- 5 minutes ago
Ian Gillan is still very much in the moment. In a new interview on Joann Butler in Studio With..., the Deep Purple frontman says the band’s current tour is “probably the best we’ve ever done,” calling the schedule intense, even “insane,” but still exciting after all these years. One of the biggest moments came when Ritchie Blackmore joined Deep Purple onstage in New York. Gillan says Blackmore reached out beforehand asking if he could “step up in ‘Smoke,’” a request that instantly made him smile. He describes the reunion as warm and magical, adding that whatever problems existed between them had been put behind them years ago. Gillan also gets into Deep Purple’s new album, Splat!, and why the current lineup feels so connected to the band’s classic sound. He says guitarist Simon McBride has brought a more grounded approach and that the new songs fit seamlessly alongside the older material live. The band’s creative process remains refreshingly old-school too: they jam together, shape the songs as a group and record much of the album live in the studio. Of course, Joann also takes Gillan back into Deep Purple history. He recalls “Highway Star” coming together on a bus ride to Brighton after a journalist asked how the band wrote songs — and says they played it that same night. “Smoke on the Water,” meanwhile, grew out of the real-life Montreux fire and eventually became one of the most played rock songs on radio. He also looks back on the early days of Deep Purple coming together, the instant chemistry he felt with Roger Glover, the story behind Child in Time, how the band reunited over curry and a phone call to Jon Lord, and the camaraderie that once connected Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. This is a LifeMinute with Ian Gillan.
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00:00We were reunited with Richie Blackmore in New York.
00:03When he stepped on the stage, you know, that magic moment.
00:06It's been a long time.
00:07Jeep Purple were looking for a new singer and bass player
00:10after their first three records.
00:11Roger came along with me.
00:13And we joined not just as a singer and a bass player,
00:15but as a Mason songwriting team.
00:18One guy says, well, how do you write a song?
00:20I'm thinking, oh my god, how are we going to answer that?
00:23Richie, he's rehearsing on his guitar.
00:25He just goes on an open string, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
00:28He said, like that.
00:29We wrote it on the bus and we did it in the show that night.
00:32Wow.
00:32What about Smoke on the Water?
00:34It kind of got forgotten because it was seven minutes long.
00:37It never got played on the radio.
00:38And a guy called Rush Shaw from Warner Brothers
00:40cut it down to three minutes 20.
00:42It became the most played rock song ever in history on the radio.
00:46You're watching Joanne Butler in the studio with me,
00:49Ian Gillen from Deep Purple.
00:52Thank you so much for joining us on Life Minute.
00:55So cool to have you.
00:57Happy birthday.
00:58He just celebrated 81.
01:01Hard to believe.
01:02You look amazing.
01:03Well, thank you.
01:04So do you.
01:04Happy birthday.
01:07So how's the tour going?
01:09It's probably the best we've ever done.
01:12It's working out really good.
01:13The show is lovely.
01:14The band is cranking and I can't complain.
01:17It's a long one.
01:19We started at the beginning of June and we finish on the 19th of December in Mexico.
01:24It's pretty intense.
01:27I would say insane rather than intense.
01:30It's wonderful.
01:31Insanely intense.
01:33Both of those words.
01:34That's amazing.
01:35How do you do it after all these decades?
01:37What still makes you able to get on that stage and do it?
01:41Well, you don't really need any motivation when you're lucky enough, as I am, to be in a great company,
01:46great band, great musicians, a great repertoire and great audiences.
01:52All the elements are there for anything you could dream of, really.
01:56So just get up and be happy, you know, and this I think if there wasn't the energy, it would
02:03be pretty much a drudge going through this routine every single day.
02:09But there's always something new happening in the show.
02:11And of course, for different venue every night, that gives you a different kind of ambience.
02:16And oh, it's just too exciting for words.
02:19Yeah.
02:19Amazing.
02:20And of course, you were reunited just last week, was it with Richie Blackmore in New York?
02:25Tell us about that.
02:26I think that was a big surprise for so many.
02:29I think it was lovely.
02:30It was fantastic.
02:31We've been in touch, Richie and I, for a few years now.
02:35And I mean, a lot of water's gone under the bridge.
02:39I don't like using cliches, but that's a very apt one for this.
02:43And he wrote me a nice letter a few days before we got to New York and said, would it
02:49be all right?
02:50Do you think?
02:51What do you reckon if I step up in smoke?
02:53So I said, yeah, of course.
02:55Oh, it brought an instant smile to my face.
02:58I thought, well, of course, it would be wonderful.
03:00It would be fantastic.
03:00So we set up and he only lives around the corner from Jones Beach on Long Island.
03:06So it was just great when he stepped on the stage, you know, that magic moment.
03:10And it's been a long time.
03:12And, you know, you kind of forget everyone out there when you've we've mended all of those problems ourselves.
03:17But, of course, not everyone is aware of that.
03:20So it was a wonderfully warm feeling.
03:23And we had a few drinks in the dressing room backstage afterwards.
03:26I think he went home a bit tiddly.
03:28But it was great.
03:30Really a magic moment.
03:33Yeah.
03:33Beautiful.
03:34He said recently to someone that it was like he thought it would be like a healing, but he realized
03:39there really was none after 40 years.
03:41Did you feel the same way?
03:42Yeah, I mean, I mean, you know, life goes through so many different phases and you can't really allow all
03:50these problems to continue to exist.
03:52They become destructive forces in their own right.
03:55Then we've grown out of all that.
03:57Did you ever see Spinal Tap?
03:59Yes.
04:01It was like that for most of us, including the Beatles and everyone else.
04:05You know, there was when you get four or five guys, you know, in their late teens or early 20s,
04:10form a band and go out on the road.
04:13There's a camaraderie and a unit there that is almost makes them inseparable and it gives them a great power
04:20and identity.
04:21But as things become enlarged, you know, you get into contact with the real world and a larger world.
04:28A lot of outside play comes into force.
04:31And, you know, human chemistry is the most complex of all the sciences.
04:37So we can't cater for it.
04:39We can't see it coming because we're young.
04:41And then you've got to cope with stuff that you never did before.
04:45And it's critical.
04:46So sometimes things go wrong, but that doesn't mean to say they have to stay that way.
04:51So as the years go by, you put it all behind you.
04:55Plus such creative forces, you know, on top of it all.
05:00Tell us about Splat, the new album.
05:03How would you describe it?
05:05Well, I'm always looking for an umbrella kind of as I describe it for the lyrics.
05:10I like all the songs on an album to feel as if they were written around about the same time
05:14and they come from the same place.
05:16And in this case, I was thinking of quite a few things that came together and I conflated them into
05:23an idea of the critical extinction moment of humanity based on the population explosion and our inability to sustain life
05:36as it is.
05:37And it was just a thought.
05:39And so I had this picture of God and Darwin in the pub, down the pub, having a pint of
05:44beer.
05:44And God says to Darwin, Charlie, we've got to get the numbers right next time.
05:50And Darwin goes humdy, humdy, hum, because he doesn't like to interfere, you know.
05:55And then I thought of butterflies and metamorphosis and I thought of humanity morphing into a metaphysical state, an abstract
06:03life form, electrical life form, where we wouldn't need little tin cans to go around and explore the galaxies.
06:10But we could actually blink of an eye, be there.
06:13And it's quite complex, but it gave me the possibility that there was something hopeful after the end.
06:23And I'd had Splat in my mind as a title for some years, but it always seemed so terminal.
06:30I know everyone would be saying, oh, so this is the last album, right?
06:33But now we've managed to get something which has hope out of existential moments.
06:41And I think that's, it's almost, I mean, there's a song in there about a dead man walking and it's
06:48really hopeful.
06:49It's a good message.
06:51So, I mean, just for me, it keeps me happy and out of trouble.
06:55That's the kind of idea, that's what Splat meant.
06:57And, you know, when the old joke about when the insect hits the windscreen, what's the last thing that goes
07:03through his mind?
07:04Well, we all know that one.
07:05But when I hit the windscreen, the first thing that went through my mind was King Arthur, followed by Motorhead,
07:11followed by the Roman Empire and every other element of humanity that's existed.
07:17And they all go out into space as chess pieces.
07:22And then we sort of pixelate and collect together in some metaphysical form and start a new existence.
07:30I love it.
07:31Deep for sure.
07:32How about the sound?
07:33How would you describe the sound?
07:35The lineup hasn't really changed instrumentally.
07:39John Lord died, obviously, and Richie left.
07:42And we had Steve Morse for 25 years.
07:44And recently we got Simon McBride in the band.
07:49And I think his style and background are perhaps more compatible with the early Deep Purple.
07:56Steve was brilliant.
07:58But his roots are in Southern American rock and jazz and stuff like that, which took us in a new
08:04direction, which we all loved for 25 years.
08:07So it couldn't have been bad.
08:08Yes.
08:08But Simon's brought us back on to, I think, a more grounded approach.
08:12I think the easiest way of describing this is the new songs fit very well with the old songs.
08:17Yes.
08:18They're very compatible.
08:19And so they work very well live on stage.
08:22It's kind of seamless.
08:23Sound-wise on the record, we owe that to Bob Esrin, our producer, who's for the last five, six, God
08:30knows how many records, has done a great job in not only tightening up our arrangements, but also getting us
08:38a great sound.
08:39And that's really, I think, a difficult job to achieve for an old band like us.
08:47We've got, there are no leader in our band, there never has been.
08:50So we sit around for weeks, you know, debating this issue or that regarding an arrangement.
08:56Should we keep this phrase in or extend that or should we let loose here?
09:00And Bob goes, I'm not liking it.
09:04So we chop it and keep it sharp.
09:06And I think the arrangements have sharpened up a lot.
09:10And the sound he's got is perhaps more representative than what you might call the intervening years.
09:17What is the creative process like and how has it evolved over the years?
09:22It hasn't really changed.
09:23It's just tightened up a lot.
09:24We have two writing sessions, normally a week each.
09:28And we go to our place in Germany.
09:30They've got a big room there where we store our equipment in a small town near Oberhausen.
09:36So we spend a week there.
09:37We start at noon every day and we finish at six.
09:40And we stop at three o'clock for a cup of tea.
09:45And they just start cranking.
09:47And it's pure jamming.
09:49And if you're a fly on the wall, you might be hearing some film music or some jazz or some
09:54mood music or funk, soul, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll.
09:59And anything that comes to mind, everyone else picks up on it.
10:02And at the end of the first week, we normally have about 25 ideas.
10:07And we then do another session a few weeks later and come up with another 15, 20 ideas.
10:14Then we've got to chop those down to 15, which are the most promising for what you might call a
10:21melody.
10:22And I'm singing gibberish at this point.
10:24I'm just making up words that fit and rhyme and meter and that sort of thing.
10:30So then we move into the arrangement phase.
10:32We normally go to Nashville for that and spend a couple of weeks tightening things up.
10:36That's when Bob comes into the picture.
10:38And then we go straight from there into a wonderful studio, a big, big studio, one of the few remaining.
10:44By then, we've learned all the songs.
10:46We haven't got all the words, but we've got all the arrangements absolutely nailed.
10:51And most of the tunes from the vocal point of view.
10:55And we've rehearsed them pretty well.
10:57So the guys sit around in a circle and record everything live.
11:01The whole album is recorded live.
11:03With a few exceptions, you know, some cleanup bits and some tweaks and that sort of thing.
11:06But basically, it's a live recording.
11:09And I think that captures the moment and the edge.
11:14Yes.
11:15If you start overlaying tracks, then it becomes a bit dulled in impact, I think.
11:24It takes the sharpness away.
11:26So, yeah, live then.
11:28And then it's over to me to finish off the words and do the vocals and add them afterwards.
11:35And that's pretty much as it's been since day one in 1969.
11:39Wow.
11:40Except we used to take months and months writing and recording.
11:45Really?
11:45It took longer back then?
11:48Back then it did because we were having too much fun.
11:51Right, right.
11:52And maybe not so much fun.
11:54No, I was just saying we were having too much fun.
11:55And basically, we weren't sharp enough.
11:57And we weren't touring as much in those days.
11:59I know we did a lot of shows, but they were in small patches and that sort of thing.
12:04But now we're on the road a lot longer.
12:07Makes sense.
12:08But the whole thing actually takes about a year, you know, from beginning to the end of post-production.
12:12I always found it interesting that you guys, no one ever took the credit.
12:17Like you said, it was always equal, which is nice.
12:20So what did you guys argue about creatively?
12:23What were the tensions?
12:24They were lighthearted.
12:26And people would say, I don't like this or I don't like that.
12:28And so it would get bumped off.
12:30And I think the funniest moment when we were self-producing in the early days, we had a guy called
12:37Martin Birch who was very good.
12:38We put him down as producer, but really everyone was leaning over the control panel with their hands on their
12:46own levers.
12:47And so somebody once said the Deep Purple sound in the studio was basically everything has to be louder than
12:55everything else.
12:56That was the immature approach to it.
12:58We find things of it now.
13:00It worked, whatever you did.
13:02Yeah.
13:03What does a Deep Purple album still need to have for you to feel like it's Deep Purple?
13:07Well, I think we got lost a bit in the Middle Ages.
13:10We were trying too hard, I think, and we just lost direction, I think, a little bit.
13:15Roger came up with a great phrase.
13:17We're having a little ding-dong back and forth with Bob, as we always do in the studio.
13:22And Bob and Roger spoke up a wonderful phrase.
13:26He doesn't very often do this, but he just said, Bob, we mean it.
13:31So I think when Deep Purple means it, then we've got a good album.
13:35I know it's a bit obscure, but that's how I look at it.
13:38I'll take it.
13:40Do you have a favorite song?
13:42There's a funny story about that in a Japan interview because an interpreter came in reading off a list of
13:52questions because the journalist couldn't speak English.
13:57One of the questions was, what's your favorite album?
14:00And I said, Machine Head.
14:02And then she went out the door and came back in as if she'd never been there and was reintroduced.
14:08And my name is so-and-so, blah, blah, blah, blah.
14:10And I couldn't believe what I'm seeing or hearing.
14:14And so one of the questions was, what's your favorite album?
14:17And I said, oh, Fireball.
14:21And she just went to pieces and collapsed completely and eventually said, well, admitted she had been in the room
14:27earlier.
14:29And I said, but you said for a different magazine that Machine Head was your favorite.
14:33I said, that was over half an hour ago.
14:37Music is not one of those things.
14:39Like when you're a kid, you have a favorite color, a favorite pet, favorite car, favorite film actor, favorite pop
14:45star, whatever.
14:47But I think, you know, as you grow older, your favorite thing one day is not necessarily your favorite thing
14:52the next day.
14:53But my favorite album at the moment is, of course, Splat.
14:58My second favorite album is a live recording of an obscure band I had once called Repo Depot in Bucharest.
15:06It's up on my website.
15:08And it's utterly amazing.
15:10The first four minutes of chaos because there's no sound.
15:13But it reminds me of how things were.
15:17And my favorite song right now is one we do live on stage.
15:22It's called Lazy Sod.
15:23It's all about my sleek black cat and I that were in a bit too relaxed one day at home.
15:31It's an interesting story.
15:33My sleek black cat, by the way, is a 90-pound fuma.
15:36So it wants to be called Kitty.
15:38Wow, Kitty.
15:39Of course.
15:40Oh, boy.
15:41That's not really true.
15:43I'd say I'm a truthful person, basically.
15:45But I do tell lies when I'm doing interviews.
15:52That poor lady in Japan.
15:53Is that when you wrote Highway Star after that?
15:56No, no.
15:56We were on Highway Star way before that.
15:58Oh.
15:59We were on a bus going down to a show in Brighton on the south coast of England.
16:03And we had some journalists on the bus riding with us.
16:07And one guy, I'm sitting face to face with Ritchie.
16:10And one guy says, well, how do you write your song?
16:13And I'm thinking, oh, my God, how are we going to answer that?
16:16And he's playing, he's rehearsing on his guitar.
16:20He just goes on an open string.
16:22Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
16:24He said, like that.
16:26Oh, my God.
16:27So we wrote it on the bus and we did it in the show that night.
16:30Amazing.
16:30It did get adapted over the years, but it was one of those moments.
16:36What about Smoke on the Water?
16:38We were doing a show in Montreux, which is a summer resort.
16:42So the last show of the season was in November or December, I can't remember.
16:47And it was Frank Zappa and the Mothers.
16:49And I was particularly keen to see it because they had Flo and Eddie from the Turtles doing vocals in
16:54the band.
16:55And so we went along and some guy shot a flare gun into the ceiling.
17:00It's a wooden building caught in the electrical trunking and a place caught on fire.
17:05Everyone rushed out and we had to move.
17:10And we ended up at the Grand Hotel.
17:13We spent a few days, limited time.
17:15We had the Rolling Stones mobile recording unit outside in the truck.
17:20And on the last day, as it started, our engineer said, you're seven minutes short of an album.
17:32And it was, we were bereft of ideas.
17:35What were we going to do?
17:36So he said, well, that sound check we did at the beginning sounded pretty good.
17:40Maybe you can make something out of that.
17:42And it was labeled as the Dan Dan song, as in Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan.
17:48So we pulled it up and we wrote the biographical story of the making of the album in Montreux, as
17:57in we all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline, blah, blah, blah.
18:01So that became the song.
18:04Interestingly, after the album was released, it kind of got forgotten because it was seven minutes long.
18:10It never got played on the radio or anything.
18:12And a guy called Rush Shaw from Warner Brothers came along to see us one day and saw the crowd
18:18reaction to Smoke and took a second look at it, went back, did an edit, cut it down to three
18:25minutes, 20.
18:26And what was your uncle?
18:28It became the most played rock song ever in history on the radio.
18:33Incredible.
18:33We're still doing it in the show.
18:35What about Child in Time?
18:37I got to ask about that.
18:39It's all over social media right now, which I find interesting.
18:43And then the chemistry between you two, Richie and you and your voice as an instrument.
18:49And it's just amazing.
18:51John Lord wrote that, basically.
18:54We openly inspired by a song called Bombay Calling by a band called It's a Beautiful Day.
19:01And I think it was them.
19:04Forgive me if not.
19:06They nicked one of ours as well.
19:08And in terms, there was.
19:12He was playing these chords one day and I just started singing.
19:15And Sweet Child in Time, you'll see the line, the line between good and bad.
19:21It's all about we grew up in the Cold War and it's about, you know, bullets flying around and bombs
19:26dropping and mutually assured destruction and all that kind of thing.
19:29And it was a young man's song.
19:31And I did this.
19:33What has been described at the Covent Garden as tenor passaggio.
19:38See, a lot of everyone said, oh, he's screaming.
19:40But the director of the choir there said, well, you're not screaming, you're singing.
19:44That's like saying Pavarotti's shouting.
19:46But he had a category already, tenor.
19:49So he said, your category is tenor passaggio, which means going above tenor.
19:53Yeah. And it was all written in five minutes in the community center in Hanwell in Middlesex, just on the
20:06outside of London in 1969, I think.
20:10Yeah.
20:11Did you always know you wanted to sing?
20:13Well, I grew up in a musical family.
20:15My granddad sang opera.
20:17My grandmother taught ballet.
20:19My uncle was a jazz pianist.
20:21He played Boogie Woogie in Stride.
20:22I was a boy soprano in the church choir.
20:24And then I started my first band at the age of 17.
20:28Right.
20:29I was hugely inspired by the young Elvis Presley.
20:33And I just stopped a guy in the street one day.
20:36In fact, there's a song on the new album, Splat, about the circumstances.
20:39It's called My New Movie.
20:42And it's about somebody dreaming about making a movie.
20:44And they just stopped someone in the street and say, what are you doing on Wednesday?
20:48Let's do it.
20:49And it was pretty much that.
20:51And I asked this guy.
20:52His name was Andy.
20:53And I said, do you know anyone around here who plays guitar?
20:56He said, well, I'm learning.
20:58I said, OK, rehearsals in my house Saturday morning.
21:01And about five guys turned up with, you may not call them guitars, but they had some strings.
21:08And we got thrown out of the house, of course, after a while for wrecking the furniture and jumping up
21:12and down.
21:13I went to the youth club and they let us use the storage room to rehearse.
21:22And I said, we've got no money.
21:24He said, well, the payment will be a performance on Saturday for the youth club.
21:30So, holy moly.
21:32So we learned the songs.
21:33I think we repeated them about six times.
21:36And we did two shows, two weeks running.
21:39And then I got recruited into another band that had some equipment and a residency.
21:46So, yeah, things picked up from there.
21:49I was 17.
21:50That was 1962.
21:51What were you playing?
21:53Were you playing cover songs?
21:55Oh, yeah.
21:55Elvis songs?
21:56They were easy songs, you know, three chords, Bobby Holly stuff and that sort of thing.
22:02I think there was an Elvis song in there somewhere.
22:05Amazing.
22:05And then you met Roger Glover, right?
22:07Episode six.
22:09In 65.
22:1065.
22:11Wow.
22:12Wow.
22:13How did the invitation to join Deep Purple come to be?
22:17And did you guys go together?
22:18You're a package deal, right?
22:20Yeah, well, episode six had seen its best days.
22:24We'd been abroad a lot.
22:26And we'd always been chasing fashion and chasing hits.
22:29I think we had 12 or 13 singles released.
22:32And they were okay.
22:34They were good.
22:35It was primarily a harmony band.
22:37Yes.
22:37We weren't so strong instrumentally, but it was nearing the end, I think.
22:43And Purple were looking for a new singer and bass player after their first three records.
22:48I was a huge fan.
22:49I had their records.
22:51Richie only lived around the corner.
22:53And another friend, Mick Underwood, a drummer who worked with Richie in earlier days, recommended me.
23:00He was in episode six at the time, so he recommended me very unselfishly.
23:05And Roger came along with me.
23:07And we joined Deep Purple not just as a singer and a bass player, but as a nascent songwriting team.
23:15And we recorded Deep Purple in rock.
23:17And we changed and they changed.
23:20It's that human chemistry thing.
23:22Did you realize right at the time how special you all were together?
23:27Like, did you know right away?
23:29Yeah.
23:30Yeah.
23:31Wow.
23:32Our first show was at the Speakeasy in London.
23:35And I just looked at Roger and went, oh, mate, this is it.
23:38This is it.
23:40This is what we've been looking for.
23:42Amazing.
23:42It's a moment like in the Jersey Boys when they're in the studio and they record Sherry.
23:46And you hear Sherry for the first time after all the buildup and the, you know, the formation and friendships
23:52of the band and the trouble and strife.
23:55And then getting arrested in the church because it sounded great in there when they sang at night.
23:59Yes.
24:00We did all those kind of things.
24:01And then there's that magic moment, you know, when you realize everything has just fallen into place.
24:08It's fallen from the sky.
24:09You don't know how or why.
24:11Yeah.
24:12Yeah.
24:13I have goosebumps.
24:15You came, you left a couple of times.
24:18How did you know, okay, this is it?
24:21It's been a while now.
24:23Well, I was doing a show in Hammersmith in London with my band Gillen.
24:29And our band had been through a fantastic time for a few years, but it was also nearing the end.
24:36And there were some bad vibes going around and it was time to stop and move on.
24:41And I was, I went for an Indian meal after the show with a hero and friend of mine.
24:48His name is Rodney Marsh.
24:49He used to play football for my football team, Queen's Park Rangers and Manchester City.
24:54And he also played for England.
24:56And we were having a curry and drinking a few pints of lager.
25:00And he said, yeah, the band's great.
25:02He said, but they're not as good as Deep Purple, are they?
25:06Yeah, you're probably right.
25:08So next morning I called John Lord.
25:11I said, have you ever thought about, you know, getting back together again?
25:15And he said, I've been sitting by the phone for six years waiting for it to ring and somebody to
25:19say that.
25:20So a year later, it wasn't possible straight away.
25:24I joined Black Sabbath for a year.
25:25And then we got together and made Perfect Strangers.
25:29And that was 1984, 85.
25:32Any singers of today you particularly like?
25:35Oh, too many to list.
25:37Most of them are my friends.
25:38And if I leave one out, they'll be angry.
25:40I hear you.
25:41I don't have any either.
25:43I know a lot of people over the years, and they're all friends, and they're all great.
25:49So I love them all.
25:51It's a marvellous business to be in.
25:54And the rock and roll world is, I think, is a good club, you know.
25:59Yeah.
25:59We've all been through it.
26:00And everyone there that's still around has paid their dues many times over.
26:06What does music do for people?
26:08Well, you talked earlier about the Ritchie Blackmore thing.
26:11It's not just the music, it's the camaraderie, it's the atmosphere, the sense of belonging.
26:16I know what it was like in the early days with fans.
26:18I mean, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath, we all knew each other.
26:24We all got on great.
26:25We used to drink together in the speakeasy and various other places in those days.
26:30And yet the fans, encouraged, I must say, by the music journalists, divided into, I won't
26:40say, bitter enemies, but very competitive factions that they were all sort of supporting one or
26:46the other of the three.
26:48And so they were divided, but we were not.
26:51You've got to think of the fans as much as anything else.
26:53But they come afterwards when the music's made and you've done your thing.
26:58Then you sit down and put your hands together and pray they like it.
27:02Oh, they like it.
27:04Did you ever think you'd be doing it this long?
27:06No.
27:07Well, I'm so grateful you are.
27:10I do enjoy the moment and I've always been an optimist.
27:14So I never plan things.
27:18I've stepped off the rock and roll highway quite a few times.
27:21If I sense something interesting out there in the, down the country lane or around the
27:27corner, I tend to take that route.
27:30So it's always interesting.
27:32Do you do anything special to hone your voice or have you ever exercised it or protected?
27:38Do as few interviews as possible.
27:40That's a good one.
27:42That's my cue.
27:44No, it's, no, I don't.
27:46I think early days it was, it was difficult when you're still learning and you're still
27:50experimenting.
27:50And also you go through phases.
27:52I mean, when I was a boy soprano, my voice was obviously very, very high.
27:59When I was a young man, in my late teens up to 30, I had a young man's voice.
28:06When I moved into my middle age, I lost a couple of semitones on the top end, but I gained
28:13so much in the middle in the way of tone that I thought it was a good bargain.
28:18And so I didn't look back since then.
28:21And since then, it's been settled.
28:23I think probably a key to most of all of this is the word key for the songs to be
28:28in the
28:28right key.
28:29If you're straining all the time, you're going to run into problems.
28:32But, well, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm working differently now.
28:36I've kind of taken a new approach in the last few years and, um, it sounds much more
28:42energy.
28:43It's more energy.
28:45Well, I think the approach is different because of the different musicians you work with.
28:50See, it's determined by the key they like to play in.
28:54Um, and you really have no choice in it because they, they present you with a, a track with
29:01an idea, song idea that's already established in, in their key and they're loath to change
29:06it.
29:07So you're going to find a tune in there some way.
29:09And sometimes you've got to work around a natural harmony and make that the tune.
29:13Um, it doesn't always work.
29:15Um, but nowadays, um, I've find I can very happily get a much bigger range.
29:23If I start at a lower point, I can actually use the melody, the natural melody within the
29:29construction.
29:30So I'm really happy at the moment.
29:33We are too.
29:34Thank you for your beautiful gift.
29:35Thank you so much, Ian.
29:37What an honor.
29:38Cheers.