T
here are certain things in life that
will always remain constant:
death, taxes and the fact that
Deep Purple remains one of the
most powerful, sometimes underrated, and enduring hard
rock bands of all time. On August 20th, when
the band brings its 2014 Now What?! Tour to
Festival Park in Elgin, IL, expect to hear a
group at its most compelling and energetic,
both in its new material and its legendary hits
among them: "Highway Star" and "Smoke On
The Water."
The new album, while still remaining true
to the hard rock sound the band established in
1968 with songs like "Hush" and "Kentucky
Woman," offers up a platter of surprises with a
sonic landscape that is far superior to most of
the records the band has released since the
1970s (thanks mostly to the brilliant production efforts by Bob Ezrin). After an eight year
absence from the new record charts, Now
What?! has not only been embraced by critics
and fans alike, it has taken Deep Purple to
Gold record status in Germany, Russia, the
Czech Republic and Poland and the Top 20 in
the UK. The US market has been a little slower
to respond, but the disc is the band's best selling album Stateside in decades.
Less than four years away from its 50th an-
niversary, the current line up includes Ian
Gillan on vocals; Roger Glover on bass; Ian
Paice on drums; Steve Morse on guitar; and
Don Airey on keyboards, it has been intact for
11 years; and Gillan, Glover and Paice go back
to 1969, with Paice being the sole original
member.
We caught up with Roger Glover last
month while the band was in Croatia. He
waxed poetic on a number of topics, including
the new album, the band's upcoming tour, the
sad passing of founder Jon Lord, and the
legacy of a group that defined the sound
known around the world as "riff rock."
IE: A lot of bands that came out of your era
have simply given up on releasing new music.
They simply feel radio won't support it so why
bother? And they just play the greatest hits.
Deep Purple has obviously not taken that attitude. Now What? ! is proof of that. Can you
talk about it?
Roger Glover: Well, yeah. Part of it is because
America has been a bit tough for us lately. And
the world is a big place. Now, What?! came out
and has been a big success. We tour constantly.
We are essentially a live band. We tour and
tour and tour. It has been a few years since we
did America and I am actually looking forward
to that. Now, What? is sort of a shot of fresh air
for us too.
22 illinoisentertainer.com august 2014
IE: The consumers have changed too. They
know it's a live industry now. It has been said
that the record industry may be dead, but the
music industry is very much alive. It has just
gone to mostly a live environment. Because
you have always been a heavy touring live
band you already had a foothold and that was
likely a big advantage for you, right?
RG: Yeah, I would say so. Right from the beginning, when I joined the band in 1969, we
have just toured constantly. In fact, we toured
so much in the '70s it probably killed the band
at that point. We were worn out. Good management might have told us to take 6 months
off and take a break- but we didn't. In the end,
we took several years off!
IE: Where did the interest to make a new
album come from? Did you feel it was necessary to make it for the rest of the world, even
if it might not have that much impact in the
United States?
RG: Well, that last album we made before this
one was eight years before. I did a lot of interviews when the album came out at the end of
last year and everyone was asking me, "Why
so long?" The reason was that we were touring. We simply toured and toured. In 2012 we
did a great tour with a full orchestra; a 45-piece
young orchestra. We became a big band. It was
not a band with an orchestra; it was simply a
big band. And the music became much more
jazzier. It was more jazz-oriented than classical
oriented. That was a killer tour. It was an experiment we did; we just wanted to do something different. The echoes of that tour can be
heard in Now, What?! It was somewhat orchestral in some places.
IE: The name, Now, What?! seems to reference
something different is coming. Was there a lot
of real thought into naming the album that?
RG: Not really. Ian Gi [