“It was so under the radar for us we probably would never have heard about it until all this came up years ago”, Glenn Hughes says of an incident which allegedly occurred at the Sunbury Rock Festival in 1975; during his first visit to Australia with Deep Purple, involving a fist-fight between their crew and a young rock band from Sydney called AC/DC.

“It’s such a great story to tell the kids but none of us, the principles, ever knew about that,” says Hughes.

“It could have been too many cocktails with an Aussie crew and a Brit crew, but I don’t think any band members were included, I know I wasn’t,” he defends. “Nobody in Deep Purple were that kind of fist fighting, bar room guys anyway.”

Hughes was the bassist and vocalist for Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976. Additionally, he was the founder of funk rock pioneers Trapeze, is a respected solo artist, and has collaborated with musicians as diverse as David Bowie, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mötley Crüe, and Gary Moore, to name a few.

As a consequence of this career, he has crossed paths with every icon of rock music in the past four decades, acquiring a wealth of tales he can pick from the memory like business cards form a rolodex, so why not begin an interview with ‘A’ for AC/DC? and move on to ‘B’?

“(Black Sabbath guitarist) Tony [Iommi] and I made Seven Star in 1986, it was originally going to be a Tony Iommi solo album,” reveals Hughes, elaborating on the technicality which has made him an ex-member of Black Sabbath.

“The head of Warners at the time decided they would call it Black Sabbath to sell more records. Tony was infuriated, so was I because it really wasn’t a Beelzebub, Satan’s whore kind of lyric album.” “I’m 61 years old [but] I do not go through the motions. I don’t phone my shit in… whether it’s go shopping or swimming or whatever – I want to do it 100% thorough.” – Glenn Hughes

Conceivably as a consequence of his years of crack and cocaine abuse, Hughes speaks at a rapid pace in his English accent, which may be the basis for the Hollywood’s go-to British rock and roll stereotype (found in films like Rock Star).

He is candid and affable but dominates conversation in what feels like a sub-conscious self-defence mechanism.

He’s fulfilling promotional duties for his forthcoming mini-tour of Australia’s east coast in April in which he’ll perform three intimate shows as well as a public interview and a book signing.

“When I come to play these shows in Australia I’ll be looking at the heritage of solo work, to Trapeze and Hughes/Thrall, to Deep Purple, to Black Country Communion. It’s my heritage. I get creative and I get to own that stuff,” he adds.

“I want to be intimate, I want to get down and dirty. I want to feel my fans and I want them to know I’m here. I’m an artist that engages musically with my audience,” he says of his upcoming shows.

“I’m 61 years old [but] I do not go through the motions. I don’t phone my shit in. I’m very into the moment in what I do – whether it’s go shopping or swimming or whatever, doing my taxes, I want to do it 100% thorough,” he says.

Unfortunately, and to his detriment, this methodology extended to his drug addiction for a substantial portion of his life.

It’s a period he revisited recently when he was putting together Glenn Hughes: The Autobiography.

“In 2011 I turned [my book] in and thought ‘wait a minute, there’s some stuff I left out here’. I didn’t bare my ass enough,” he reasons. “I didn’t show you how dirty and low down I became – not a criminal – but really low and I was painting too much of a pretty picture.”

“I wasn’t glamorising cocaine but I needed to tell you that cocaine kills. I needed to tell people that I almost died. I needed to tell people that I was on the roof with a shotgun. I needed to tell people this is what happens when you fuck around with Mother Nature, motherfucker,” he adds colourfully. “I don’t want to talk about fucking about 90 chicks on coke, because that never fucking happened. It doesn’t happen in real life, people!”

“I don’t want to talk about fucking about 90 chicks on coke, because that never fucking happened. It doesn’t happen in real life, people!” he barks.

Hughes has now been sober for 21 years and recognises that revisiting his darkest times was a therapeutic process, one that was beneficial to his recovery.

“For me, I had to look at the darkest period of my life, which is ‘83 – ‘91, when I was on crack and I was like really fucking out of my tree. Really, really bad man.”

“I had to go back and look at that and go, ‘what was my part in this and how can I become a better man, and a better person, when I look back at that behaviour?’ If people like me, who are in recovery from drugs and alcohol, do not look at their behaviour then it may happen again,” cautions Hughes.

The compulsions that fuelled his addiction were subsequently replaced with binge exercising and pedantic dieting following his departure from the Betty Ford clinic in 1992. “I don’t put anything in my body that affects me from the neck up,” is his manifesto these days.

“That means no mood altering drugs, no chemicals that will make me do things I shouldn’t do. Can you imagine if I was on crack on the fucking Twitter?” he jokes.

“I can’t imagine Glenn Hughes, on crack, naked on the roof, on Twitter. That’s what it would have been like 25 years ago,” he defers.

Sobriety has also fuelled the most prolific, and successful, period of his career; having released 14 of his 15 solo albums since ‘going clean’ in 1992. “I don’t do this for sex, drugs, and rock n roll anymore. I do this for the love of making generally creative new music.”

After four decades in the music industry, profiled in his memoir, Hughes is adamant he has a thicker skin and, most importantly, no more secrets.

“I know, God knows, and my wife knows, and my bandmates know, that I’m doing a good job and the rest is heresay.”

Glenn Hughes begins his Australian tour on April 22nd at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel, he also plays with heavy rock supergroup Kings Of Chaos on Saturday April 20th as part of the Stone Music Festival lineup. Dates and details below.

Glenn Hughes 2013 Australian Tour

MONDAY 22nd APRIL @ MELBOURNE THE CORNER HOTEL, Melbourne Vic

TUESDAY 23RD APRIL – BOOK SIGNING @ READINGS, CARLTON – 5PM

TUESDAY 23RD APRIL – STORYTELLER SESSION @ WHOLE LOTTA LOVE BAR, BRUNSWICK – 8PM

WEDNESDAY 24th APRIL @ BRISBANE THE TEMPO HOTEL, Brisbane QLD

THURSDAY 25th @  APRIL SYDNEY THE BASEMENT, Sydney NSW

Tickets now on sale!

For more info go to: www.glennhughes2013.com

Stone Music Festival 2013 Dates & Tickets

Featuring Aerosmith, Van Halen, Billy Joel, Kings Of Chaos, and many, many more!
Saturday 20th April and Sunday 21st April, 2013
ANZ STADIUM, SYDNEY

Tickets available online from www.ticketek.com.auwww.StoneMusicFest.com and all Ticketek outlets or phone 132 849

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