Soul Mover - Rock Icon

What can you say about a man who's played in both Deep Purple and Black Sabbath? A man who beat severe substance abuse problems that threatened to end his career, and who managed to reinvent himself as both a soul superstar and heavy rock icon? If you want proof of Hughes' status as a bona fide legend check out the shape of his upcoming Australian tour, where he'll be playing huge stadium shows as part of the Kings of Chaos supergroup as well as a series of more intimate solo shows. Even then it's unlikely that Hughes will be able to cover the sheer breadth of his 40-year career.

“Kings of Chaos is all about delivering what the people want,” explains an animated Hughes. “So, with Sebastian onstage as well as the Guns N' Roses guys you have to play Skid Row and Guns N' Roses material. With Joe Elliot there you have to do some Def Leppard tunes. And as far as myself people want to hear the Deep Purple material – both the Mark 3 material I was involved in as well as the early material.”

So are the solo shows something of a release valve for the material you just can't fit into the Kings Of Chaos tour?

“Yeah I think that's the case,” Hughes agrees. “The solo shows are going to be in small venues that are intimate and I will play a mix of electric and acoustic material. I really have a kinship with Australia; I love the country and my fans really seem to like these sort of shows, so I'm free to do what I want. I don't want to be safe, I want to surprise people and I want to surprise myself. So yeah, I don't want to give too much away but I'm prepared to do material from Trapeze right through to Black Country Communion. It's going to be a complete retrospective – I can't cover everything of course, but I'm going to play songs that I think will strike a chord with Australian audiences.”

One part of his history that he won't be representing on stage is his work with Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath. As Hughes explains, it's not because he's ashamed of the material; it's more a case of missing the necessary artillery.

“I don't think I can do justice to that material without Tony Iommi. When you talk about that stuff you have to have the right guitar player to do that material and I'm really loathe to do it without Tony because he is one of a kind.”

While Hughes' work with Iommi has been some of the finest of his career, he reveals that his time fronting Black Sabbath in the mid-'80s was amongst the most traumatic of his life.

“The album I did with Black Sabbath wasn't actually meant to be a Black Sabbath album. It was meant to be a Tony Iommi solo record but at the last moment management came in and thought it would sell better as Sabbath. Really, I wasn't the right person to front Black Sabbath. I wasn't singing about Satan's whore or Beelzebub, I was singing about things that happen between people in real life. On top of that the wheels were starting to fall off in my personal life at the time. The addictions were getting worse and things weren't good for me. It was actually during the Seventh Star period that I entered the lowest period of my life. Just before it started I was punched in the face – and unbeknown to me as a consequence of the punch my eye socket fractured, which sent a piece of bone into my sinus. Now whether I deserved a punch on the nose or not the fact was that I simply couldn't speak let alone sing. So as a result I started drinking more heavily and things were so bad that Sabbath had to let me go. And thank God they did because it saved my life.

“When the doctor finally fixed me up he told me that I'd never sing again. So at that point I had two choices – to die or to rise again like a phoenix. Thank God I did the latter – I beat the devil. For many years I beat myself up about that whole experience and I wished I could go back and personally pay every person who had to sit through my performances on that tour. But really I came out of the experience a stronger man and a more spiritual man. I finally realised that everyone else had forgiven me – Tony definitely had – and I was the only one who hadn't forgiven myself.”

Hughes' recovery from these dark days has been nothing short of phenomenal. As well as releasing a string of highly lauded solo albums, encouraged by producer and friend Kevin Shirley, he also formed the blues rock juggernaut known as Black Country Communion. Releasing three albums in quick succession and amassing a dedicated fanbase, the band looked to be on the verge of much bigger things. But recently there have been reports of turmoil in the group's ranks and statements have been made to the effect that the group is now history. Sadly, Hughes confirms that this is indeed the case.

“Look, Joe [Bonamassa] has left the band and he's taken the name with him. Myself, Jason and Derek can no longer perform under that name – there's nothing we can do about that so all three of us have just decided for now to get on with our lives. When we do decide to move forward it will be under a new name with a new guitar player. I know everyone wants a new Black Country Communion album but that's not going to happen.

“Really, I don't care that this has happened because people are going to call us Black Country Communion anyway. I retain a great love and respect for the songs the band wrote and all the members of the band – even Joe, who's gone now. I do want to assure everyone that we will be back at some stage but right now isn't the time to talk about that – the wounds are too raw. But I will say there are a lot of great guitar players out there – and when it comes time we'll find the right person.”

Glenn Hughes will be playing the following dates:

Monday 22 April - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Wednesday 24 April - The Tempo Hotel, Brisbane QLD
Thursday 25 April - The Basement, Sydney NSW