Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan Says Retirement Rumors Are ‘Rubbish’

Deep Purple has flirted with the idea of calling it quits before. But according to vocalist Ian Gillan, they’re still running strong. Don’t pay attention to the rumors you may have heard.

“So far, so good,” he quips early in the below conversation with UCR.

You can apply that thought to many things beyond their ongoing prowess on the road. Earlier this year, Deep Purple released =1, their newest studio album, which once again features legendary producer Bob Ezrin at the helm. There’s mutual respect between the two parties and it makes sense: Both Ezrin and the members of Deep Purple are not known for mincing words.

Deep Purple start their tour with Yes on Wednesday (Aug. 14). In advance, Gillan checked in with Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw to discuss the upcoming run as well as the band’s decade-plus working relationship with Ezrin.

It’s great to see Deep Purple hitting the road with Yes. What sort of bond was there between the two groups back in the day?
There wasn’t much of a bond. [Laughs] We were doing a festival [in] Plumpton, the first rock, jazz and blues festival that became the Reading Festival, run by Jack Barrie at the Marquee [Club in London]. He’d put on some absolutely great bands. Of course, we’d worked with most of them in those days. It was fantastic. They were all good in their own way – but I think Yes were a bit miffed, because they wanted to close the show and it wasn’t in their contract. It was [in our contract] that Deep Purple would close the show, so they refused to leave the hotel room. Jack said, “Guys, would you mind going on a bit earlier? I don’t want to push you but it would help me and it would help the crowd.” “Yeah sure, okay, no worries.” Then, Ritchie [Blackmore] decided that if we weren’t going to close, nobody was. He ordered some gasoline to be brought in. He threw it all over the equipment and then had the roadie light a broom, which had a petrol-soaked rag on the end of it to ignite the lot. Of course, it did ignite – because the fumes just exploded. Within a half-hour, there were blue lights flashing. The police, the fire brigade and ambulances were all coming in and there was complete chaos. Everything was on the front page of the Sunday papers the next morning and it was all quite rock ‘n’ roll. [Laughs]

When the tour with Yes was originally announced, it was billed as the =1 More Time tour. Realistically, how close does the end of the road – and perhaps, this band, feel to you?
Well, you know what, it was only recently that I heard somebody mention [the tour name]. I’d never heard that before. I’d never even spoken to anybody about it. No one asked me. That’s rubbish. [Laughs] That’s not the name of the tour. I think the tour is called Unleashed. Not that it matters; it’s a Deep Purple tour and we’re happy and whatever. But to answer your question: It is what it is. As soon as you start feeling unable to deliver at that level – of course, you adjust, of course, you adapt and make do the best you can. But when the energy level goes, that’s time to stop because then it gets embarrassing and nobody wants that. But so far, so good. I think that’s a much better title than what you just said. [Laughs]

READ MORE: Will Deep Purple’s Next Tour Be Their Last?

I love the sound of this latest album. You guys have dialed things in quite nicely with Bob Ezrin. You’ve now done five albums with Bob. What is it that you love about working with him?
Bob is exactly what we were missing. No. 1, he’s an arbiter in the final stages of arrangement. I know it sounds ridiculous, but when you get five guys in a room, you get very close to a finished arrangement and someone will say, “Well, what about this? Why don’t we try this?” So we can sit and squabble and talk for three days trying to settle on an arrangement and just basically keep everyone happy. Bob comes in and says, “That’s rubbish. Get that out. Get rid of that. Do this, do that.” [Laughs] He takes our arrangements and tightens them up. That’s been great. He does it with a voice of authority because we respect him and what he’s achieved. He also gets the best sound we’ve ever had. That’s really important. I was overwhelmed when I heard what he was doing. Nothing comes near it in my opinion, from over the years. You can overcome that shortfall with excitement, brashness, youth and energy and all of those other things, but at the end of the day, it’s really important.

Watch Deep Purple’s ‘Portable Door’ Video

We had a series of front-of-house sound engineers [for our live concerts] who would mix like all of the other rock bands. They’d mix it like heavy metal. The audience would feel the bass drum thumping in their guts, the guitar and the power and it was relentless. Everything was full on, all of the way through the show. One day, we had a new engineer and he looked at things musically and made it enjoyable to listen to. We finished “Highway Star,” which is our traditional opening song and I couldn’t believe it. We were all taken aback because the audience reaction was at least four times greater. They raised the roof. Nothing had changed. The band was the same and it was the same sized venue – same everything. The only difference was the sound engineer and it’s been that way ever since. That was a massive change. It was more than Ezrin, to be honest, in the live field. I’ve always thought we didn’t get our sound as good as it could have been in the studio. Sure enough, that’s his gig, man. That’s his skill. He gets the best sound we’ve ever had. I say that without fear of contradiction. I mean, it’s obvious.

READ MORE: How Deep Purple Created a ‘Minor Miracle’ With ‘Machine Head’

With Deep Purple, there’s a lot to harness when it comes to getting the sound on record.
It is if you’re trying to impose a sound. If you just let it flow naturally: If it’s organic, it’s wonderful. You know, back in the day when I had my first recording contracts, one of the things that I noticed was that the old-style engineers, when the gear was set up in the room, they’d come around and literally and metaphorically throw blankets over everything. They’d put a blanket over the drum kit or pads – anything to flatten the sound. All sound engineers back in the ’60s wanted the performers to have a completely flat sound so that they could then manipulate it in the control room and give it the edge or the presence or the reverberation or the balance that they wanted and make it exciting in their way. But what that does is, it neutralized the personality of the performers. Everything sounded like the engineer’s sound, the way they wanted it or the producer. I noticed that right away and that was the main reason why Deep Purple wanted to get out of the studio and go to make our music in a barn or hotel or whatever it might be with a mobile unit back in the early days. So then we could actually take the blankets off and the engineer could record the band as it did sound, rather than as he imagined it would sound. That takes away everything you’ve achieved. I think that’s the way Bob approaches things now and he’s a shrewd guy. The best producers now understand that thing, but it’s a totally alien philosophy to the traditional way of recording.

Listening to the tone of your vocals on “Lazy Sod,” for example, it’s very theatrical, which has always been an element of your presentation. How do you view your approach to it?
Well, you’re always learning – but also, I think there are little things that you don’t know you’re doing at the time. You don’t notice until afterwards. It’s very obvious that when you’re relaxed, you perform better. I often think of the analogy of an athlete. If they’re relaxed, they’ll run faster and perform better – because your brain’s working better. That’s where it all comes from. The attitude that you have and the circumstances that you find yourself with, with the guys you’re working with, it’s incredible. There are stages you go through in life and you’ve got to adapt to each one. Evolve or die as the great prophet Darwin said. We do that. We learn as we go along. It’s still so fulfilling, the output of the band. It’s like an orchard. Someone’s been along to shake the trees. It’s a good time to be in Deep Purple.

But as far as the interpretation, I think it’s natural. With relaxation comes confidence, when you’re writing something that you really believe in. I tore up all of the songs on this album until I did that equation, the “equals one” equation, because I was so fed up with the complications of just trying to buy things or get through life without all of the bureaucracy and impediments that are constantly falling in your way. Once I put that “equals one” equation together, I thought, “Right, that’s it.” The whole album, I wrote it in about three weeks, all of the words and tunes and kept it simple. “Lazy Sod” was about me setting fire to my house, by the way. Some imaginary sprinklers come on that turn into waterfalls, flooding the place. It was all a bit surreal. But once you get these little stories, you can handle it in different ways, so it’s fantastic material for that kind of writing.

Watch Deep Purple’s ‘Lazy Sod’ Video