Glenn Hughes is one of rock’s great survivors. After rising to fame as singer and bassist with Trapeze and Deep Purple, he found himself in the grip of serious drug addiction which derailed his career in the 1980s and came close to ending his life. Thankfully, he cleaned up in the 1990s, releasing a string of albums that cemented his reputation as The Voice Of Rock.
Hughes’ latest solo album, Chosen, is set for release on September 5. It’s the first record to bear his name since 2016’s Resonate, but he tells Classic Rock that it may be the last.
“This may be the last Glenn Hughes solo album,” he says. “It was suggested that I needed to do one for the label, I owed them an album. So I thought, ‘OK, if that‘s the way it’s going to be’, and I wrapped my head around it.
“Solo albums, for me, are very personal,” he adds. “I like to make records when I have something to say. I don’t think about genres any more, I just think, ‘How is this going to sit with me?’”
It’s not as if the 73-year-old is winding down for retirement. He’s currently wrapping up a European tour with Black Country Communion, the supergroup he formed with guitarist Joe Bonamassa, drummer Jason Bonham and keyboard player Derek Sherinian.
“We are playing better than ever before, we are selling a bunch of tickets,” Hughes says of the band. “The world of BCC is so great right now - this is the first string of shows we’ve done since 2011. And it looks like there’s going to be more. There’s so much love and life.”
But Hughes is insistent that he’s approaching the end of the road when it comes to releasing solo albums, and that Chosen will be his solo swansong.
“If I’ve got something else to say, then I’ll let you know, but I don’t know if i will have,” he tells CR. “I’m not going to retire, but making a solo album tears me up. They’re so personal, they just do a number on me.
“I can’t make plans. If I make plans, God goes, ‘No way, pal, we’re not going to do that.’ If Chosen is the last album I make, it’s an epic way to finish. But then again, you never know with me”
The full interview with Glenn Hughes will appear in an upcoming issue of Classic Rock magazine.
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