Glenn's interview from Paris (13-04-2011)

[Stormbringer74]

I have the pleasure to have an interview with Glenn Hughes at Paris two weeks ago... great moment, very interesting and so cool... here it is :
(FCH is Coverdale-Hughes-French-Forum )

Part 1 :

FCH : hi Glenn ! How are you ? Aren't you too tired ?

GH: I’m doing 18 interviews a day so now, you know, when you ask a question, I have to try and answer it different from the last one.

FCH: don’t worry, that’s a problem.

GH: for me this album is so special, and this band is so special that I am the one, the chosen guy; the one’s to talk about how special this group is. Joe is a purist, Joe would rather play to you and I would rather sing to you but there has to be promotion.

FCH: that’s necessary.

GH: and I’m the guy, the rock n roll guy here so, here I am.

FCH: so here we go?

GH: please, ask your questions.

FCH: you have released two 70 min. albums in 6 months, that’s very impressive. How can you be so inspired?

GH: It’s easy for me to be inspired after the first album. What I did on the first album when I came in with "Black country", "One Last Soul" and "Beggar Man" and "Stand", when I came in with these epic rock tracks, it proved to me that I didn’t have to just do funk and soul which I love. But when I put my rock n roll vibe, my face, rock n roll face you know, because I come from the seventies with Jagger and Keith Richards, and David Bowie, I’m from that, you know guys, you know that. So I said ok, I want to be in a rock band. I’m going to now become rock. It was easy for me to focus on the second album. It was too hard for Joe to write because he was gone. I was alone; I took a lot, lot of time away from my band last year to write '2'. What you hear on '2' is the bones of Glenn Hughes’ music that’s given to the band to play on. So I was inspired. "Man in the Middle" inspired me, "Save Me" inspired me and you know "Cold" I mean you know, I was inspired to write "Outsider". The dark lyrics, you know, "kill the ripper, feed the flame" I mean I just wanted to go dark. I wanted to act like a great actor in a great big film. I wanted it to be big. I wanted it to be, you know, cinematic.

FCH: I think we can feel that when you sing on that second album that your voice seems to be darker.

GH: yes, definitely.

FCH: For me there is something of "Addiction" in this album.

GH: (surprising and smiling) yes, this is exactly what I was thinking.

FCH: the first album has known a certain success, especially in France. It did extremely well in terms of sales. I just wanted to know how you composed the songs of the second album. Well, did you compose them in the same spirit as you composed for the first one?

GH: musically yes.

FCH: musically speaking.

GH: but not lyrically.

FCH: oh really ?

GH: first album, you know, "Black Country", "One Last Soul", "Great Divide" was very uplifting. And very sort of like happy. I said to myself on the second album: I can’t sing about love and boy & girl, I have to sing, I have to go back, like "Addiction", I have to scratch, you know. Rock fans want to go dark you know so "Cold" is dealing with friends dying and grieving, "Save me" is about seeing myself die. It is dark you know, it’s dark s**t.

FCH: well that’s why it’s more intense and more aggressive.

GH: more visual. When you get the booklet and you read the lyrics of "Man in the Middle", it’s very very very visual. Very visual.

FCH: in a few words, could you describe Joe, Derek, Jason and Kevin?

GH: Joe rises you know. He is the greatest new guitar player that we have alive: sweet, kind, purist, and musician. He doesn’t care about cars and jewellery or material things. He just wants to play. He is a hero, man. He’s a hero and he deserves his success. Jason Bonham, I’m his uncle Glenn, I’ve known him since he couldn’t speak. He was on my lap as a boy and now I’m playing in a band with one of my best friend’s son. So I would say Jason is a family member. Derek is a guy that I saw playing in 1993 with Dream Theater and I was very impressed with him. So when we put the band together, we thought he would be perfect to have the Hammond and he would be the perfect guy. Well, Derek is a great family man. He’s changed his life style. Derek used to be a crazy party guy. But now he’s got a child and a wife, he’s very cool. He cooled down. And Kevin Shirley, we have to talk about Kevin. He’s the greatest rock producer of our time: a full visionary.

FCH: I just want to know if a band like BCC is a long-lasting group or is it just a short-lived project.

GH: I hope it’s long. You know, what BCC means to me is, I want to be honest with you guys, don’t take this the wrong way. It’s my group, it’s my baby; I take this s**t very serious. Jason with Led Zeppelin Experience, Joe’s solo, Derek who’s been with Billy Idol, I’ve taken my career, you know, no solo album out for three years. I’ve got to be the Mick Jagger of this group. I’ve got to ****ing be the mouth and the frontman, and drag this band to the stage, put the flag in the ground and let if fly. Because this band live will be a mind blower. This band live will come in July on the 19th at the Bataclan, it’s going to be a mind blower. It’s a great band, great musicians; I mean these ****ing guys can really play. These guys can really play. So my dream is to be the "Man in the Middle" and keep trying.

FCH: you’ve got a very powerful band, really.

GH: it is what, how do I say this. It is everything that Deep Purple should be. It is everything. We are making the records. If I was in Deep Purple, I would demand the quality of songwriting like this. You know. We are, we will probably never become as big as Deep Purple but we will become bigger than Deep Purple now. I think we’re really becoming faster. The motivation behind that band is very strong.

FCH: I think it’s in terms of quality of songwriting.

GH: yeah.

FCH: you’re right. Ok, question about Derek now, I think, in my opinion, Derek is more present in '2', in the new album.

GH: absolutely.

FCH: from the very first song, immediately, you know. Did you intend to display that aspect due to the fact that some people could have been disappointed of his relative absence on the first one?

GH: first album honestly, we knew Derek’s position on the first album was going to be as a backing. It is very guitar oriented. When we started making '2', we weren’t sure how it was going to be on the keyboards. We weren’t sure, we weren’t sure and then we wrote that part in "Outsider", that Lord and Blackmore part (Glenn sings). It could be like Highway Star, you know. And then we realised you know, we were missing that on the first album. There’s an element of keyboards on this album that is very strong so hopefully, people will understand why we’ve done this.

FCH: I think in the first album, we talked about it, "Songs of Yesterday" was really a milestone, very important song.

GH: wonderful song.

FCH: yes a wonderful song, well in my opinion I think that "Save Me" plays that part, seems to play that part.

GH: on this one yeah.

FCH: it’s a very important track.

GH: everybody loves that one.

FCH: beautiful song.

GH: isn’t it great?

FCH: it touches us, really.

GH: thank you, thank you.


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[Stormbringer74]

Part 2 :

FCH: we talked about this in the beginning. On the new album, your voice seems to be better placed but darker.

GH: yeah definitely

FCH: Moreover, Jason's drumming seems to be heavier too. Do you agree with this? I think so, because you said that in the beginning.

GH: absolutely.

FCH: in my opinion, Joe tends to riff much more than on his solo albums. The riffs are heavier than they are on his solo albums.

GH: oh yeah.

FCH: are you aware that goes contrary to present standard songs which last around 4 minutes in a structure based upon verse-chorus-solo-verse-chorus. Was it intentional to do that?

GH: no, we don’t think about those things. We don’t think about verse-chorus-bridge-pause. Although I do write in a stylistic form, you can see that, when I write, and if you notice me, in the first verse there’ll be 4 lines and the next one will be 3, to bring the chorus in quicker. I like to do that. But the structure, Kevin normally, I write the song but he’ll normally arrange it. He likes to arrange, that’s his job.

FCH: well the collaboration between you and Joe I think works with perfection really on this album. Do you have the same feeling with Joe?

GH: oh yeah. We’re really good friends.

FCH: I really appreciate your work with David Coverdale and I find it in this collaboration.

GH: oh really?

FCH: really, I think so.

GH: you know Joe is one of the greatest new singers we have in blues and rock. We talked about Joe as a guitar player but let’s talk about his vocals. Let’s talk about his tone. I think he sings something on a (Glenn sings). The last thing he sings on "Ordinary Son" before we go together, he sings (Glenn sings) like Paul Rodgers.

FCH: on this album, his voice is certainly warmer.

GH: yeah, yeah. He is an amazingly talented singer. His manager called me before I left to come to Europe to thank me for making Joe a better singer, which is sweet.

FCH: I think he has improved.

GH: well, you know he tells me that to stand next to me on stage help him to really practice his singing. So I don’t know man, he’s like my little, he could be my son, you know, he’s...

FCH: how old is he?

GH: 33

FCH: a young man.

GH: and I could be his grand father maybe.

FCH: how do you choose the vocals of each song? You or him or?

GH: Kevin.

FCH: ah Kevin, ok.

GH: as you know, I write most of the stuff. And I’ll take it to Joe to show him the songs. For instance on this album, I wrote "Crawl" for Joe to sing, I also wrote "Smokestack Woman" for Joe to sing, but Joe, let’s just say that I started to sing those songs and Kevin said "you have to sing these songs" because Kevin thought my voice was working for "Crawl" and "Smokestack Woman". Because "Crawl" is a very dark song and I’ve lived that you know. Joe hasn’t lived that. "Smokestack Woman" was written for Joe but when I sang it Kevin said "you have to sing this song", it’s so Glenn Hughes you know. It was my desire for Joe to sing 2 more songs.

FCH: I saw the video when you sang this song on the Spanish radio a few days ago. Not so bad, too.

GH: ah, "Cold". It was just a very strange circumstance but you know, you know I’m coming from a very, well when I get the acoustic it becomes Glenn you know.

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[Stormbringer74]

Part 3 :

FCH: so you’ve got two albums now. About the set list, will it be composed of only BCC stuff?

GH: well Joe really wants to play "No Quarter". We did this in England it was very very well received so you know, you can probably see "No Quarter" will be there you know. And we play really well you know so we’ll see. I don’t know what we’ll play. I don’t really want to play anymore covers. I want to play our songs. I don’t particularly want to play anything other than Black Country. You know, it’s not important for me.

FCH: in a certain way you are turned to the future.

GH: all about the future.

FCH: yes, all about the future.

GH: remember guys, I’m going to be 60 next year and as long as Mick Jagger is doing this s**t, I’ll still, my friend, he’s 62 and I love him. He’s still kicking ass. So I have my friends who are older than me who are in my peer groups, who are still performing on stages. So as long as I’m in good health, which I am. Poor Ronnie, he got cancer. Ronnie, and this is the message that Wendy would want me to tell you: Ronnie never went to the hospital every year. You know, so this guy goes twice a year for blood work and twice a year for scans. I just had a colonoscopy and a test with a camera going down my throat. I’m that kind of guy since Ronnie has died. I want to think about Gary Moore, was he going to the doctors? Was he? I don’t ****ing know but when you get to 60 years old, you go: I have to be careful.

FCH: it’s problematic, yes.

GH : and God bless Gary Moore. I don’t know how he was living before he died. I’m not suggesting he was drinking or eating too much but I’m not sure if he was. I know a lot of my friends are afraid to go to the doctor. When I got clean in 91, I went so healthy that I wanted to know about me teeth, about my ****ing heart, you know, that’s the kind of guy I am. I want to be doing this forever you know.

FCH: Gary was sane; he was very healthy at the end of his life.

GH: Gary?

FCH: Gary Moore.

GH: was he happy?

FCH: I don’t know if he was happy.

GH: I don’t know. I hope so.

FCH: we can’t compare with Philip Lynott for example who was a complete drug addict.

GH: I’m so glad that we haven’t got to read that I died of drugs, you know. My biggest success in life is that I put the cocaine away, and the whisky. That’s the biggest success. This is great being the number one group having you know, the success we’re having but the biggest success is that I have a great and wonderful wife, a wonderful home but the biggest success for me is crack cocaine as cocaine is so ****ing bad.

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[Stormbringer74]

Part 4 :

FCH: you are going to release a DVD, a live DVD from concerts in Germany

GH: June 30th, July 1st and July 3rd we are playing in Germany and we are recording Stuttgart, Munich & Frankfurt.

FCH: ah ok, it will be recorded on 3 dates.

GH: yes.

FCH: not Bonn?

GH: Bonn? It could be.

FCH: because I will be in Bonn.

GH: It could be. It’s from the first 3 shows in Germany. You know something, it could be Bonn.

FCH: ok.

GH: it could be. I know we’re recording. Kevin is coming in. You’ll see the camera crew and it’s going to be coming in Christmas. Blue Ray.

FCH: a little question about David Coverdale who has just released a new Whitesnake album. Have you met him recently and can we expect collaboration with him in the future?

GH: David and I, I’ve said this and I’ll tell you. You’re the only person that asked me and I’ll tell you you are the only person in France today. We will only collaborate in MKIII.

FCH: ok (laughs).

GH: so there’s a high bench there.

FCH: but there was a concert in 2000 if I remember, for Christmas.

GH: yes. It was fun. David and I have decided that when we can get Blackmore out of the house, we will collaborate. And you know the bets are against that. But, trust me. BCC success will make people, I think Lord, Paice and Blackmore will go "wahhh, maybe now it’s time" you know. But David only wants to work with Ritchie if he’s going to show up. The offers for the band are astronomical. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

FCH: sure about that. So, how can you combine your solo career with BCC ? Is your solo career in stand-byfor the moment?

GH: my solo career has been put on hold because I’ve been doing it for 18 years and Joe’s career is doing so well that he’s a little bit of locomotion. But BCC in a way is kind of me anyway it’s kind of Glenn Hughes you know, being a singer and a frontman it’s ok for me, You know, its like when you think of Mick Jagger, you think of the Rolling Stones, you know. When you think of Glenn Hughes, you’ll think of BCC. It’s very simple.

FCH: ok, so when we think about Glenn Hughes, we think as a group.

GH: yeah.

FCH: as an entity.

GH: yeah. I think so. That’s for now. But I’m coming in October solo

FCH: ok.

GH: I’ll be coming back in Europe.

FCH: in Europe? but you already have solo dates in the UK

GH: In May but you know, I’m going to do a full European tour in October. October, November and I’ll see you then when I come with my band.

FCH : our pleasure

FCH: and for the shows in October and November, is it solo shows...

GH: electric.

FCH: electric. Ok, that’s my question. With the same band?

GH: my solo band, the one you know.

FCH: with Soren, Pontus

GH: yes, Soren, Anders and Pontus. It’s a ****ing great band, man.

FCH: I saw you in Verviers last year.

GH: oh, you were there.

FCH: yes.

GH: wasn’t it great?

FCH: yes, a great concert.
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[Stormbringer74]

Part 5 :

GH: other than that my book is coming in May.

FCH: yes.

GH: but it’s a luxury edition. It’s like expensive. The regular paperback edition which hopefully will be translated in French is coming in October.

FCH: well it’s a sort of memorabilia.

GH: it’s a memoir, it’s everything from little boy, famous, drugs, you know like dark, being shot you know.

FCH: very intimate.

GH: it’s dark, very dark. But it’s real.

FCH: this is...it’s a joke: the "deep" Glenn Hughes.

GH: this is very deep and dark, very deep and black.

FCH : ok, we look forward to it

GH: thank you guys. I hope you enjoyed the interview. Thank you very much, you’re very nice guys.

FCH: thank you very much Glenn.

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A big thank you goes out to :
Koid9, Hubert Allusson & Roger Wessier who gave us the opportunity to interview Glenn.
Olivier Garnier who allocated a time slot to us and organised such a perfect interview.
Nathalie Milliet who patiently transcribe and translated the interview into French.
And last but not least, a thousand thanks to Glenn for his warm welcome, his kindness and his professionalism.