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The Latest Breaking News from Ian Gillan

Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan: ‘I’ve seen parties too wild to describe’

The frontman of the heavy rock monsters talks to Mark Beaumont about booze, the sexual wildness of the Sixties, living out Spinal Tap moments, and the band’s new album

The Independent UK

Ian Gillan says Black Sabbath were more "important" than Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin: "Without them there would have been no grunge or heavy metal"

Ian Gillan on the "unholy trinity" of British rock bands, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, and why the Brummie Rock Gods were the "most important" of them all

Metal Hammer

“I’ve played Smoke On The Water with some heavy metal drummers and not one of them has played it right. Ian lets the music do its work. He’s probably the most important member of the band”: Ian Gillan bigs up Deep Purple colleague Paice

Ian Gillan and Roger Glover talk about Deep Purple's past and present

MusicRadar

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"Harking back to their early-70s pomp and the early-80s MKII rebirth": Deep Purple rediscover their purpose on the invigorating =1

Deep Purple are getting older and, remarkably, they’re getting better again

Louder

The Beethoven-inspired throwaway that become the most famous riff of all time: “We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album”

Now Deep Purple return to Montreux... with added smoke

MusicRadar

“I get more volume and power when I play with a pick. I’d never be able to play Highway Star with my fingers”: Roger Glover’s isolated bassline on Deep Purple’s Highway Star is a masterclass in high-velocity picking

Highway Star presents the best route to the heart of Deep Purple’s riff-driven righteousness

Guitar World

“I woke up with those words, ‘Smoke on the Water’, on my lips. I mentioned it to Ian and he said, ‘Sounds like a drug song, we better not do that’”: Deep Purple just played Smoke on the Water on the lake that inspired it – with actual fire in the sky

The band return to Montreux, the site of the 1971 casino fire depicted in the lyrics of their iconic track

Guitar World

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"Even now, I have no idea how we got Vincent Price or Twiggy": The night Roger Glover assembled three Deep Purple singers and a cast of stars for a performance based on an old children’s poem

When Roger Glover was asked to soundtrack a film based on a poem by a 19th century botanist, little did he know that soon it would become a one-off live extravaganza

Louder

Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan recalls menacing response from manager when he asked for money

‘I had never heard anything so horrible in my life,’ the singer said

The Independent UK

"The world is on fire, and I can't get my ass out of bed": Deep Purple release chunky new single Lazy Sod

Lazy Sod comes from Deep Purple's upcoming 23rd studio album =1

Louder

“Bowie drove me down to the audition to meet Tommy… I saw this guy with green and purple hair”: Glenn Hughes recalls meeting Tommy Bolin at his tense Deep Purple audition

Glenn Hughes might not be on the best of terms with Deep Purple, but he fondly remembers his friendship with guitarist Tommy Bolin

Guitar World

"I will never speak to any of them again":Glenn Hughes slams Deep Purple for "hurtful" behaviour at Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony

"I was the only sober man there. I don't care about those guys" - Glenn Hughes

Louder

"The freedom and joy we had, and the confidence in each other, is remarkable": Ian Gillan looks back at Deep Purple's Machine Head era

With Deep Purple’s original plans for their sixth album having literally gone up in smoke, Machine Head was a triumph snatched from the jaws of disaster

Louder

“Nothing’s worse than hearing someone say, ‘Deep Purple? They’re just like Black Sabbath, knocking out riffs’”: the birth of Deep Purple Mk II and the transformation that changed rock

How Deep Purple went from one-hit-wonders to become one of the greatest rock bands in history

Louder

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Louder

The untold story of Black Sabbath's unlikely resurrection: Only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Jon Bon Jovi, Triumph, Bryan Adams, Praying Mantis, FM, New England, Al Jourgensen, Masters Of Reality, Chris Spedding, Cock Sparrer, Bad Nerves and more

Louder

"I'm picking this one just to annoy Ian Paice, who doesn’t like it": Ian Gillan's five favourite Deep Purple deep cuts

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan picks some personal favourites from the band's bulging catalogue

Louder

"I'd never been able to see what other people liked about us. Suddenly I understood": Roger Glover's seven favourite Deep Purple songs

Roger Glover's seven favourite Purple patches, including the one that was "like rap before rap"

Louder

“It shows every member of the band doing what they did best – Gillan’s vocals, Jon Lord’s keyboards”: the In Rock classic that’s Tony Iommi‘s favourite Deep Purple song

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi reveals his favourite song by fellow rock pioneers Deep Purple

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Louder

"One demo was of a guy playing one finger piano on Black Night": When the call went out to replace Ian Gillan in Deep Purple, only one man got an audition

In 1973, Deep Purple replaced Ian Gillan with an unknown singer. They then went on to make one of rock’s most underrated albums, Burn

Louder

“Metallica would jam on their stuff in rehearsals, songs like Black Night and Highway Star”: Lars Ulrich on his lifelong love of Deep Purple and the genius of the Machine Head album

Lars Ulrich is a lifelong Deep Purple fan – and here’s why

Louder

That mix that made Deep Purple great was never stronger than on Machine Head, and never clearer than it is now, on its 50th anniversary edition

This reissue of Deep Purple's 1972 album Machine Head adds remixes, Montreux and BBC live sets, audio fairy dust and more

Metal Hammer

New vocalists lasted five minutes and founder members quit amid the chaos: 1984 was an awful year for Black Sabbath, and by its end they were almost obliterated

Molotov cocktails and member mayhem: The chaotic story of Black Sabbabth's worst year

MusicRadar

“It was just another riff, like Into The Fire. We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album": Ian Gillan on the unlikely success story of writing and recording Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water

"The downdraft from the mountains caused the smoke to blow across Lake Geneva, like a film set or dry ice on a stage show. At this point, Roger wrote the words ‘smoke on the water’ on a napkin”

Metal Hammer

Listen to Black Sabbath cover Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water, with Ian Gillan on vocals

During the 1983 Born Again tour, Black Sabbath acknowledged new singer Ian Gillan’s former band by performing Deep Purple’s signature song

Louder

“They said, ‘We did a little thing for you, but we don’t know if it will make the album. I said, ‘You’re crazy – this is the single!’” the epic life of ‘Funky’ Claude Nobs, the man who inspired Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water

Claude Nobs was the man who co-founded the Montreux Jazz Festival – and crossed paths with Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa and Deep Purple

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