GLENN HUGHES needs no introduction to long-time rock fans. The venerable singer has fronted rock’s royalty, DEEP PURPLE and BLACK SABBATH. His new band BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION (on the brink of world domination) has just released the souvenir Live Over Europe DVD and Blu-Ray cataloguing their 2011 European summer tour. While fans wait for the band to re-group (for their next great project), Glenn has taken to writing music for his long awaited next solo album and to talking about his rockstar vade mecum: Glenn Hughes: The Autobiography (From Deep Purple To Black Country Communion). BraveWords.com recently caught up with the always affable singer to find out how his 2012 plans are shaping up.

BraveWords.com: The new DVD is Black Country Communion - Live Over Europe. How did it come together?

Glenn Hughes: “We had a meeting and thought for ‘brand’ purposes that we should get something on film. A lot of bands do that (as you know), but it takes them five or six records to do that. We thought this would escalate the brand to the world. We haven’t been to the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan...  We need to get our brand out to as many people as possible because we’re not playing for awhile. So, why not do it on our first European tour? We choose three shows in Germany and we knew what we were doing going into it. We hired a director three months before we went out, had everything planned and were (sort of) in pre-production before we got into those cities to get ready for these shows.”

BraveWords.com: BCC was put ‘together’ by Kevin Shirley as a studio project to record an album. Are you a better in-studio or as a live band?

Hughes: “I don’t join bands just to make albums. I like to play live whether it’s playing live with BCC (and taking a break like we are now)... I haven’t recorded an album in years and I’m about to do that, so that I can tour. I’m an animal that likes to play live. I love what I get back from the audience and that’s really the greatest part of it. I love writing the song, recording it and playing it live. I love the studio (don’t get me wrong), but I’m a live performer. That’s what I like the most.”

BraveWords.com: What best represents BCC? The two studio albums or the live DVD?

Hughes: “If you listen to ‘one’, ‘2’ and then look at the DVD, you’ll notice a degree of spontaneity on all three. There’s (for the lack of a better word) jams where we grab bits and pieces and that happens a lot with our band because we don’t follow a formula. We’ll follow the melody of the song, the melody of the guitar solo and what the listener would want, but we stretch a little bit and we’re interested in playing slightly different each night.”

BraveWords.com: You mentioned that you want to do a solo album...

Hughes: “Yeah. BCC haven't firmed up any touring plans in 2012 as of yet and when I look at everyone else’s schedule - Derek (Sherinian) is out with BILLY IDOL, Jason is doing his LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE and Joe (Bonamassa) is touring incessantly, so I look at my year and go, ‘well, I haven’t done an album in four years...” It seems that everybody wants a ‘Glenn’ album again. Everybody wants me to do a rock album and as you know I’ve put my life and soul back into the rock ring. I won’t go back to playing the funky stuff (which I like as you know), but I’ll say to you in all frankness - I was born a rocker and I’ll die a rocker. I’m having so much fun in the rock ‘personae’ that I’m going to gather some great songs (and I’m writing right now) and I’ll invite some of my friends to play on the album. Then, I’ll go out and play these songs live next year and I’ll play as many shows as I can while BCC is on hiatus. I hate that word, but I’m just doing stuff in between BCC.”

BraveWords.com: Before you were talking about “brand”. That’s the key to everything these days. Why not call up the guys and say, ‘either we’re doing this or we’re not. We have some heat going in Europe...”

Hughes: “I’ll say this without any resentment or anger... Joe is incessantly touring because he’s on a roll and he’s doing great. He’d rather donate time to his solo career than BCC at the moment. So, I can go out and do a GH solo album... a very very heavy rock album.”

BraveWords.com: But is that what you really want to be doing?

Hughes: “I’ll tell you this: I joined a band called Black Country Communion and I thought here’s a chance for us to be in a band where everything is wide open. There’s no band like us except for maybe CHICKENFOOT and THEM CROOKED VULTURES. We’re going to establish the brand more as a live act, but it would appear that that is not happening right now in 2012. So, I’m filling my ‘dance card’ with a wonderful Glenn Hughes album that I’m writing right now and I’m really excited by the prospect. Mitch, 2012 was going to be the year of BCC, but instead it’ll be the year of people watching the DVD and (you know) talking about how great BCC are. I know everybody on the Internet reads these interviews - so the answer is: I’m doing an album because A - I have the material and B - I really want to make an album of Glenn Hughes material. Mitch, I’m so excited about going full ahead with plans on making my own album.”

BraveWords.com: Were the songs for your upcoming rock album written with other projects in mind or were they written specifically for this project?

Hughes: “Since I wrote that first song, ‘Beggarman’, for BCC in November of 2009 - everything I’ve been writing since then has been rock based whether it’s for Black Country Communion or Glenn Hughes solo. The thread between BCC and Glenn Hughes is very fine. What Joe writes for BCC is slightly different to what he writes for his blues albums because it’s a different market place. Joe’s albums and BCC are completely different. It’s a different audience, but my audience and BCC (I presume) will be the same. So, I’m writing the same kind of songs that I would write for Black Country Communion and a Glenn Hughes rock album. You might hear a song on my solo album that is similar to ‘One Last Soul’, ‘Man In The Middle’, or ‘Black Country’. They sound like Glenn Hughes songs because I wrote them. I love Black Country Communion and I’ll fight for this band. People want more Black Country Communion and so do I, but you’ll have to wait until that moment comes. I really love what we do, but I also love what I do solo. I haven’t made a hard rock record since Soul Mover and the next record (that will come out next year) will be full on rock music with no apologies. When I was making my funky stuff, a good 80% of my fans were waiting for me to come back as a rock artist and I’M BACK. I’m not stupid enough to make ‘club’ sounding records. I started out as a rock n’ roller in the late ‘60s and that’s the way I want to go out.”

BraveWords.com: Your solo tour - will it be a best of everything you’ve done (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, BCC, etc) or will it be Glenn Hughes solo material only?

Hughes: “It’ll be a bit of everything. I want to be playing songs that I’ve written from TRAPEZE to Purple to Seventh Star with Tony Iommi to Iommi Fused to solo stuff to BCC stuff. I should be portraying those songs as the writer and I think people would be upset if I didn’t play bits & pieces from Purple, Sabbath and BCC. People always say to me, ‘I wish you could play ‘that’ song from Seventh Star or MK III’. People want to hear those songs and I want to play a ‘legacy’ of my work. I’ve been doing this for forty years and I’m proud of the work I’ve done.”

BraveWords.com: Tony Iommi recently released two songs with Ian Gillan singing under the banner of Who Cares. Any talk of Tony and you doing another project together?

Hughes: “Tony and I are the best of friends (as I am with Geezer Butler and Bill Ward). Geezer and I are neighbours and we see each other quite a lot. Tony, I adore him. He’s a blood brother to me. Everytime I see Tony - we skirt around the issue, but we haven’t made any plans to play together. It wouldn’t be uncommon if Tony and I (and even Geezer) were to get together for a jam, play, write or do a project. Everytime I see Tony, we always say ‘we should get together and write a couple of riffs or something like that,’ but that’s just the way Tony and I are. Remember we’ve done Seventh Star. We’ve done the DEP Sessions. We’ve done Fused and we did the tribute to Ronnie (James Dio) at High Voltage (which was a great pleasure for me). It comes up, but it also comes up with other members of the rock paternity. When I do my solo album in February, I’m sure some of the names that you’re thinking about in your head will be invited.”

BraveWords.com: David Coverdale (WHITESNAKE) perhaps…

Hughes: “My dear dear brother David Coverdale and I have spoken about this on occasion and down the road a piece there might be an opportunity for David and I to do a duet or something because we genuinely love each other and we care for one another’s work. The door is wide-open. I’m NOT saying that it’s going to happen, but it’s a little more accessible for me to do things with my friends than it was five years ago.”

BraveWords.com: I know this might be a little off topic, but you often Tweet about animals. Where does this love for animals come from and do you support any animal shelters?

Hughes: “Yes. Gabi and I don’t have any children, so the multiple dogs and cats we have are our children.  We donate generously to three or four animal shelters and rescues around America each year. It’s part of what we do. I’m so absolutely behind the rescue of animals. Most of our animals have been rescued. Mac (our English setter) had been shot and left in a field. He had to have his leg amputated and we rescued him. I can’t understand how anybody would injure a dog much less shoot a dog. I’m fortunate enough to have made a little bit of money that I can donate to those services. I do this because how much money do you want? If you’ve got money... I care about animals. Today, we were down at the beach looking at this sea lion that was rescued. It’s not just dogs and cats; it’s all kinds of animals. My wife and her mother, Wilma, are more involved than I am. Geezer’s wife - Gloria Butler is really involved and so is Maria Iommi. The Sabbath family and myself are so involved with this and we really don’t want to talk about the monetary thing, but the fact is that we just love animals. My wife is always bringing dogs home, but we’re only allowed three dogs per household in California. We’ll probably (eventually) have to move to a ranch like the Osbournes. That way we could have multiple animals. We could do a whole interview on this, Mitch. I absolutely love rescuing animals and I love people that love animals. I like to stay in hotels where we can bring our animals and I’ve found a few. Love love animals...”

BraveWords.com: Is there a particular shelter that you want people to support or send a donation to?

Hughes: “Yes. My wife and mother-in-law are the ones that do all the donations, so I’ll ask them right now... The Amanda Foundation (which Gloria Butler and Gabi work with (Amandafoundation.org), Kootenai Pets For Life (KPLF) in Libby, Montana (Petfinder.com) and the big one for us is ACES (Another Chance for English Setters (Englishsetterrescue.org). ACES saved Mac (our English Setter). They found him shot in a field three years ago. They had his leg amputated and saved him. We donate to ACES a lot.” Thank you for putting those up on the Internet because those are the three that we support. If we could spread the love and get some money to these shelters my mother-in-law would be very happy. I’m really into in because of all the animals we’ve rescued over the last ten years and because we don’t have any children - these animals are our children.”

BraveWords.com: Before we wrap up - tell me about your book: Glenn Hughes: The Autobiography (From Deep Purple to Black Country Communion).

Hughes: “It’s a very honest account of what happens to a guy that grew up in a working class family, became very famous then all the wheels fell off and finally got his life back together. It’s a great read or, at least, you’ll have to tell me.”

BraveWords.com: In the end it’s a very motivating story. You really went down the wrong way in the mid-80s.

Hughes: “The darkness is always before the dawn. It was awful for me. When I was in Sabbath and the wheels fell off... the dark period and in this book I had to stand up and be accountable for what I did. It’s not like I glossed over the fact that I had become a really really sick man. Steve Tyler fell in the tub in Paraguay the other day and people are questioning his sobriety. I don’t like that...”

BraveWords.com: But it’s fair to question the veracity of Steven’s story.

Hughes: “It’s a bloody fair question because Steven, like me, has been an addict and has fallen off the wagon, but it’s none of my business and I really think he did just take a tumble. If this was 1973, there would be no Internet and people talking about it.”

BraveWords.com: Was the book cathartic?

Hughes: “Oh, bloody hell yes. I’ll tell you why - my writer (John McIver) and I had been writing for three years, but there’s was something I was leaving out. I completely left it out and I needed to talk about things that were uncomfortable for me. Things I thought would make you dislike me or think that I was ‘less than’, so the cathartic thing about telling you and the reader is that I have no secrets. It’s the secrets that will kill me. There’s a song on BCC 2 called ‘Little Secret’ and the little secret is cocaine. If I have any secrets then I have a chink in the armour and that chink will lead to my relapse... so I had to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God.”

BraveWords.com: And the book is honest.

Hughes: “It bloody well is and that’s why it took five years to write.”

BraveWords.com: Any last words?

Hughes: “Five years ago, I wasn’t as newsworthy as I am now and a famous person (I won’t say who) said to me, ‘Hughes-y welcome back, but be careful because people are going to be taking potshots at you (on the Internet). I can’t control what people think or say about me, but I can be careful about how I conduct my life in a private manner and in a public manner.”

For more about the legendary Glenn Hughes visit Glennhughes.com.