Vocalist Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH) is featured in a new interview with EspyRock.com. He discusses the origins of the BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION band name in the excerpt below.

"Well, when I Googled 'Is there a band called BLACK COUNTRY?' the answer came back no, but there is a BLACK COUNTRY BASH BAND. There is the Black Country in the West Midlands, the industrial area, 1800 circa, smoke stacks and stuff so I said, 'OK, we will call ourselves Black Country.' Of course, Jason is doing an interview in Los Angeles on the telly and the next thing we know we get a cease-and-desist letter from this band called Black Country from Baltimore, Maryland. So for the last three months we have been trying to negotiate a fee to buy the name from them but they wanted half a million dollars! I told them very nicely, 'Are you out of your fucking mind?' So I just added the word 'communion' to the end of it and it you look at the word communion, it's not a religious term. I just wanted to have a real '60s vibe, hippy-sounding last word for our name and communion is that. I like the name communion. If you look at the logo also, it's 'Black Country' and in the scroll it's 'Communion.' I've been working on that logo for three fucking months.

The thing is I didn't want a lawsuit, I didn't want to call it THE BLACK COUNTRY, BLACK COUNTRY BAND or BLACK COUNTRY BOYS because it could have been a lawsuit. The lads from Baltimore were really aggressive with me saying, 'We're no LED ZEPPELIN tribute,' trying to play down who we are, but they were saying, 'Our music is very influenced by Tommy Bolin,' not realising Tommy Bolin was in my fucking band in Deep Purple! They are silly and I wrote back to them, I said, 'Guys, I never meant to steal your fucking name; you can have your fucking name, but I am going to call my band Black Country Communion, end of story.' They thought because of all the records we have sold and all the stuff we have done that I would just have a half million dollars in my back pocket just to give them. It's just rude."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Hughes recently announced the debut of 'One Last Soul', the first single from Black Country Communion‘s self titled debut album out in the UK and the rest of Europe on Monday, September 20th via Mascot Records, followed by a North American release through J&R; Adventures on Tuesday, September 21st.

The song will air on the UK radio station, Planet Rock on Monday, August 2nd at 6:00PM GMT (1:00PM EDT, 10:00AM PDT).

Black Country Communion is made up of Glenn Hughes, guitarist Joe Bonmassa, drummer Jason Bonham (LED ZEPPELIN) and Derek Sherinian (PLANET X, ex-DREAM THEATER).

Black Country Communion was mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig (METALLICA, QUEEN, RUSH). All songs are sung by Glenn Hughes, with the exception of 'Song Of Yesterday' and 'The Revolution In Me' which are both sung by Joe Bonamassa. Hughes and Bonamassa share lead vocals on 'Sista Jane' and 'Too Late For The Sun'. Also included is a new version of 'Medusa', the rock classic Hughes originally recorded with his first band Trapeze.

Album tracklisting:

'Black Country'

'One Last Soul'

'The Great Divide'

'Down Again'

'Beggarman'

'Song Of Yesterday'

'No Time'

'Medusa'

'The Revolution In Me'

'Stand (At The Burning Tree)'

'Sista Jane'

'Too Late For The Sun'