Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan addressed the band’s legacy of live improvisation and the specific musical nuances of their most famous work during a recent interview with the U.K.’s Planet Rock. The singer detailed how the group maintains the energy of their performances during extensive global tours while correcting the common belief that the 1972 classic “Smoke On The Water” is a heavy metal track.
Ian Gillan explained that while the band maintains a consistent setlist to satisfy audiences, the internal dynamics of each performance are constantly shifting. He noted that the band prioritizes the live experience as their “bread and butter.”
“When you’re doing so many shows, which is our bread and butter, really — that’s what we’ve always been, is a live band —you’ve gotta keep things energized when you’re on a long tour. And you can’t be changing the set every night because you find your best set, and you really wanna give that to every audience. So, the armchair warriors, they all go, ‘Oh, you did the same set,’ but it’s not exactly the same,” Ian Gillan stated (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
The vocalist shared an anecdote involving the late Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who expressed envy over the creative freedom inherent in rock music. According to Ian Gillan, the opera legend observed that while a rock singer can alter a performance night after night, an opera singer would face severe criticism for deviating from a technical standard.
“[Late Italian operatic tenor Luciano] Pavarotti told me that he was very jealous. He said, ‘Ian, I’ve seen you sing ‘Smoke On The Water‘ six times, and every time it’s different. If I did that with the emotion or the technical delivery of any of my famous arias, I’d be crucified by the critics and the fans. It’s like that in the world of opera. But in rock and roll, you’ve got that freedom. I’m so jealous.’ So one of the elements of what we do is improvisation. And so there are subtle changes every night that keep people on their toes. If you’re not concentrating, you can get lost. And so everyone’s in it and on it every night. I think that it’s amazing to hear the trade-offs in the jam sessions between [keyboardist] Don [Airey] and [guitarist] Simon [McBride], and the shifting patterns between [bassist] Roger [Glover] and [drummer] Ian Paice, as what’s happening on top, suddenly goes into a different groove. Ian Paice is the best swing drummer in living history, in my opinion, and Roger, they’re tight as anything, but you feel the emphasis slightly changing. It’s all subtle, but it’s so exciting,” he added.
Focusing on the technical execution of the band’s catalog, Ian Gillan praised the unique style of drummer Ian Paice. He argued that many musicians fail to understand the “swing” required for their music, often mistakenly treating their hits as purely aggressive heavy metal. He cited a specific instance where Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich performed with the band and missed the necessary subtlety.
“You listen to what [Paice] plays in ‘Smoke [On The Water]‘,” Gillan commented. “Everyone thinks it’s a crash bash, it’s a heavy metal song. It’s not. You just listen to the drums in ‘Smoke‘. [Metallica‘s] Lars Ulrich came out and played it with me in San Francisco, and he battered the hell out of it. And I’ve worked with a lot of other drummers who’ve done it. And none of them actually realized that it’s a gentle touch.”
Reflecting on the band’s history with stage production, the singer recalled a humorous incident from the 1980s following the release of the album Perfect Strangers. When the band’s management spent $250,000 on a massive aluminum framework for a show in Austin, Texas, Ian Gillan decided to disrupt the expensive aesthetic.
“Well, there was a transition where we did start thinking about production. We do have a screen now, and there’s some pretty nice stuff being shown up there that’s relevant to the songs we’re playing. I do remember the transition. It was during one of the Deep Purple periods after ‘Perfect Strangers‘, maybe two albums after that, where the manager suddenly… We were in Texas, down in Austin, and I turned up in the afternoon, and there was this huge aluminum framework around the stage behind the backline that somebody told me cost a quarter of a million dollars. And this was in the ’80s. And I went out to a magic shop, joke shop, and I bought a stack of about 30 plastic urinals, and I got some Blu Tack [versatile, reusable and non-toxic putty-like adhesive] and I stuck them all along the line. It made it look much more interesting. I stuck one on the front of the Hammond, and then I got going and went out to the garden center and bought 25 trees in pots, young saplings, and put them all over the stage. The whole thing became more organic, and suddenly this new quarter-of-a-million thing was fantastic,” he recalled.
Deep Purple is currently preparing for the release of their new studio album, Splat!, which is scheduled for July 3 via earMUSIC. The project reunites the band with producer Bob Ezrin, known for his work with Kiss, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, and Alice Cooper. The upcoming release has been described as one of the ‘heaviest’ efforts from the band in decades. To support the album, Deep Purple will carry out an extensive 2026 tour consisting of 86 shows across 28 countries.
