{"id":287766,"date":"2025-11-17T00:17:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/287766\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T00:17:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:17:06","slug":"deep-purples-ian-gillan-reveals-he-is-losing-his-eyesight-says-retirement-is-not-far-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/287766\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Purple&#8217;s Ian Gillan reveals he is losing his eyesight, says retirement is &#8220;not far off&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/deep-purple\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Deep Purple<\/a>\u00a0frontman\u00a0Ian Gillan has revealed he is losing his eyesight and has said retirement is \u201cnot far off\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The legendary singer, 80,\u00a0last played\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/deep-purple-announce-one-more-time-uk-tour-with-reef-buy-tickets-3603449\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a full run of shows with the band in November 2024<\/a>, although they have one-off shows in Tbilisi, Georgia tonight (November 16) and Dubai and Kuala Lumpur in the next\u00a0week.<\/p>\n<p>They have also announced a European tour for June and July 2026, but as Gillan revealed in a new interview with\u00a0Uncut, he is not sure how much longer he will be able to continue his work with the band.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0one of those things.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0only got 30 per cent vision,\u201d he said (via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.music-news.com\/news\/UK\/185487\/Deep-Purple-rocker-Ian-Gillan-only-has-30-per-cent-vision-left\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Music News<\/a>). \u201cThat won\u2019t get better. It makes life mysterious. The hardest thing is working on my laptop. I can\u2019t see anything on the screen unless I use my peripheral vision \u2013 I pick up a line by looking at it sideways. But you find a way. You adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>He continued: \u201cIt\u2019s hilarious this growing old thing. It\u2019s a laugh a minute. Well, sometimes yes and sometimes no. I walk down the road and hear something drop off \u2013 clang, there\u2019s something else gone. Nothing\u2019s changed really apart from I can\u2019t pole vault any more. Other than that, things move a little more slowly. But nothing\u2019s changed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked to speculate on what the future holds, he added: \u201cI think if I lose my energy I\u2019m going to stop. I don\u2019t want to be an embarrassment to anyone. We\u2019re not far off that. It creeps up on you \u2013 you don\u2019t really notice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deep Purple\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/deep-purple-share-details-of-new-album-1-pre-order-3750022\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">23rd\u00a0studio album \u2018=1\u2019 was released last year<\/a>, including the singles \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/listen-to-deep-purples-heavy-new-single-lazy-sod-3772619\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lazy Sod<\/a>\u2019,\u00a0\u2018Portable Door\u2019 and \u2018Pictures\u00a0Of\u00a0You\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Gillan\u2019s contemplation about the final stage of his career comes just days after David Coverdale \u2013 who replaced Gillan as Deep Purple lead singer from 1973 to 1976\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/whitesnake-frontman-david-coverdale-retires-from-music-its-time-for-me-to-call-it-a-day-3908354\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">formally announced his retirement<\/a>. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/whitesnake\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Whitesnake<\/a>\u00a0frontman\u00a0thanked \u201ceveryone who\u2019s assisted and supported me on this incredible journey\u201d,\u00a0but\u00a0said: \u201cIt really is time for me to just enjoy\u00a0my\u00a0retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deep Purple\u00a0frontman\u00a0Ian Gillan has revealed he is losing his eyesight and has said retirement is \u201cnot far off\u201d.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341,1352],"class_list":{"0":"post-287766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}