In a recent interview with “That Rocks!,” Glenn Hughes disclosed that a planned reunion of Deep Purple Mark III—featuring himself, David Coverdale, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice—was unsuccessful because guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was unreachable.
Glenn said: “So, you know, about 15 years ago, David and Jon and myself – before Jon passed – had a three-week conversation about, wouldn’t it be great, maybe we could get Blackmore, we could do some kind of a reunion.
“Who’s gonna call him? [imitates his former bandmates] ‘I’ll call him. No, I’ll call him. No, I’ll call him.’ And we couldn’t get him on the phone, you can imagine.”
Additionally, when asked if all musicians had attempted to contact Blackmore, Hughes responded: “Well, I think we all tried when we got through to [Blackmore‘s manager] Carole, you know, and I don’t think he ever got the message, but we tried. Look, I would love to do this with David. We gotta be with [Ian] Paice for it, but it’s not to be, so I am the last one standing, so I’m gonna honor this material.”
During a 2021 interview on “In The Basement With Jesse Bruce,” Hughes shared insights into his experience collaborating with Blackmore.
“When I joined the band, the first weekend I joined the band, we flew to Hamburg together and had a boys weekend.. We sat on a bar stool and had a lot of fun. Ritchie, behind the scenes, when I joined the band, was great. And I’m saying this smiling, but when we started working, when the band started kicking into gear, I didn’t spend a lot of time with him, ’cause he had his own dressing room; he traveled alone; he was isolated. He was a little difficult. I’m smiling and chuckling. I love Ritchie. He’s difficult. People are difficult to work with. The band on stage was firing on all cylinders. But off stage, it was a little strange, as we traveled separately.”
Known as the “voice of rock,” Hughes dedicated significant years of his career to serving as the cherished bassist and vocalist of Deep Purple, contributing to the iconic albums Burn, Stormbringer, and Come Taste the Band.
