Roger Glover just announced a devastating news……

For Roger Glover of Deep Purple, Everything Is One.
It is rare for the subject of an interview to tell you to screw off right away when you are pursuing music journalism. However, that is what occurs when Deep Purple’s bassist Roger Glover appears via Zoom on a computer screen.

“Bob, I don’t have time to talk to you. “I’m reading!” he exclaims, fervently removing what appears to be a CD copy of the group’s upcoming studio album =1, which will be available through earMUSIC on July 19. In fact, this is the first time I’ve seen the album. I have so much privilege!

Naturally, Glover is making a joke. However, he has every right to be excited about the album and the great new songs it features from him, drummer Ian Paice, keyboardist Don Airey, singer Ian Gillan, and new guitarist Simon McBride, who is making his recorded debut with the legendary group.

The listener must determine what the equation in the title means. I think that encapsulates our entire career,” he remarks. “With all of the comings and goings, breakups, leavings, and sackings, it’s been like a soap opera.”

Instead of simply resting on their considerable achievements, this is Deep Purple’s seventh album of brand-new songs this century and their fifth with renowned producer Bob Ezrin (KISS, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper) at the controls. According to Glover, releasing new music makes sense.
It’s more necessary than crucial. That’s what we carry out. We adore it. He states with considerable passion, “It’s the way we live.

“It’s not like pop music, which comes and goes. To have a hit is the motivation behind doing that. It is not a concern for us. We’re expressing ourselves and having fun while doing it. Yes, it is better if it becomes a hit. However, being a songwriter means you can’t quit.

Being 45 years old, McBride is younger than his bandmates by over a generation (Glover and Gillan are 78 years old, Paice and Airey are 76 years old). He is undoubtedly stepping into some big shoes in the six-string slot. Shoes previously owned by Steve Morse (1993–2022), Ritchie Blackmore, Tommy Bolin, and Joe Satriani (both temporarily).

The Purps were already familiar with McBride from her time as a member of Don Airey’s solo band, which later supported Ian Gillan on a rock fusion tour. At first, he was only supposed to cover for Morse on their previous tour. However, McBride was the obvious choice to take over when Morse had to permanently leave the group to tend to his sick wife. Nobody else was given any thought.

“I detest going to auditions.” They are truly annoying! Glover giggles.
It was also almost a given that Bob Ezrin would return to the producer’s chair. “Aside from being a talented musician and songwriter, he exudes energy and dynamic qualities. Additionally, Glover notes that he works quickly.

Furthermore, he saw qualities in us that we were unaware of. He was struck by Deep Purple’s spontaneity and musicality when he saw us for the first time in Toronto twelve years ago. They are new every night, so we don’t learn solos to play them. That is what ultimately caused him to succumb.

In contrast, Glover claims that the band took six months to record their self-produced 1987 album The House of Blue Light. He estimates that in 11 days, they recorded the basic backing tracks for 15 songs for =1.

“‘Take 49’ is not a real thing. Usually, there are no more than two takes, and if there are, you lose something,” he says.
The songs cover well-known Purple ground, including love, lust, cunning women, and the occasional orgy. However, the themes of its first two singles are more modern. In “Portable Door,” there’s the opinion-spouter who is blabbering, dull, and forceful; in “Pictures of You,” there’s the romantic seeker whose photos on online dating sites don’t quite reflect the real world.

“The world seeps in when you write lyrics. You cannot disregard it. And right now, things are not good in the world. However, perhaps things have always been bad,” Glover says.

We [use] everything—conversations, recollections, newspapers—but no one member of the band can speak for the group as a whole. That wouldn’t work for us and would most likely cause our separation. We avoid preaching or politics unless it is a general observation.
All five band members—along with Ezrin—share writing credit on all 13 tracks, which surely helps to keep the group together. There’s also a rationale.

We five need time to write everything. No one brings a finished song to a Purple session. Purple was mostly known for their covers when I joined. After that, we began penning our own. It has a complete feel. Just as much a word or riff is a part of the writing as is the way the drums are played. And we’ve always chosen to split the credit,” he adds.

Ritchie changed that when Ian Gillan and I left the band in 1973 and were replaced by David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. “No, he who writes gets,” he remarked. since he was writing the majority of it in his head. Since the band plays mostly guitar, he contributed a lot of the material. However, not all of

He points out that the opening riff of one of the most well-known songs in Classic Rock, “Smoke on the Water,” by Blackmore, is only a small portion of the song’s overall structure.

Glover stated that they chose to return to more collaborative credits after Blackmore left the reformed and well-known “Mark II” lineup in 1993 (for those keeping track, the current lineup is “Mark IX”).
He continues by saying that it eliminates a great deal of jealousy and anxiety around selecting which tracks—and consequently, the writer’s royalties—are chosen to be included. He believes that something goes against the essence of creativity itself.

Glover acknowledges going through a difficult period following that controversial departure in ’73. “I was really blown away by how depressed I was.” My four years of living this amazing dream of becoming wealthy and owning the world came to an abrupt end. And it was hard to bear,” he adds.

However, the unexpected success of a little-known Scottish hard rock band whose third record he produced, Nazareth, lifted his spirits and enhanced his professional résumé.

For a number of years, Glover focused primarily on producing before joining Rainbow, Blackmore’s “other” band. Subsequently, their routes returned to Deep Purple.

Finally, audiences across the world will get to hear both material from =1 and songs from across their 56-year history this summer as the band embarks on a world tour. It will bring them to Houston at the Woodlands Pavilion on August 17, with Prog-rock kings Yes opening.

With some creative math, the current tour marks “50 Years of ‘Smoke on the Water.’” And the album that birthed it, 1972’s Machine Head, was recently reissued in a Super Deluxe Edition.

Amazingly, its tale about a mobile recording unit, a floating Swiss casino burnt to the ground with a flare, and a cameo from Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention is a true story. More amazing was that this epochal piece of rock and roll history was never meant to be issued as a single. And its success was a shock to the band itself.

“The first single from the album was something called ‘Never Before.’ And it died a certain death,” Glover recalls. “For some reason, an American DJ started playing ‘Smoke on the Water.’ The guys at the record company said it was too long and would need an edit. But that song changed everything.”

Later that year, the band’s well-received live record Made in Japan, which also featured “Smoke on the Water,” renewed interest in both the song and Machine Head.

“I’m in constant amazement and surprise that we wrote a song and recorded it, and it became something we didn’t ever intend it to be!” Glover sums up. “It’s beautiful.”

Deep Purple play at 6:30 pm on Sunday, August 17, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins. For more information, call 281-364-3024 or visit WoodlandsCenter.org. Yes opens. $39.50 and up.