Trapeze album in their life parroted the myth of Glenn deceiving unsuspecting and baffled Ritchie by sneaking this awful funk music behind his back into DP. In 1975 that was conventional wisdom, true, but in the last 50 years we‘ve learned a bit more about how and why Glenn was lured into the band and what the mutual expectations were at the time. Get your rock archeology right! 😂
October 13th, 2025 at 23:07@8 I don’t think you need to have meth to calm your stage fright…some people tend to get addicted while others try every drug available without losing their minds. It’s fate…or genes…
@9 I don’t think GH ‘ruined’ DP at all…I value what he brought to the table big time.
October 13th, 2025 at 23:34@11
😁 well Max, personally I wasn’t thinking of taking any kind of drugs to calm me down 😅
But ohh man in certain situations I blush violently ☺️ so I do the clever thing: stay away from public statement!
And just to be clear: in my very humble and discreet opinion, the only vocalist who really brought something to Purple is Ian!
October 14th, 2025 at 08:47I’m not neglecting DC, not at all, but his voice was better suited for WS.
Ian, however, he has the voice, the personality and the stage persona that just blows me away 😊
Glenn has an erratic and emotional side, he can also be a bigmouth and it sometimes seems that – very Californian – any person he knows the first name of is one of my closest friends, he must have several dozens of them.
But I think the relevant test is how much respect and accolades he garners from other musicians, they all seem to deem him vocally and on bass as something special. Blackmore, Moore, Iommi, Chad Smith, Bonamassa, Satriani – they all rate a guy whose contribution to DP is regularly reduced here among DP fans to: “screams, sniffs coke and talks too much, worst of all is not Roger Glover, but plays this weird funk bass which drove Ritchie out of the band he would have otherwise never left (being the egoless, serving-the-collective saint he is 🙄), not that I ever actually sat down to listen closely what he did on bass and how it affected Little Ian’s mid 70s drum style which was then at its peak”.
October 14th, 2025 at 11:09Karin sure needs to be detoxed from her Gillanitis! Where is Betty Ford when you need her?
October 14th, 2025 at 11:37Just to add to Uwe’s comments (with which I largely agree) “Purple were already immersed in the funk trend of the mid 70s.” – and Jon and Ian carried on after Purple with PAL, Malice in Wonderland being an extremely funky album! And both musicians turned in some of their best work in that era!
October 14th, 2025 at 18:22@14
Ok Uwe, which other vocalist that ever sung with Purple did remotely a better job than Ian?
I am waiting eagerly for your answer 😃
I admit that DC was brilliant in Whitesnake, but with Purple not so much.
October 15th, 2025 at 07:36And JLT and GH – no I won’t go down that road! I’m in a lovely mood today, so why ruin it 😄
Karin, I don’t think in categories of better or worse with Purple. Rod sang Anthem and Lalena great, Ian When A Blind Man Cries and Anyone’s Daughter, DC excelled on Mistreated and Soldier of Fortune, Glenn did a lovely job on Holy Man and This Time Around and no other Purple singer could have sung King of Dreams as well as Joe! You can’t just swap them around at will and say Ian would have beaten Glenn at Holy Man or DC could have done Lalena better than Rod.
I think Mk II did Mk II music best, Mk III their own compositions and Ritchie would have had a hard time emulating Tommy Bolin’s groove on CTTB.
And if you think Glenn’s voice is so horrible then half of Burn and a lot from Stormbringer and CTTB is unlistenable to you because Glenn alternated in the verses with DC very often + (co-)sang a lot of bridges and all chorus parts. I think their voices gelled extremely well.
And while it is true to say that DC still developed as a singer in early WS, I think his work on the three Purple albums had a rough charm, vibrancy and raw emotion he never matched again. With WS he perfected and smoothened his vocal style and he did that well, but it also became more of a shtick.
Ian Gillan co-shaped the sound of Mk II, Purple’s most influential and brand-establishing line-up. That is an undeniable feat. Why on earth his vocal contribution to Mark II should need to be better or grander than DC’s & Glenn’s to Mark III & IV escapes me though. Ian’s voice would have hardly been at home on Burn, Stormbringer and CTTB, he even thinks so himself and therefore doesn’t want to sing any of it.
Now, does that answer your question, liebe Karin?
October 15th, 2025 at 17:37@17
Ok ok, I do agree that DC sang Mistreated beautifully!
But: his voice sounded strained. In the later WS his voice felt much more suited!
To the rest you write: 🤷🏼♀️
I’m not a genius like you and your fellow German neighbour, or for that matter: the rest of you in here.
I merely listen to what my brain thinks – ok that sounded weird, but you know what I mean:🩷❤️🧡💛🩵💙💜🖤🩶🤎💖
October 16th, 2025 at 06:51And so on and so forth!
To this day I can hardly believe how lucky I am – or you lot are for that matter – to have chosen Deep Purple as an all time fave. I mean what band could be more fun to follow? The sheer amount of class music released through the decades. What band has singers as different – and brillant – as Gillan, Coverdale, Hughes in their ranks? And yes, Evans and Turner are way, way above your average singer as well. Such a wealth of talent, great music, even much of it interesting and out of the same old same old.
October 16th, 2025 at 13:32Who knows how your life would have turned out, Max, if you had gotten stuck with Smokie? You would have been on the path to collecting Chris Norman singing Dieter Bohlen … 😈
https://youtu.be/5zJSKRxNiTA
October 16th, 2025 at 19:43It isn’t a competition, there are no better or bests, it is simply what one enjoys or doesn’t enjoy. Coverdale was grand back in DP, simply because he was so ‘raw’, young and unsullied. Hughes is fine too and a very interesting bass player, more so than Glover who is a fine player that I still do enjoy. With Hughes I would say that as I use to play the drums. Left right left right and we have to love interesting grooves. DP have always had rather good vocalists, it is just how the mechanics of it work out. The JLT Deep Rainbow thing was a sort of unnecessary happening in that aspect. If he hadn’t been in Rainbow it wouldn’t garner that, ‘been there, done that’ vibe to it. Many other bands have different incarnations too, some of them good, some not so, it is the way of things. Rod Evans was a fine vocalist, MKI have their magic too and I hear a little of Evans in Ian Gillan, I always have. Cheers.
October 16th, 2025 at 21:30@19
“to have chosen Deep Purple as an all time fave.”
– Max I get what you mean 😊
And I’m really not trying to be philosophical in any way here, but:
I never felt I chose Purple as such ☺️
Never ever forget first time I listened to In Rock! Woah….. WOOOOAAAH!
I couldn’t turn away from that album, had to dwell into it again and again 😍
I’m not, really I am NOT, suggesting any predetermined thing here 😃😄 but after the first listen to In Rock, there was no turning back! At all!
It connected on a deeper level. Awakening something deeply rooted in me.
And that feeling has never left.
So I didn’t chose anything, I just couldn’t help myself 😊
October 17th, 2025 at 02:35Midnight Lady was were I really lost it, Uwe. But I been there – I collected some of Norman’s later solo offerings. I guess few people know that he did work with Tony Carey. A perfect match on those cds. As Carey can write a tune (and sing it too) and Chris Norman has a nice voice they could have been greater than they actually were together. (Though the ex Smokie singer was doing well in Germany.) Tony Carey has often been on the edge to kitsch as far as I’m concerned, though I really like his singing and a lot of his songs. His collaboration with Chris Norman crossed the line to kitsch of course.
October 17th, 2025 at 07:29I hear you Karin. For me it was MiJ … when I heard CiT for the first time (in school actually) it blew my mind. Sounded like music from another universe altogether, like nothing I had ever heard before. I listened to that album again and again on a small tape recorder … I had taped it with a microphone put in front of a mono record player. Had borrow the album from a football buddy 2 yo than me. Next up where Fireball and In Rock and Machine Head (disappointing compared to the live versions, havn’t listended to that one much to this day…)
I rememember borrowing Made in Europe from another friend …and I was shocked. I thought that new singer couldn’t sing at all! It took me some time to get used to that voice. Later on I prefered singers like David Coverdale, the blues and soul singers if you will. Ian Gillan was a more interesting singer, his lyrics were very clever and witty (well some of them, the older he got the better he got with words me thinks), his tunes were unusual and all of that. He ist the thinking man’s rock singer. Coverdale’s the feeling man’s singer, so to say.
Still my point was that there is so much to discover in the Purple universe that it can provide a hobby of a lifetime and that is very nice. As we all should have something completely different we can turn to when taxes, dentists, car repairs and the news on the telly suck.
So I could never really decide which singer was the best. I admit when it comes to the guitar slingers I don’t have the slightest problem to point out number one. Even if he gave most of us a pretty hard time the last 30 years. Still I enjoyed his live shows immensly.
October 17th, 2025 at 12:01@24
Oh Max, no doubt about Made in Japan is beyond amazing 🤩
What do you think about the remixed version? I love it!
I remember you once told in here how your teacher played MiJ for you and your classmates in the classroom. And he was impressed 😊
I remember my sweet mom was so worried the rest of the family would be in shock if they knew I loved Purple 😄 so I promised her to say it was, and Max now please do not feel nauseated: ELO, that was my favourite 😅
My mom was a sweet and caring person, but she couldn’t accept the long hair of the guys! All she said, when I said: oh mom listen to Ian Gillan, was: ‘he needs to get a haircut’ 😄
Luckily she changed her opinions when I got older!
I have often wondered why Ian G apparently wasn’t happy with his voice at MiJ. I believe it was Uwe who told us Ian wasn’t impressed with his efforts.
I think he sounded really good. Of course it’s different from the studio recordings, but he sounded amazing. So did the rest of the band 🤩
Re the guitarist, I presume you think of Ritchie Blackmore?
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always be so grateful for Steve Morse’s rescuing when RB chose to leave the band (I know Joe S took over, but he couldn’t stay ) so Steve Morse was a life saver. And when he left because of his wife’s illness, Simon McBride was another saviour!
And I like both guitarists way of playing! No doubt about it.
But, honestly, no one will ever come even close to RB! (Except Rory Gallagher! But I don’t think he was ever of interest to Purple, or am I wrong here?)
RB was a poet! His way of playing completely fascinates me every single time I listen to him.
His intro to Anya, ohh rejoice 😍
Not to forget his riff to Smoke on the Water 💜💜
At the moment I’m sucked into his riff at ‘Mistreated’ 😍 it’s so longing, so filled with sad feelings. Match the lyrics perfectly.
Never forget first time I saw him playing with Purple in start 70s (Youtube, sadly not live) he played the riff to SotW so effortlessly!
I mean, if I could play like that, I would be all over the stage 😃
Yeah, I admit (willingly) that DC was a very good singer, but for me it is Ian who is number 1! (JLT and GH, well, ok, no, no need to go there for now 😄)
His voice is so phenomenal, still is, I might add 😊
But oh when he was young, it was so fresh, there was so much feeling in his voice, and he mastered those screams!
Some singers scream without enthusiasm (won’t mention the little guy who sang in Rainbow and BS, no need to hurt people in here) but Ian has always been able to chose the right pathos to invoke certain feelings in the audience.
Take a song as Child in Time, as you also mention. First time I heard it, tears ran down my chubby cheeks, and to this day, I cannot help to shiver when I hear that beautiful song. I don’t mind to admit I still get all teared up, I think especially in these days where wars are happening all over, and people are downtrodden, that song is as valid and important as ever.
So yes, we are lucky to know Purple! At the moment it’s autumn in Denmark, cold wether 🥶 and yes boring politicians endless discussions, very expensive grocery prices etc, so it’s comforting to dive into beautiful music 😍
The other day at FaceBook I found myself at a Led Zep page, (by mistake of course 😉) and someone wrote: ‘only cool people listen to Led Zep’
I couldn’t help myself, so I wrote: ‘only über-cool people listen to Deep Purple’ and to my big surprise I haven’t received any hate or death-threats for that, so I guess all Led Zep fans agree with me 😄
Have a lovely weekend 👋🏼
October 17th, 2025 at 18:01@24
And I forgot: took a little listen to Midnight Lady……
Well, now I’m surprised (to put it mildly) that you don’t like Ronan Keating with this beauty:
https://youtu.be/UA-a4zijOcU?si=ku8_CImsAuy6SU4I
I mean, at least RK has some nerve 😁😁😁
What was Chris Norman thinking? I loved him in Smokie, but ohh noooo 😅
October 17th, 2025 at 18:08Evans, Gillan, Coverdale and Hughes all contributed magnificently to Purple over the years. Joe sang very well on S&M, but I never consider him a Deep Purple singer, that album didn’t anything like Purple, it was an OK Rainbow effort. You could tell Jon and Ian weren’t inspired by the lineup/songs, especially Ian, who was effectively a drum machine for the sessions, not his usual inventive self. Ultimately, with the four Purple vocalists it comes down to favourites. MKII will always tower above the others for me, they were better live and more experimental with their albums. I love the ‘Burn’ album, wouldn’t be without it, and thoroughly enjoy ‘Stormbringer’ and ‘CTTB,’ but feel that had MKII had time off and they’d not split up then their following musical output could very well have been superior to that produced by MKIII and MKIV.
I’d heard ’24 Carat Purple,’ but had been given ‘Made In Europe’ as a Christmas present, but was disappointed by the vocals, and really didn’t like Coverdale’s almost shouty delivery on ‘Mistreated’ (THE best vocal on any version of that song is Dio’s, by miles, and I don’t like Glenn singing it, hate the whole falsetto thing he puts in it). The best live album by the MKIII lineup is ‘Live In London.’ Yes, it could do with a remix and David and Glenn’s vocals are somewhat ‘pitchy’ at times, but it has such a raw, excitement from that ‘Burn’ tour that is largely missing from ‘Made In Europe’ (as good as that album is).
It is difficult for anyone to argue that anything Purple did is superior to ‘Made In Japan’ (although I love the 1970 performances on ‘Scandinavian Nights’ and the ‘In Concert album), but throughout the catalogue there is a wealth of incredible music for us all to enjoy and marvel at.
October 18th, 2025 at 11:55Karin, if memory serves me right Rory Gallagher was considered as a replacement for Blackmore by the other 4 in 1975…as was Jeff Beck. I guess Rory wouldn’t want to and Jeff seemed too complicated a character (and would trade in his solo carreer either).
And I dislike Midnight Lady just like the sings of whatshisname…if not more.
October 18th, 2025 at 15:50@28
See, I had a vague memory of that! Thank you for clearing that up 😊
Ohh Jeff Beck, that would have been even more explosive than Ritchie!
“And I dislike Midnight Lady just like the sings of whatshisname…if not more.”
– 😅😅 aha! So if you had to choose between ‘Midnight Lady’ and the phenomenal lovesong from Ronan Keating, you would actually listen to RK?
Interesting!
The other day I read this:
October 18th, 2025 at 17:34“If you kill a cockroach you’re a hero! If you kill a butterfly, you’re evil! Morals have aesthetic criteria.”
😃
Guess I don’t need to explain!?
I agree with RB (rhymes!) to the largest extent. And finally someone sees it like I do: that LiL had more heart and enthusiasm than MiE, which was professional but perfunctory.
I also agree that Mk II had something that transcended the mere entertainment value of Mk III and IV, call it a remnant of Prog and counterculture influence if you will.
I of course don’t agree with Dio rendering the best Mistreated version (It’s a song about hurt male machismo and Dio can’t convey that – he can sing the notes, but not project the emotion -, just like Ian Gillan or DC could not be credibly singing about “lost children of the sea”).
Karin: There is a certain throaty roughness in Ian’s voice on MiJ, I always detected that and didn’t quite like it. His voice is at 90%, not 100% – doesn’t change the fact that he gave all on those three Japanese nights and that the band were at their peak in tightness and ebullience back then.
Rory Gallagher was considered by DC as a potential successor to Ritchie, but never approached. I rule out that he would have joined DP, he didn’t even join the Rolling Stones when they invited him to Amsterdam for sessions searching for a replacement of Mick Taylor (Rory even went to meet them, but left for a Japan tour of his own band before having a chance to jam with Keith Richards who overslept for two days due to comatose drug stupor).
And Ritchie’s and Candice’s son is of course named after the great man from Cork. Rory was frequently a DP opening act on US tours in the 70s.
October 18th, 2025 at 17:43There is no way Rory Gallagher or Jeff Beck would get involved in that unstable mess, even at any other time. Many wouldn’t, it would be a short lived thing and it was, as we all know. Cheers.
October 18th, 2025 at 20:52@28
Well thank you for clearing that up for me! Rory Gallagher was amazing!
Jeff Beck?! Woah – drama 😃
October 18th, 2025 at 22:28@30
“Karin: There is a certain throaty roughness in Ian’s voice on MiJl
October 19th, 2025 at 11:05– Uwe, I agree! Of course I do! Didn’t I early on in here (when I joined these phenomenal halls of beautiful admiration of Purple 🤩) tell you over and over that Ian had throat issues when singing?
Yes I did!
But still, even so, he was amazing!
Rory was an alcoholic – that would have in time raised issues of its own had he joined a mega circus like DP. Also, I don’t think Rory would have wanted to give up singing. Finally, he was by then beginning to move away from a keyboard based sound and edging back towards the trio format of Taste and early Rory Gallagher Band again, why on earth then join a band with Jon Lord, a very dominant organ player?
He would have needed to have done something about his beloved flannel shirts too 🤣, DP wasn’t a glam band, but Mk III and IV dressed for stage and Rory didn’t (which would have been an even greater issue with the Stones). Add to that how he was stubborn and almost never followed other people’s advice.
Jagger would have actually welcomed Gallagher in the Stones (he wanted a virtuoso like Mick Taylor had been), but wisely said that ultimately the choice should be left to the other Glimmer Twin. Keith otoh would have been wary of Rory, his relationship with Mick Taylor hadn’t been especially close or frictionless. Keith was looking for someone to weave and mesh his guitar playing with and he found him with Ronnie Wood who is no Mick Taylor, Rory Gallagher, Jeff Beck nor Ritchie, but worked just fine with the Stones over the decades, looking the part and being musically flexible. He is to the Stones what Matthias Jabs is to the Scorpions, no Michael Schenker or Uli Roth, but “does what it says on the tin” and is good for the band.
October 19th, 2025 at 23:07@34
“He would have needed to have done something about his beloved flannel shirts too”. 😂😂😂😂
– well if Steve Morse was accepted with his t-shirts, I think – I THINK that Rory’s appearance wouldn’t be any problem whatsoever!
I know we have been around this subject before, but honestly Uwe, I really believe that what a musician can DO is way more important than how he looks!
“Rory was an alcoholic”
– like in self-medication of because he loved the taste?
I loved the way Rory Gallagher played and sang 😃
Especially this one:
https://youtu.be/0X1JgiFf9As?si=MciHBa357fSpvAMu
And maybe he could have been in a duet with Ian 😄
October 20th, 2025 at 12:11Rory was an alcoholic because he would lock himself into a hotel room and binge drink by himself, not mingling.
With Ian Gillan at the helm, DP never had a sartorial image to speak of because he hates any type of dress code. But the mid 70s Stones certainly did, Rory would have needed to dress up.
https://youtu.be/N0sxWOzhu2g
https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/3d6/6e9/e1be6c4345ee1ab837b291112ce65d9e4f-05-rolling-stones-feature-lede.2x.h600.w512.jpg
So sure you can wear anything, but you can‘t wear anything with the Stones.
October 22nd, 2025 at 22:33@36
Oh Uwe, so self medication it was 😓
Too bad.
“because he hates any type of dress code.”
October 23rd, 2025 at 13:01– 😂😂 and according to you the dress code is way more important than if they can sing or play 😄
As long as they look good 😁
@ 36&37
RE: Dress Codes… I think these guys had the right idea when it came to that.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/Rhcp4.jpg
October 23rd, 2025 at 21:30Darn right, looking good on stage and being dressed to kill ain‘t no crime!
https://youtu.be/WtABg813nJk
Das Auge isst mit.
October 23rd, 2025 at 22:17@38
Russ, you’re a very bad bad man!
😄
October 24th, 2025 at 08:29@39
😄😄
Uwe! UWE – listen to me:
I can promise you that talent beats clothing!
Tell me honestly, (and I know you can be honest 😅) what good would it do if a singer, let’s take Ian Gillan for arguments sake, dressed like a duke but when he opened his mouth only this came out: 🐸
I will tell you that no matter how a band/singer looks like, it’s the content that mesmerise me every single time.
You’re all form with no content 🤣
October 24th, 2025 at 08:36(Psst I guess you have learned that from ms Swift 😂)
I never said it’s more or even as important. Musical ability is a given with a pro musician, looking the part or showing some sartorial style is a pleasant add-on. I hope, liebe Karin, you are not insinuating – pulls out and plays with dagger … – that Priest can’t sing and play just because they had their stage clothes tailormade … 😎
Ian’s dress sense today is much better than it used to be, no doubt his female assistants at work. Unlike many people here, I never liked his look with GILLAN. The 70s were over, yet he still dressed like that, but not quite. It was neither here nor there, but looked plain weirdly fallen out of time. And he was already too old for it all being excused by the charm of youth.
October 24th, 2025 at 13:51@11,
“I don’t think you need to have meth to calm your stage fright…”
– Max, I would never dare to contradict you! 😉 But now this statement is out here, I do need to say this:
A-HAA! 😊☺️
I promise you, seen this so many times during my education, that a lot of users have become addicts, because of nerves were wrecked in their system.
At the moment in Denmark, and I guess it’s the same in other countries, kids from 12 years and up (I have heard even younger, but that hasn’t been confirmed by official channels) are heavy users of opioids! (Not all kids, thank God, but unfortunately more and more each year)
The number of deaths in kids this age are increasing year after year 😓
And when teachers, parents, doctors and nurses wanna know why the kids are consuming heavy amounts of opioids, the answer is always: the kids are stressed out, they are nervous, they cannot cope.
My heart is bleeding for those youngsters and I wish so much someone could make a difference.
But Max, when teens are fallen into such a deep addiction, I don’t think it’s overkill to assume that people who are very much in the spotlight, with all the stress, nervousness and fear: ‘are they are good enough’, are not doing drugs merely for the fun of it.
And you’re right of course, it doesn’t have to start with meth, but it can easily end there.
And don’t get me wrong, it’s not just for the kiddies my heart is bleeding, I do get why adults also can bend over backwards being afraid to be in the spotlight all the time.
I guess it’s obvious that most artists are very gentle people, who are hit hard by severe criticism and because of that they are more likely to get doped.
But let’s end this tiny debate with a lovely, heartwarming and fun song:
https://youtu.be/zo4v-dOJSLs?si=swNpEoQe7pM5c3N1
Ohhh and this:
https://youtu.be/6U4x9mQ5K0s?si=cckUgKfJn5ZOBLM3
October 24th, 2025 at 14:45The Duke of Gillan you say?
Well, now that you mention it, while not quite meeting Roger’s sartorial splendor, there must have been at least a thousand times when Ian was dressed worse …
https://share.google/Mxyrtmx8373I6cvTB
Who knew back then 😱 that in a few years time this would become a permanent fixture in Sir Blackmore’s minstrel life?
https://www.stripes.com/news/migrated.image.36559_417221418.jpg/alternates/LANDSCAPE_910/Ritchie%20Blackmore%20center%20learns%20the%20medieval%20spo
October 24th, 2025 at 21:29@ 40
“…you’re a very bad bad man!”
Yes I am… and I’m lookin’ for one of these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV3vPZHCc4k
October 24th, 2025 at 22:26@42
“I hope, liebe Karin, you are not insinuating – pulls out and plays with dagger … – that Priest can’t sing and play just because they had their stage clothes tailormade … 😎”
– Uwe, you’re twisting my words again!
I never said that, and you know it!
What I did say is, that if it comes to CHOSE between a wonderful ability to perform (sing, play an instrument etc) or look impeccable, (whereas the persons can’t perform but they look devilish handsome in their matching outfits) then I will every single time chose the performers who actually can perform, NO MATTER how they look!
Of course it’s an add on if the band can sing and play beautifully while they look dashing, but I’m not turned away because their shirts are sleeveless or with native-American motives on the front, or the vocalist is wearing an embroidered vest with some loose trousers to match, or whatever, if the person can play the guitar like a Nordic god, and the vocalist can sing so my heart is rejoicing like never before!
I have never looked at the members of Purple and thought to myself: oh, if they only would dress better!
I really never haven’t.
But what I have thought every single time I’m listening to them, watching YouTube at the same time, is this:
“Oooohhhhhhh man they are MAGNIFICENT, WONDERFUL, BREATHTAKING, AMAZING etc etc!
Uwe, I would never think like that if they were dressed to kill, and that fashion sense was the only thing they had going for them 😃
You cannot be so shallow! I simply don’t believe it!
And I honestly can’t tell if Ian is dressing better these days, because his voice makes me concentrate on that and not his outfit.
Are we good!?
October 25th, 2025 at 12:46@45
Russ then I hope for you that you can detect such a girl 😄
Good luck finding her 👍🏼
Maybe you ought to sing her this song:
https://youtu.be/QhzEBf2USJA?si=eirAX5E0nZzVSOZc
😂
October 25th, 2025 at 13:00@47
“Maybe you ought to sing her this song…”
Would rather sing her this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mwCmlaupkY
This explains everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPSU2kj1j_c
October 26th, 2025 at 20:34@ 44- indeed and wasn’t it Ian Gillan jesting after the departure of Blackmore from DP about Ritchie suffering from PMT ; Pre Minstrel Tension. Hmmmmmmm, interesting. Cheers.
October 27th, 2025 at 06:13