13 QUESTIONS WITH GLENN HUGHES

I was offered the chance to interview GLENN HUGHES at the same I was offered JOE LYNN TURNER, and my thought process was roughly the same with both of them. i knew he'd been in DEEP PURPLE, but outside of that, I wasn't too familiar. I started doing some homework, and found out that Glenn's list of credits is an impressive one. Check this out: In addition to playing with TRAPEZE and Deep Purple, he's also played with BLACK SABBATH, GARY MOORE, THE KLF, and he's had a lengthy solo career. Veterans of the music business are generally a lot more fun to interview than artists who are just breaking through. They've been to the top of the heap, made a few bucks, and they usually wind up being humbled at some point when the "next big thing" steps into the spotlight. With his latest solo release, 'Songs in the Key Of Rock', and 'HTP2', his latest collaboration with Joe Lynn Turner, Glenn Hughes is making the kind of music he knows how to make, and doing it for a collection of loyal fans. Currently on tour in Japan in support of 'HTP2', Glenn took a few minutes to answer a set of our '13 Questions'...

Steve C: In other interviews, you seem very at peace with the fact that the music you are playing does not appeal to an enormous segment of the music buying public. After decades in the often- tumultuous music business, what keeps your creative juices flowing? Need to pay the bills? Ego? Women with no morals and large (or small) bosoms?

GLENN HUGHES well, i can't stop writing because my brain won't let me. i just have all these songs in my head. and thank god because my wife and her small to medium sized bosoms likes to get the bills paid.

SC: We've heard that when on tour, you're up at the crack of dawn while some people (read: Joe Lynn Turner) have "Do Not Disturb" signs on their hotel room doors until 4:00 in the afternoon. What the fuck do you do all day while he's hanging out in his hotel room, and moreover, what do you think HE does all day with that 'DND' sign on his door?

GH: i eat breakfast early, maybe watch a bit of cnn, talk on the phone to the wife back home and perhaps get a walk or a nap. i imagine joe is watching tv and on the phone and he likes to shop too. (It never ceases to amaze me how UN-rock n' roll some of these rock guys are)

SC: You're friendly with Kevin DuBrow (formerly of QUIET RIOT). Without ragging on your buddy up too badly, can you tell us what is going on with his hair? His hairline was receeding in '85, and now he's got a full head of curlies. If you had to guess, is it a wig? transplant? miracle of modern chemistry? Do tell...

GH: i gave kevin my old hats. (That question has been asked thousands of times, by countless DJs, websites, and other assorted journalists ... and NO ONE has ever gotten a straight answer about that guy's head. It's like a big-ass joke at this point)
Kevin DuBrow (possibly with a donated hat), Glenn, and Las Vegas DJ Lark Williams


SC: We were told you're an animal lover. We're assuming in the "Oh-isn't-he-so-cute-and-cuddly" way, and not in the "Take-it-all-you-dirty-sheep" way... Tell us about what happened with your dog, Lily, when you first brought her back from New York.

GH: we were on the plane and she was just a very small baby, not even 3 pounds and she was such a sweet good girl and as we were on the plane something was wrong so they made us get off and go to another plane and so, poor lily was in her carry on bag for 8 hours instead of the normal 6 on a flight from nyc. well, she was so cute the stewardess told us if we wanted to take her out of the bag we could. we didn't of course, my wife being a big rule follower. anyway, at one point she (my wife, not lily) looked at me and said "she's taking a shit" andi flew out of the seat and we went in the bathroom and there was shit allover. i mean all over so gabi says, "hold her while i clean her up" and she has to use all the towels and blankets we brought to clean her and she is throwing them all away down the garbage shoot and all ove a sudden i dropped lily and she went into the shoot and i caught her just as she was going under. that is how small she was. gabi &i almost had a heart attack. (Stories always get a little funnier with the addition of poo. Always)

SC: Glenn, you're an avid soccer player. Soccer generally attracts more fanatical violence between fans than any other sport. Considering the violent nature of American culture, why do you think soccer (and it's accompanying violent lunatic fan base) has not caught on in the U.S.?

GH: i don't know. i know a lot of people who have kids who play soccer so maybe as they get older it will be a bigger thing.

SC: When we asked Joe how he felt about all of the consolidation and loss of revenue going on with record companies these days, he wasn't very sympathetic. In fact, he told us that the record companies shot themselves in the foot by treating artists so unethically. Glenn, how do you feel about these once-mighty companies imploding in on themselves?

GH: i have the same feelings as joe really. i wish there were still a few around who wanted to give us some big money, but that is not going to happen again. (Wow. How's that for honesty?)

SC: Let's talk adult entertainment, shall we? We hear you're a pornography co nniseur. Let's say you're on tour and the hotel in-room pay-per-view system features a few choices for your viewing pleasure:

1) A classic 1970's-era MOVIE (shot on film, plot and all) starring one or all of the following:
Marilyn Chambers, Linda Lovelace, Kitten Natividad, Ron Jeremy, or John Holmes
2) A grainy, bleached-out stag film from the 1930's
3) A just-released reality porn featuring a lot of bleached blonde chicks in stiletto heels doing double-anal with each other and/or several men
4) Bukkake
5) A bootleg Guatemalan snuff film your road manager smuggled in from a recent trip to South America.

Which flick does Glenn Hughes order?

GH: #1 - 70's all the way . i'm really into the 70' sright now.

SC: Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you're teaching a bass clininc somewhere in the Northeast United States. You're sitting in front of a room full of aspiring rock musicians. One starry-eyed young fella asks you "Mr. Hughes, what advice can you empart to someone who really wants to be a famous rock and roll musician"... You can belt out one of the following responses. Which one is it?

a) Follow your heart, kid. Even if you have to eat Cheerios three times a day, it'll be worth it if you're doing what you love to do.
b) Learn a trade and give up on the music business! Go and study how to become a plumber. The world needs more plumbers!
c) Move to Europe or Japan. At least you'll have more than a snowball's chance in Hell of making a living with music.

GH: i would answer with a and c cuz you will need to do both. (hear that kids? Pack your shit.)

SC: The opening riff in "Revelation" on the new HTP2 disc sounds very Audioslave-ish. Have you ever considered leaking a track to radio without telling them that an old fart is singing it just to see how rock radio reacts?

GH: well, you have to get someone to leak the track for you, and unless you do a rap record, there is no way that i know of, to get it done.

SC: Hypothetical situation: You're flying in a helicopter to a fairgrounds for an upcoming concert in the midwest. You step off the helicopter to wave to a crowd of adoring fans, only to realize that the helicopter blades are still spinning, and you've just sliced off both hands at the wrists.. You survive but needless to say, your bass-playing/guitar playing/piano playing and singing days are over. How's Glenn Hughes going to pay the bills?

GH: i guess gabi will have to bring home the biscuit money....or perhaps i can play soccer. (The soccer thing sounds cool. Anyone know where we could lease a helicopter really cheap?)

SC: Successful songwriters are often their own worst critics. Which songs in your arsenal are you sick of hearing/playing live, and are there any that you wish you hadn't written?

GH: not really. it is other people's stuff i get sick of. (Gee, this guy really has diarrhea of the mouth, doesn't he?...end sarcasm...)

SC: After pouring your guts into a song like "Losing My Head", one of the catchier, more melodic songs on HTP2, getting STEVE VAI to play guitar on it, and singing your heart out with Joe, how do you feel that the song just gets passed over by radio programmers in the U.S.?

GH: you need someone strong to push your stuff. i can't show up at the stations myself.

SC: After touring the world as extensively as you have, which languages have you been forced to/attempted to learn, and which cuisine from which country (which dish, specifically) sends you sprinting to the restroom clenching your asscheeks?

GH: swedish, and maybe some italian and the food i love is in argentina, italy, england and the food that is hard on the system in russian and japanese. this is no reflection on these countries because i love going there-it is just that i have a tough time with the food. i need my beans on toast mate. (Beans and toast? Glenn must be fun in the bunks on the tour bus. ANDY TIMMONS said the Japanese food was rough, too. I guess the moral is to pack a lot of pepto with you if you go there.)


'Grrr....Beans on Toast!!!'
Glenn isn't the most verbose individual out there, but he did answer all of them as honestly as possible. If you happen to be a resident of Japan, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Italy, Spain, or Switzerland, you'll be lucky enough to catch Glenn on tour in support of HTP2 with Joe Lynn Turner.

Thanks to Lisa at To The Max for setting up this interview, by the way.

FOR TOUR DATES, VISIT GLENNHUGHES.com, GLENN's OFFICIAL WEBSITE

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