GLENN HUGHES (BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, ex-DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH) spoke with Matthew Parker from MusicRadar recently about a number of topics including being scouted by Deep Purple in the '70s while he was toiling with TRAPEZE. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

MusicRadar: What was it about your playing that made you a good fit for Deep Purple in the early '70s?

Hughes: "It's a fine line to walk here, because Deep Purple were more traditional, in-the-box, white rock 'n' roll. Trapeze were really heavy funk/groove/American, but 'Purple was distinctly British. They had really, really iconic players, like Lord, Paice and Blackmore, who were virtuosos on their instruments, both as soloists and as components for writing those songs in MK II."

Here come MK III with me and David (Coverdale, vocals) and everyone knows I'm not Roger Glover - A) I can sing and he doesn't sing and B) Roger is a completely different bass player to me. He basically follows the riffs, pretty much, whereas I found those 'holes' on the first album (Burn), like 'Sail Away' and 'Mistreated'. It wasn't funky in Deep Purple, it was more groove-orientated. The word 'funk' has been thrown around, so much but that's a word that really belongs in American music."

MusicRadar: What were you offering that they weren't seeing in other bassists?

Hughes: "I think they were looking for a second singer - almost like a partnership. They couldn't really ignore my voice. I would not have joined, I wanna make this clear - and they know this - if I couldn't have sang. Then when David came in, it was so easy to work those vocal parts out. I really enjoyed the camaraderie onstage with those guys. Early 'Purple was a pretty dangerous stage to be on. You never knew when something was going to be thrown up in the air, or when something was going to blow up, so the thing for me was to keep that groove going on all the time - regardless of all the shenanigans onstage, bottles being thrown or whatever."

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