Ian Gillan, long-time Deep Purple vocalist, has been in the music business for nearly 65 years. To celebrate that longevity, he embarks on his first talk tour next year with Talking Gib’rish, including three dates in London at the Union Chapel, Beck Theatre and Cadogan Hall.
During a break in Deep Purple’s current SPLAT! tour, we caught up on a Zoom call while Ian relaxed at home in Portugal, and chatted about his life and career.
Which artists did you listen to in your formative years, and who made you want to become a singer?
I was a boy chorister at St Paul’s, Hounslow. At home we had classical, jazz, then Elvis – Heartbreak Hotel, Little Richard, Chuck Berry. But I don’t really like genres. If these came out now they would all be put into little boxes.
I wanted to be a film star like Elvis – not an actor, a star. Then I met someone outside a cinema who played guitar and we started a band, Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners, because you had to have a silly name then to be noticed. From there I was recruited into The Javelins.
Once I was in Deep Purple in 1969, everyone brought their own influences, from blues to classical – Ritchie [Blackmore], Jon [Lord], Ian Paice – and I developed from there.
As a singer and frontman, how do you deal with the pressure and expectation without letting it lead to exhaustion, addiction or believing your own hype?
The bands I was with wouldn’t have allowed it. You can’t get big-headed. Also, everyone around you behaves the same in terms of the ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ lifestyle; it’s just that yours is reported.
I never felt the pressure to behave in that way. I didn’t have my first joint until I was 38! I was a drinker and smoker.
The pressure came when 5 guys working together suddenly becomes 20 and you become a business. Your friends become colleagues.
I don’t think about the money or success. I never have. I don’t have time for fashion either.
Your songwriting can be emotionally mature and reflective, but there’s also the Ian of drinking, swearing, sex, fighting and fast cars. Which is closer to the real you?
Both. It depends on your mood and what’s around you.
But as you get older, you’re more removed from what you used to write about, like fast cars, so you have to stop. Record labels decide what’s commercial and you have to go with that.
When we plan songs and jam, we can have any sort of music or influence. Now Simon [McBride]is in the band, his influence is very different to Steve [Morse] or Ritchie.
You’ve had very different phases of your career – your 20s, your 50s and now. If you met your 24-year-old self, would you get on?
He probably wouldn’t like me now, as you change. There’s also a naivety when you’re younger. I was a bit of a misfit at times, even at home.
But I always talk to my different personas and identities and chase ideas, as many people do.
In terms of my voice, when I was a chorister it sounded beautiful. Then, from 17 to 38, I had a young man’s voice. When it changed, I gained in tone what I lost, and I was able to sing songs I couldn’t have attempted when I was younger.
What’s one thing you regret doing, and one thing you regret not doing?
Shooting a blackbird when I was a boy with an air rifle. I cried for days when I realised what I had done.
I might have had a university education, done a degree. Although I would probably have met some musicians and dropped out to join a band.
You’ve revisited The Javelins and Episode Six in recent years. Is going back to the past important to you?
The Javelins one was good. It put on record what the band was, at least the one we did in Liverpool. The Hamburg recording sounded a little flat.
The Episode Six one was Harvey [Shield]’s night – I was more drinking beer and watching them. Tony [Lander], Sheila [Carter], Roger [Glover] got up and did a bit.
Would you have liked to jam with Ritchie sooner?
No. We’ve been good friends for years, but people didn’t know. We work very differently – and Ritchie walked out on the band and had been very fractious for some time.
When he left [in 1993], it was either finish or continue. The medieval music was always there with him, but that was the direction he wanted to take.
The music we make now in Deep Purple is very different. Back in the early days, Ritchie and I were roommates and very close, but that didn’t last. But Jones Beach closed that chapter and was emotional for a lot of the fans, I think.
If you could realistically have collaborated with anyone, who would it have been?
I’m going to surprise you now and say Dudley Moore. I always admired his piano playing.
I sent him a message once saying we should collaborate on an album and got a one-word answer: “Why?”
I couldn’t think of anything to reply.
And the ‘too late to die young’ T-shirt?
The bastards shrunk it, so I can’t wear it now!
Talking Gib’rish runs from 28 Apr to 29 May, in intimate venues across the UK. Ticket link: eventim.co.uk/artist/ian-gillan/
Deep Purple visit London at Eventim Apollo (24 Nov) and Royal Albert Hall (25 Nov)