{"id":671535,"date":"2026-07-03T11:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/671535\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T11:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:23:15","slug":"deep-purples-ian-gillan-i-didnt-get-paid-for-40-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/671535\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Purple\u2019s Ian Gillan: ‘I didn\u2019t get paid for 40 years’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deep Purple\u2019s biggest song nearly went unheard. \u201cIt was a filler track,\u201d says frontman Ian Gillan of the rock classic \u201cSmoke on the Water\u201d. \u201cWe were seven minutes short of a record and we only had a few hours left to finish it.\u201d It was December 1971 and Deep Purple were recording in Montreux using The Rolling Stones\u2019 mobile studio. \u201cSo we dug out this jam we used for soundcheck. It was called \u2018The Dan Dan Song\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up against it, Gillan wrote the real-life story of the night before, when the band watched on from their hotel as a fire broke out at a Frank Zappa concert at the nearby casino, the smoke drifting over Lake Geneva. \u201cWe just thought it was nice and part of the album,\u201d drummer Ian Paice says. But an American executive saw the potential, and made a radio edit of the track. \u201cBob\u2019s your uncle,\u201d Gillan says. \u201cIt stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one way of putting it: \u201cSmoke on the Water\u201d went on to become the most famous guitar riff in rock history. \u201cIt\u2019s also the most annoying riff for people who work in music stores,\u201d Paice smiles. <\/p>\n

Even all these years later, they still love to play it live. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t just go through the motions,\u201d Gillan says, admitting they often subtly change its style and tempo. \u201cWhen I was working with Pavarotti, he said, \u2018Ian, I\u2019m so jealous. I\u2019ve heard you sing \u2018Smoke on the Water\u2019 six times, and every time, it\u2019s different. If I was to do that in the world of opera, they\u2019d crucify me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

With more than 100 million records sold, Deep Purple are, alongside Black Sabbath<\/a> and Led Zeppelin, among the holy \u2013 or maybe that should be unholy \u2013 trinity of British hard rock. Formed in 1968 in London, their commercial and creative peak between 1969 and 1973 with their MKII line up \u2013 Gillan, Paice, bassist Roger Glover, keyboardist Jon Lord and mercurial guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore \u2013 merged huge, fast riffs, progressive, complex arrangements, and musical virtuosity (the band had classical and jazz backgrounds). It set a template for heavy rock with classic albums like 1970\u2019s Deep Purple in Rock and 1972\u2019s Machine Head.<\/p>\n

\"UNITEDThe early 70s line-up of Deep Purple, during one of Gillan\u2019s breaks from the band, then featuring legendary guitarist Ritichie Blackmore (second from left) (Photo: Fin Costello\/ Redferns)<\/p>\n

Even with key members leaving, changes in style and the usual rock \u2019n\u2019 roll pitfalls \u2013 \u201cYou\u2019ve seen This Is Spinal Tap<\/a>, right?\u201d Gillan says \u2013 the band continued to have a huge impact, with Top 10 albums and mammoth gigs. In 1975, Deep Purple were placed into The Guinness Book of Records as the loudest live band ever. \u201cIf you\u2019re the first one measured, you\u2019re the loudest,\u201d Paice smiles. \u201cCompared to today, it was probably slightly louder than a couple of trucks going by on the motorway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such is the band\u2019s longevity and cross-generational, cross-cultural appeal that last year the band met Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a>, who once played in a Deep Purple covers band. \u201cShe\u2019s a very smart lady,\u201d Gillan says. \u201cShe realised there was no future in drumming, so she became prime minister.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite all this success and influence, financial issues persisted. \u201cLet\u2019s not go too much into that, but I didn\u2019t get paid for 40 years,\u201d Gillan says. I find that pretty amazing. \u201cI found it amazing, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

I meet Gillan, now 80 and Paice, 78, in separate rooms in a central London hotel. They are both buoyant about their new record: coming shortly after 2022\u2019s reinvigorating album =1, their 24th album Splat! sees Deep Purple in vibrant form in their twilight years. Again produced by Bob Ezrin, who has steered the band\u2019s late-career renaissance since 2013\u2019s Now What?!, Splat! is forceful and intense yet loose and playful. <\/p>\n

Both Gillan and Paice agree that Northern Irish guitarist Simon McBride, who joined in 2022, has been a catalyst, replacing Steve Morse\u2019s southern Americana blues style with back-to-basics British rock. The music sounds both familiar and fresh, not an easy trick to pull off for a veteran band. \u201cI think Simon has helped us get our mojo back,\u201d Gillan says. \u201cIt\u2019s like a unit again. It\u2019s a fantastic feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DeepDrummer Ian Paice on stage with Deep Purple in Japan earlier this year (Photo: Robert Lio \/ DABOSS)<\/p>\n

While there are some silly outliers \u2013 \u201cJessica\u2019s Bra\u201d is actually about a bar and their younger days; \u201cThe Rider\u201d pokes fun at rock star ego \u2013 Splat! has an elaborate semi-concept: what comes after the apocalypse, and how humanity\u2019s consciousness might transform in a metaphysical future. \u201cIt\u2019s about hope and light and the future,\u201d Gillan says. While it\u2019s a shift from some of Gillan\u2019s early lyrics of fast living and band turmoil, it\u2019s an update on his old Cold War fears. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the world\u2019s changed,\u201d Gillan says. \u201cI\u2019ve changed. You\u2019ve climbed the hill of life. You see further, you interpret things in different ways.\u201d But does it not hit differently given end times seem nearer than ever? \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t write about it. Or even laugh at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deep Purple are settled now as they reach their 60th year, but it has been a career of upheaval. Paice is the only founding member; he and Lord were in the more psychedelic early version of the band that broke through with \u201cHush\u201d in 1968, later a hit for Kula Shaker<\/a>. But by 1969, original singer Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper were out, replaced by Gillan and Glover. \u201cGod bless him, Nick didn\u2019t like the way music was going, so he was just unhappy,\u201d Paice says. \u201cRod had a really nice voice, but it wasn\u2019t the voice that could go where we were automatically going. It had to go that way. It\u2019s a hard business. But when there\u2019s been a change, the change has always been quality for quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gillan, a former boy soprano who had just starred in Jesus Christ Superstar, had the vocal range and power for this new heavy direction. But there was tension with Blackmore almost immediately: starting a classic frontman-guitarist ego-clash from the get-go, the first thing Blackmore told Gillan upon him joining was: \u201cI\u2019m going to try and blow you off the stage every night.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"DeepThe band\u2019s current line-up (left to right) Simon McBride, Ian Paice, Don Airey, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover (Photo: Olaf Heine)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t bother me at all,\u201d Gillan says. \u201cI thought it was fun. We were kids at the time, and Ritchie was a great showman. But if things were going too well, he\u2019d try and screw it up a little bit.\u201d <\/p>\n

Increasingly self-isolated, Blackmore took to onstage tantrums and sabotage: at one gig, Gillan requested not to sing \u201cChild in Time\u201d because he had a cold and couldn\u2019t sing it properly; Blackmore played it anyway. Gillan is not of the mind that such tension is good for creativity. \u201cIt may be when the sparks are flying for a little bit,\u201d Gillan says, \u201cbut it\u2019s all too much for me. I don\u2019t think you need that to produce your best necessarily. But then, I was just as bad as he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s fair to say they all enjoyed themselves: they were a rock band in the 70s after all. \u201cOh, yeah,\u201d Paice says. \u201cCrazy days. So much crazy. It just never ended. Every night was Saturday night, and sometimes you didn\u2019t see your bed for two or three days.\u201d But there were no substances other than alcohol. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do drugs,\u201d Gillan says. \u201cWe did beer and whiskey. We smoked cigarettes. I didn\u2019t smoke my first joint until I was 38.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gillan left in 1973, saying he wanted a new creative challenge. \u201cI think it ended up looking that way in public, but it was also personal,\u201d Gillan says. \u201cWe weren\u2019t getting on very well. All the outside things come into it. But the band was drifting more towards what Ritchie wanted \u2013 simpler tunes with a lot of the danger being smoothed out. And I like rough edges on the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Deep Purple\u2019s latest album Splat! is available now<\/p>\n

Gillan was replaced by David Coverdale, but that version of the band lasted just two years: Blackmore left in 1975 to form Rainbow. \u201cRitchie\u2019s a black and white character,\u201d Paice says. \u201cIt\u2019s either good or bad, I will or I won\u2019t like you. You can deal with it to a point. But it becomes a problem for the band, because you can\u2019t carry anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band carried on, but eventually reunited with Gillan and Blackmore in 1984. It started well, but old issues soon resurfaced. \u201cSooner or later, those personality clashes started to become apparent again,\u201d Paice says. The late 80s period into the mid-90s was a low for the band, who were out of vogue, with sparsely attended concerts and record sales on the floor. Gillan was sacked in 1989 and reinstated in 1992, while Blackmore\u2019s behaviour was becoming more erratic: he once walked out of a Birmingham concert halfway through, and in 1993 threatened to get Gillan beaten up during an interview on Swedish television. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obvious that Ritchie wasn\u2019t happy,\u201d Paice says. \u201cIt was affecting Gillan, and it was becoming difficult.\u201d Ahead of a Japanese tour in 1993, Blackmore quit, replaced for the shows by Joe Satriani. \u201cHe\u2019d drive me crazy, but he was so important to the halcyon days of the band,\u201d Paice says of Blackmore. \u201cHe was that good.\u201d Blackmore now plays medieval folk music and is all but uncontactable to his former bandmates. \u201cI haven\u2019t heard from him for a long time,\u201d Paice says. \u201cHe\u2019s wrapped up in a different sort of music and he\u2019s happy with it. That\u2019s all that really matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taken a while for Deep Purple to recalibrate, but both Gillan and Paice agree they are in the best place since their heyday. \u201cAs you get older, it becomes easier, because you understand people have different points of view on nearly everything,\u201d Paice says. \u201cJust play the music and stay on neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Deep Purple aren\u2019t finished yet. \u201cI always think about the future,\u201d Gillan says. \u201cPositive aging. That\u2019s me. I\u2019m making long term plans.\u201d The band are already talking about getting back in the studio in 2027. \u201cWell, it\u2019s a job for life,\u201d Gillan smiles.<\/p>\n

Splat! is out now. Deep Purple tour the UK from 18 November<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deep Purple\u2019s biggest song nearly went unheard. \u201cIt was a filler track,\u201d says frontman Ian Gillan of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,2580,128,14809,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-671535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-interviews","tag-music","tag-music-interviews","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}