![\"We're](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/22Were-not-in-our-20s-anymore22-Deep-Purples-Roger-Glover-proves-why-rock-and-roll-will-never-die-Fa.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Credit: Far Out \/ Olaf Heine<\/p>\n
Fri 3 July 2026 10:00, UK <\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to overstate the role of Deep Purple<\/a> in defining classic rock music as we know it. <\/p>\n It started out with \u2018Hush\u2019 in 1968. Then, over the course of years and decades, it became \u2018Highway Star\u2019, \u2018Child in Time\u2019, and \u2018Perfect Strangers\u2019. This string of hits cemented the band as one of the most forceful and influential outfits<\/a> in heavy metal, psychedelia, hard rock, and everything in between. Then, of course, there\u2019s the iconic bass riff of \u2018Smoke on the Water\u2019. <\/p>\n That\u2019s what makes it slightly unbelievable that the man who came up with that famous title, known in every corner of the world and hailed as a masterpiece in all elements of the rock canon, is sitting before me now over a Zoom. Roger Glover, to all intents and purposes, is much like most other 80-year-old men. <\/p>\n He peers down the camera at me with small glasses on the end of his nose, struggles to hear the question from time to time, but this is very much the opposite of someone who feels defined by their age. Sure, Deep Purple are more than aware that they are no longer the young, fresh-faced stars they were in the \u201870s. But that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re going to stop rocking. <\/p>\n This sense is very much epitomised by their latest album, Splat!, arriving as the 24th record in their storied history and the follow-up to 2024\u2019s =1. And, just so we\u2019re not under any illusions about this, it\u2019s quintessential Deep Purple. Don\u2019t expect any groundbreaking modernity here: it\u2019s \u201870s prog rock through and through,<\/a> just the way they like it. <\/p>\n That might give off an air of a band who have never mentally left the decade of their prime, but make no mistake, Glover is very much present in the here and now. \u201cI have to say, it comes as a surprise to me that we\u2019ve had a career this long,\u201d he says earnestly. <\/p>\n \u201cI wake up every morning and go, \u2018My God, it\u2019s still here\u2019. It\u2019s getting on for 60 years, and how could that happen? It\u2019s a wonderful gift, really, but very few people get that gift, so we don\u2019t want to slap that gift in someone\u2019s face. We really appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: Features<\/p>\n My follow-up question to that might seem basic, but it\u2019s essential to understanding the band where they are now. Why has it indeed lasted so long? \u201cI have no idea,\u201d Glover replies with even more sincerity than the first time, \u201cI think possibly because there\u2019s a certain honesty within us. I remember listening to The Doors years ago, and The Doors still sound fresh, because there\u2019s no artifice about it. It\u2019s just people playing music and writing music and performing it, and that\u2019s all we do.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t really go for overdoing things and designing things to sell. We design things to please ourselves, and maybe that\u2019s the intriguing thing,\u201d he says. If you were looking for a succinct answer on a postcard as to why Splat! is here in this moment<\/a>, that would be it. Deep Purple are doing it, simply because that\u2019s what Deep Purple do. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a vision of a person who\u2019s made it against the odds\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Roger Glover<\/p>\n In many ways, that ties directly into the mode of writing that the band have worked in, like cogs in a well-oiled machine, for more than the past half a century. Ian Gillan is very much the mastermind behind writing all the songs, between the lyrics and the instrumentation. The rest of the band pitches in ideas, of course, but most of the time, they are happy to marvel at his creations. <\/p>\n Because of this, Glover perhaps isn\u2019t the best voice of authority when it comes to disseminating the songs. \u201cWe never know quite how a song is going to end out. We don\u2019t plan it,\u201d he admits, \u201cand the last thing that goes on is usually the vocal. In this case, Ian was very adamant that he wanted to write everything.\u201d<\/p>\n This might seem perplexing or frustrating to members of other bands, but Glover clearly feels very content in his place. \u201cSometimes we write together, but this time he wrote stuff, and in a way it\u2019s hard to argue against it. I don\u2019t know necessarily what he\u2019s talking about half the time, maybe that\u2019s the good thing,\u201d he laughs. <\/p>\n Take the example of the lead single \u2018Arrogant Boy\u2019, where Gillan laments the character of Billy in soaring wails. \u201cI don\u2019t know who Billy is,\u201d Glover says quite freely, \u201cI don\u2019t care, really, because it doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s just a vision of a person who\u2019s made it against the odds, I guess\u201d. You could say this reflects the story of the band itself. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a fascinating insight when the bassist then goes on to dissect Gillan as a writer<\/a>. This is a man at whose right-hand side he has been for almost 60 years, and yet he comes across like there\u2019s a certain artistic unknowability about the frontman. Calling Gillan \u201creally unlike any other singer I can imagine,\u201d Glover adds, \u201cI couldn\u2019t write his lyrics, nor could anyone else, and so he\u2019s a bit mad in that respect. He follows his own muse, and wherever it takes him, we don\u2019t have a lot of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n As such, a similar pattern follows suit. I ask him about some of the album\u2019s more dizzying tracks, like \u2018The Only Horse in Town\u2019 and \u2018The Beating of Wings\u2019, and while he offers up an honest insight into Gillan\u2019s \u201cvery moving\u201d but \u201cnot sentimental or slushy\u201d reflections on losing his wife, Glover admits, \u201cI can\u2019t answer for it. I can only say as a listener, like you\u201d.<\/p>\n In this sense, while it absolutely doesn\u2019t make the album a redundant aspect of the conversation, we turn to focus on the things that Glover really is at the front and centre of, namely, the tour. Deep Purple are performing a not insignificant string of dates across Europe and the US this summer, before heading back home to go up and down the UK in November<\/a>. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not lost on Glover that this persistence to keep going at full throttle is something far less common in this day and age, particularly for acts of their certain vintage. \u201cI noticed that bands do this thing about announcing the final gig, [like] Black Sabbath, and we won\u2019t do that,\u201d he says resolutely, \u201cWe\u2019ll just go until we can\u2019t go on, and the final gig won\u2019t be announced, because I think, where would we do it? And the stress and the emotion of saying, \u2018This is it\u2019. None of us want to face that, so we just go on till we drop.\u201d<\/p>\n Valiantly, I do broach the subject of farewell tours, only because it seems to be the current done thing for classic rock bands of the \u201860s and \u201870s era. Glover recalls that \u201cmaybe six years ago,\u201d when their longest-serving guitarist, Steve Morse, was still in the band, he was brave enough to suggest that Deep Purple should consider a final blaze of glory. <\/p>\n \u201cThat didn\u2019t go down particularly well with the rest of us,\u201d the bassist deadpans, and that was the end of that. <\/p>\n \u201cTo me, it\u2019s a bit of a cheap publicity thing,\u201d he adds, making it more than clear that if we ever see Deep Purple and the word \u2018farewell\u2019 on the tour poster, then something must have gone terribly wrong. They have so much more to live and work for, and not even the annoyance of advancing age will keep them down. <\/p>\n \u201cI remember coming to this conclusion many years ago when I first joined the band, the idea that we have to be leaders and not followers, so we don\u2019t listen to fashion, we don\u2019t see what\u2019s going on and try to copy it. The only thing we could be in danger of is copying ourselves,\u201d Glover notes, before conceding, \u201cThis album was harder, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"We're](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783150467_456_22Were-not-in-our-20s-anymore22-Deep-Purples-Roger-Glover-proves-why-rock-and-roll-will-never-die-Fa.jpeg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Olaf Heine<\/p>\n![\"We're](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783150468_25_22Were-not-in-our-20s-anymore22-Deep-Purples-Roger-Glover-proves-why-rock-and-roll-will-never-die-Fa.jpeg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Olaf Heine<\/p>\n![\"We're](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783150469_855_22Were-not-in-our-20s-anymore22-Deep-Purples-Roger-Glover-proves-why-rock-and-roll-will-never-die-Fa.jpeg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Olaf Heine<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n