GLENN HUGHES #2

There are certain people in the endeavor of music that stand apart from all others. For some it is a guitar tone, others have established personas that are so unique that they alone define a style... a very few are the absolute best at what they do and comparable to none. The illimitable Glenn Hughes fits best into this third category. Hughes IS the voice of rock but so much more and is as much a god as he is man to a throng of fans that have followed his musical meandering for better than thirty years now. With a track record that includes stints with such luminaries as TRAPEZE, DEEP PURPLE and BLACK SABBATH it is easy to understand why the man has become an icon but you needn't know the man's history to be able to taste of his soul, a single listen to the voice provides that best opportunity.

In recent years Hughes has stepped up his productivity to a dizzying pace. In the opinion of this writer, Hughes has sweat out his two best collections with 1998's "THE WAY IT IS" and this year's "RETURN OF CRYSTAL KARMA." The former sees Hughes shotguning his various talents and influences across the full spectrums of Funk, Jazz and Rock whereas the latter is a straight ahead Rock and Roll expedition as only Glenn Hughes could guide. Taken together these are a veritable "best of" package for the man's already impressive solo career. If by some tragic circumstance you do not own these recordings stop here and get to the closest CD shop and buy them now, you will never do better for the money or the effort.

In years past Hughes has done battle with his share of demons ultimately subduing them all, which gives the man great pride and considerable brightness to interact with. No small part of this happiness is due to his imminent nuptials and the fact that he is once again taking his music to the people around the world, this time, as part of a power trio with particular emphasis on the "power." With only a few days off from what to others would be an oppressive schedule Hughes set aside a few hours for conversation some of which he spent with yours truly resulting, in part, in the following.

DAVID LEE I was a bit afraid to listen to this record due mostly to the fact that I was and remain so totally in love with the last one, "THE WAY IT IS," I didn't think that you could manage another one like that but you did and I thank you for it!

GLENN HUGHES It is a good one isn't it?

DL Absolutely. The obvious place to start is with the title, where did that come from?

GH The truth of the matter is that I was in Switzerland about two years ago doing a project, I have got so many going on but, the project that I was working on, I was up in the Swiss Alps and I was thinking to myself, "What can I call this project?" I was going to call it "Return Of Crystal Karma" but then I said, "Wait, this is not a rock record, it is more of a Euro-trashy record." So, I thought that one-day I would record a rock record and use that title. It employs the pseudonym, R-O-C-K, "Return Of Crystal Karma" and it is for the fan that has, let's say, been bewildered by my whims in the last few years. I mean, I don't make the same record twice and I wanted people to know that when they go into stores and see R-O-C-K that it is in fact a rock record. You have to really tell people now before they will know what is on my records because they are all very diverse. As you know, I can do pretty much anything, I don't say that to be conceited, it is just that I am really gifted in a way where I can just do a lot of things. I like to do lots and lots of different styles of music and so, hence the title, "Return Of Crystal Karma." I wanted it to sound rock-ish. What does it mean to me? Basically it is a return to the innocence of when I started writing music. I wanted this to be very seventies, if you will, kind of retro, not a lot of overdubs. I wanted it to be more in your face and I think that I accomplished that.

DL Following that line, is this a digital product or did you use analog equipment in the studio?

GH Analog. Totally. The deal is on this record is that I wanted it to be real Hammond organ and regular, in your face, guitar ballsy bass and big drums. I didn't want lots of synth basically, what TRAPEZE would sound like in the year 2000. I just wanted to go back to my roots and it is OK to do that.

DL I am looking at the cover and the other photos that came with this record and the thing that I notice most about them that I haven't in the past is that you are always smiling.(laughs)

GH If you know my career, you know that I haven't smiled since DEEP PURPLE!(laughs) There was the mystic about me and what was going on with me and "what is going on in that head of his?" The deal is that I am older and contented, a lot of people wouldn't dig that but, you know, I am not twenty-one and I am not in PANTERA. I am Glenn Hughes and like Popeye says, "I am who I am." That is the deal, I am a very happy guy. It is a really good record too and I am really, really in love with this piece of music.

DL We have spoken about this before but I should ask again, does the baggage that you have to carry from the days with DEEP PURPLE and BLACK SABBATH and TRAPEZE frustrate what you are trying to accomplish musically now?

GH No, that is OK but the only problem is that when I tour I have so many songs to choose from and if I am touring, lets say with UFO or if I am going on the road and playing rock clubs I can't be doing my super-funky ballads and stuff like that. I have two sets of fans, it is very bizarre, I have the very hard-core Rock-Glenn fans and then I have a cross-section of younger women that like the ballads and I have to try and please both. It is very bizarre. In Japan my audience is very, very young. In South America it is teenagers and in America, I don't know. The good news is that next year I am going to play here.

DL In the States, a full tour?

GH Yeah, I have a booking agent up in Michigan and they are actually working on tour dates for me right now. I am excited.

DL Is this going to be as a headliner or will you be with UFO, what kind of package are we looking at?

GH Lets just say this, I am going out with UFO in Europe and I presume that my agent and my manager who also manages UFO will get me on their tour here, if not, I will definitely pursue a headlining tour in clubs.

DL Your drummer is from around here too, isn't he?

GH Bob is not with us anymore but the guy who has been with me for "THE WAY IT IS" and "RETURN OF CRYSTAL KARMA," is Gary Ferguson and he has been with me from Gary Moore and Hughes/Thrall. I chose Gary because he is ballsy and we are actually going out as a trio so I need somebody who is very, very powerful. Bob was a brilliant drummer but Gary is a little heavier.

DL That should be interesting, to hear music that was written for four and five piece bands done as a trio.

GH The reason that I am doing it is, I just decided a month ago I was going out as a trio, was because my guitar player, JJ, he is so big, he is a monster and I come from a trio in TRAPEZE. You see, you can't hide in a trio, there is no room for mistakes and it is dangerous, you have to be really on. I took a look at the tour and I took a look at the dates and I though that it would be really good as a trio. I am really looking forward to going out as a three piece.

DL Does that change the song selection at all?

GH No. well, songs like "Coast to Coast" and "You Keep on Movin'" and some of the ballads, we just have to do them a little different and it is going to be more aggressive. You see, I love keyboards and I love the textures and I love the chords that I write and play on keyboards but on this particular tour, as I say, is more in your face with a heavy backbeat.

DL I am certainly looking forward to it. Has it been since BLACK SABBATH that you last toured in the States?

GH 1985 and I did some dates here with TRAPEZE in '94, about twelve dates in the South and that was fantastic. I have got a large undercurrent of Glenn Hughes fans across America who are chompping to see me so it is going to be a lot of fun for me. The whole thing is fun, everything I do is fun!(laughs)

DL You played a couple of shows with the Tommy Bolin tribute band recently, didn't you?

GH Right.

DL There was talk for a while that you would tour that band, what happened with that?

GH The deal is that I did a one-off CD recording in Denver and it was put together, I got to Denver on a Thursday night and the show was on Friday, we taped Friday with a very quick rehearsal of those songs and we pulled it off pretty well. The idea of going 'round the world playing Tommy Bolin songs, I would like to say that I would like to do it but I don't think that it would work. A lot of people who come to see me want to hear my stuff. It worked in that Tribute thing because it was in Denver and when I played in Texas on the same run last year there were more Glenn fans from PURPLE and TRAPEZE and SABBATH and they wanted to hear more of my stuff so it didn't work there. It was OK and I want to say that I love Tommy Bolin and I want to respect his music forever but I think that I need to play some of my songs as well.

DL "RETURN OF CRYSTAL KARMA" is available as a two CD set here in America, how did we rate that?

GH My manager and SPV in Europe had a couple of CDs out with Paul Rodgers where it was half live and half studio and I was just in South America last year where I taped a show and I said, "That wasn't bad, lets put it out with the next record." It is just a gift really.

DL The selection of songs was pretty interesting too, some never heard live before.

GH "No Stranger To Love." I love singing that song. I sang it on the ill-fated SABBATH thing, three shows or something.

DL Now seems a good time to talk to you about the whole SABBATH experience. Am I remembering this correctly, it wasn't really BLACK SABBATH that you thought you were going to be involved with in the beginning, is that how it worked?

GH Tony and I grew up, pretty much, in the same part of England and I had known Tony and SABBATH since TRAPEZE in the very late sixties and early seventies so we had been friends for a very long time. We hung out together back at the California Jam, Ozzy used to come over to my house and stuff like that. When Tony asked me to come over and work on his solo, and I stress "solo" project it was supposed to be like the album he has out now, with four or five different singers on it. Rob Halford, Robert Plant, myself, Dio and Roger Daltry were going to sing the stuff but I ended up doing the whole thing because I wrote, and what you don't know is that I wrote a lot of that stuff but I am not in the credits. I write a lot of the stuff very quickly and Tony was so in love with the stuff that I had done that we basically just had the record (done). When we finished the record it was going to be called, "Tony Iommi" well, between him, his manager and the record company something went bizarre and they decided to call it "BLACK SABBATH featuring Tony Iommi." I love the record, I think that every Glenn fan and every Tony fan loves the record but when I went on the tour something really bad happened. I don't know if you know what really happened but something really bizarre happened.

DL Somewhat, you got into a bit of a punch-up with someone and it basically kept you from singing?

GH There was a guy named John Downing who was the production manager and he had been around the Birmingham area for years and lets just say that he and I got into a spat one night and a fracas occurred and regardless of what preceded it, I got injured. I took a blow to the nose that punctured the socket, the bone around my eye and punctured the nose cavity. What I didn't realize was that there was a constant stream of blood coming down into my throat and by the time we hit New York I could barely speak let alone sing. There was obviously something wrong with me but the reports of me being a little bit out of my mind were a little untrue at the time and I will tell you why. They had Doug Goldstein, who now manages Axl Rose, and he was my bodyguard, my minder and in the eighties I was a little bit out of control but then, with Doug Goldstein up my butt, nothing was going on. The truth of the matter was that we were injured in a fracas and it prevented me from doing my job. They had seen the problems that I was having speaking during the day so they asked Ray Gillen to join the tour. The only bad part about this was that I wasn't told about this until, it was like I was on the plane the next day. You know something and I want you to put this in the book, I had asked God earlier on in the tour, which was only a couple of days, I asked him to relieve me of my duties because I just couldn't sing. The thing was that I may have been hurting my reputation as a singer if I had continued and by the last gig there was no air even coming out of my mouth. It was AAARRGGHH GURGLE, GURGLE, it was horrible. It was like Lemmy on a bad day!(laughs) Consequently I had to go to Hospital, Doug Goldstein took me, and I had my throat scraped of all the dried blood if you can believe that. I was told by the doctor not to speak for three weeks to a month so I was out of SABBATH regardless. I was going to have to go anyway so that night, Ray had been on the tour with us and the next night they went on with their business. You know, I didn't speak with Tony for a number of years after that and then, as you know, we started writing again in '96 for his new record, which is out now.

DL These songs that are on this new Iommi record, are any of them from those sessions?

GH I wrote seven tracks with Tony, we went and did it in his house with Don Airey and Dave Holland in Birmingham and what happened next was a horror, a nightmare. Somehow, somebody got a real rough mix of those, we'll call them demos, and Tony and I decided that we wouldn't release that batch, that we were going to re-record them. Then 18 months ago they popped up on the Internet and that stopped anything that we were going to do with it. Tony and I are still real good friends and he asked me if I would like to use any of the tracks so I chose "Gone" for my record.

DL Did any of the tracks that the two of you wrote for the record that was not released end up on Tony's current solo record?

GH I haven't heard it I think that Tony's manager told me that one of the ideas that we wrote ended up on the record but I haven't got a clue because I haven't heard it. All I know is that Tony Iommi is an absolute sweetheart and I wish him all the very, very best but I think that the Glenn Hughes/Tony Iommi saga is unfinished business. Tony will eventually come back to me and we will work together again, I don't know on what. You see, Tony really enjoys working with a singer that understands what he is doing and the saga will continue.

DL I recently came across a photo of you and Ray Gillen. . ..

GH That was at the "PHENOMENA" sessions. I was chubby and had a beard, right?

DL I don't recall.

GH Yeah, that was a horrible photograph!(laughs) Let's just say that I wasn't well. I think that it was in '87 in London when "PHENOMENA 2" was being recorded.

DL That was after the SABBATH thing was over for the both of you then?

GH Yeah, it was after. Once again, before Ray died he would come down to visit and would stay at my house with his girlfriend. There were a lot of rumors about Ray and his disease and Ray would come to me and he would tell me that he didn't have this disease and da, da, da. I had to respect his wishes. I have been sober for ten years now but when all of this was going down I was there for him spiritually but I was in such denial that when I did the benefit for him at Irving Plaza I was very angered that people kept saying that he died of AIDS and you know, actually, he did and I never knew. I was so naïve and vulnerable to the fact that he and his Mom were telling me that he didn't (have AIDS) so who am I going to believe? I told MTV that it was all BS. It was a very difficult time for me. Ray left a lot of unanswered question for a lot of people but he was a friend of mine so what can I tell you?

DL Amazing talent.

GH Oh, yes.

DL The use of the word "Karma" implies a certain sense of spirituality, where are you in terms of philosophical belief?

GH Let us just say that when I asked for help in 1991, that is when I decided to turn it around, I was spiritually bankrupt. I had nothing on board except skin and bones, I was dead inside. I was a walking dead man and a lot of people that you and I both know in this industry are that way, bless them. For Uncle Glenn, I just couldn't deal with it anymore, I just couldn't deal with the fact that I was throwing my life away and really, really destroying my Mother and Father and everyone else. One day I just decided I would turn it over to God. And I choose to call him "God" because I use to call him Glenn and that would piss him off!(laughs) Me and God had a little chat one day, my job is to stay sober, carry the message and to do the things that he wants me to do so, now that is all sorted out.

DL You sound happier for the conversation.

GH I am.

DL In a week or so I am to speak with an ex-partner of yours, David Coverdale. What has your relationship with him like these days?

GH I haven't spoken with David in about five years, the last time I saw him was in an airport in Holland but I do want you to say hello to him and wish him all the best from me. I don't know what David is up to, he is very private but I do know that the guy worked very hard to get the success he had with WHITESNAKE. He has been very good to me as friends but we don't see each other very often, unfortunately.

DL He, like you, has had great success on a few occasions with different groups in different musical eras, for you, what was it that brought you the most pleasure as an artist?

GH TRAPEZE. I would say that the year before PURPLE when there was a TRAPEZE album called, "YOU ARE THE MUSIC" that was when I realized that I was a writer and that is when I was just starting to get the pipes going. That is when I started to learn how to sing properly. Now, everybody knows me as a great singer and a bass player but I would like some recognition as a songwriter now because it is the songs that are important. I am writing more songs now than I have ever written in my life.

DL Are you writing for other artists now?

GH My publishing company will eventually start dispersing songs but I am writing many, many different forms of music right now. Yeah, you could say that I am writing for other people, who I just don't know yet. There is a lot of Jazzy, late night stuff and a lot of R+B.

DL In the interim between DEEP PURPLE and the HUGHES/THRALL project, did you do any work then? It seems to be a period that has little written about it.

GH I put together something with Gary Moore which failed miserably in '79. You know, from PURPLE to HUGHES/THRALL it was dead because I took time off. I sat around and didn't do much and I was just enjoying the freedom of not working at that time. I think the most creative that I have ever been has been since I have been clean and sober these last nine years in which time I have done seven albums.

DL And another on the way, a Christmas album is it?

GH Yeah, I have just completed it and you can order it at Amazon.com. It is called "A SOULFUL CHRISTMAS" and I have got to tell you, it is amazing.

DL Are these standards?

GH Standards plus one original. One of the songs is from Donny Hathaway, which nobody has ever heard of, and one new Glenn Hughes song, which is the title track. This is for the real Glenn Hughes fan who just wants to listen to the voice. It is not rock, it is just straight singing.

DL Great, now I know what to lobby for in the stocking!

GH Yeah and there is a new video called, "THE DAYS OF AVALON" and that is a really good video with full-length songs and about twenty-five minutes of "backstage" stuff. You can get that through www.glennhughes.com.

DL Wonderful! Well, Glenn I know you have to be off but thank you so much for continuing to make such incredible music.

GH My pleasure, believe me!

DAVID LEE WILSON
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