Glenn Hughes

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Glenn Hughes (bass/vocals) was born 21 august 1951 in Cannock, Staffordshire, England. He is most known as a member of the legendary hard rock band Deep Purple between 1973-75, but has made several solo albums as well as beeing the lead singer of Black Sabbath between 1985-86. Glenn is possibly more known for his vocal abilities rather than his bass playing and is, as stated on his homepage, considered a "singer's singer" amongs other players.

Early career

Glenn Hughes started his music career when he drop school in the 60's at the age of 16. Back then he was amember of a band called "Finders Keepers" which later changed their name to "Trapeze". In this band was also guitarist Mel Galley (later Whitesnake) and drummer David Holland (later Judas Priest). Glenn's early influences was mainly from Motown artists and he developed a funky style of bass playing along with a voice full of soul. With Trapeze he made four albums: "Trapeze", "Medusa", "You Are The Music, We're Just The Band" and "Final Swing". Trapeze were also the opening act for Moody Blues on their U.S tour in 1969, but the never really made it to the charts, even that "You Are The Music, We're Just The Band" was causing a minor success.

The Big Break

When Roger Glover and Ian Gillan left Deep Purple in 1973, Glenn was called to replace both of them in conjunction with David Coverdale. The idea seemed to be to have two lead singers of a great caliber. Glenn's impact on the band is unmistakeable since they definitely moved to a funkier/soulier approach during the following years with Glenn. In 1974 "Burn" was released and Glenn and Coverdale shared much of the lead vocals, even though Coverdale sang a little more. The combination of Coverdales bluesy voice and Glenns high range was a great combination and as Glenn stated: "David Coverdale is without a doubt a great shouter, but he couldn’t do the high passages, which is where I came in. As far as I’m concerned we were the perfect combination". Deep Purple released "Strombringer" the year after, which moved the bands style even more to a funkier/soulier style. Glenn was also voted "Best bass player of the Year" in the british music magazine Melody Maker.

But guitarist Ritchie Blackmore didn't like the bands new direction and left in 1975 to form his own band. Tommy Bolin was hired as a replacement, and he and Glenn became best friends - which was not so lucky, since both of them was hard on drugs by that time. (Bolin later died of an overdose) After a chaotic tour in Japan, Deep Purple was broken up and Glenn returned to Trapeze for a short while. In -75 Glenn was also playing on Tommy Bolins solo album "Teaser".

Living in L.A

Glenn moved to L.A in 1977 but released his first solo album "Play me out" prior to the relocation. His bandmates from Trapeze Mel Galley and Dave Holland was on the record and so was guitarist Pat Travers. During the following years Glenn was busy in the music scene, doing mostly sessions on other players records.

Meeting Pat Thrall

In L.A Glenn met Pat Thrall who also was with the Pat Travers band. But when Pat Travers went out of work the two of them decided to do an album together. The co-operation led to one of the most legendary records in the beginning of the 80's although it wasn't a commercial success. The album entitled Hughes/Thrall show's off Glenn's vocal resources (singing with a span of 4 1/2 octave) and some real heavy guitar/bass playing. By that time Glenn had severe problems with his overweight and maybe therefore was abusing drugs.

Mid 80's

Glenn joined a musical/movie project called "Phenomena" (a lot of rock stars were participating amongst them were Brian May, Tony Martin and John Wetton, Scott Gorham) led by Mel Galley's brother Tom Galley and was featured on the song "Believe" amongst others. He joined Black Sabbath as lead singer in 1986 and was present on the album "Seventh Star". After a fight with Black Sabbath's Tour Manager, Glenn got his throat hurted and was'nt able to sing properly at the tour. He was later replaced for the rest of the tour, and did'nt appear in Black Sabbath again. His health was rapidly getting worse, and at the end of the eighties some friends got him into the Betty Ford clinic (uncomfirmed, but he did get treatment).

The new career

In 1991 Glenn has recovered from all his illness, and spent a lot of time in Sweden touring/playing with Europe's guitar player John Norum as well as a lot of other Swedish musicians. He was participating on John Norums solo album "Face The Truth" and also sings on KLF's hit "America: What Time Is Love" from the same year. The next year Glenn released his second solo album entitled just "Blues" under the L.A Blues Authority project. Guests on the album included John Norum, Mick Mars of Mötley Crüe, Warren DeMartini of Ratt and Richie Kotzen of Poison , Mr. Big and Mark Kendall of Great White fame. Glenn claimed that the album is about his inner demons, since when he got clean had a belief in a "higher power".

Glenn kept beeing extremely productive throughout the 90's and recorded several solo albums as well as guested other artists record. One of the most remarkable may be "Burning Japan -Live" from 1995. The tour was a spin-off from the album "From now on..." in 1994 which was recorded in Sweden with the elite of the Swedish hard rockers at that time.

In 1996 he released the album "Addiction" which deals with his earlier drug problems. It is co-produced/recorded with guitarist/song writer Marc Bonilla and present is also Joachim "JJ" Marsh, who became Glenns long time friend and has been present on all Glenns records since then. "Addiction" was Glenn's heaviest album so far in contrast to "From now on...", that had a more "pop" -style.

Fourth Headline

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