Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan has recalled lying to Sharon Osbourne to protect Ozzy Osbourne, after the Black Sabbath star asked him not to reveal he was drinking vodka instead of water following rehab.
Speaking ahead of his first one-man talking tour, Gillan said Ozzy came to see him backstage after a gig in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Gillan had played with Black Sabbath for a couple of years in the early 1980s.
"Ozzy had just got out of rehab and he had this pint of water so I said to him, 'Well done for keeping up with the regime.' He looked at me and said 'F*** off, it's vodka. Just don't tell Sharon, she'll kill me,'" Gillan recalled.
Montreux Casino fire and 'Smoke on the Water'
Gillan also reflected on the night of December 4, 1971, when he was in the audience at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland watching Frank Zappa and The Mothers. An over-enthusiastic fan hurled a flare gun towards the wooden ceiling, and the packed venue was soon ablaze and burned to the ground.
"I saw the flare go up over my right shoulder. It wasn't malicious but it got caught up in the electrical system in the roof and the fire started immediately," he said. "Smoke filled the place pretty quickly and Frank did a great job telling everyone to get out. It was a miracle no one was killed or seriously injured."
Gillan and his Deep Purple bandmates evacuated to a nearby restaurant on Lake Geneva, where they watched the inferno. "I think bassist Roger Glover jotted down 'Smoke on the Water' on a napkin because that was what we could see," he said.
The song remains the band's definitive record from their 1972 album Machine Head. The line "Funky Claude was running in and out, pulling kids out the ground" refers to Claude Nobs, the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival, who helped audience members escape. "Some kids had gone down into the basement and were trapped. He saved them. He was a hero that night," Gillan recalled.
First talking tour and life on stage
Now 80, Gillan is embarking on his first talking tour, the Talking Gib'rish Tour, with tickets on sale for spring 2027. "It's going to be a blast! After 65 years on the road, I am excited to share all my stories with the audience," he said. "There will be plenty of rock 'n' roll stories of life on the road and famous names mentioned and stories about my own personal life. I am a bit nervous though. It is one thing telling your funny anecdotes to your mates down the pub, quite another telling them on stage."
Gillan admitted his eyesight is failing and he only has 20% vision left. "They have to mark out a big luminous line on the edge of the stage now for me so I don't fall into the audience," he said.
He also reflected on his claim to have invented head-banging, recalling riding bareback on a horse through the New Forest. "I loved the feel of my hair blowing in the wind and on my back. It felt like freedom so I grew it long and would throw it about on stage. So yes, I like to think I invented head-banging. Sorry, I can't really do it now though. I still have a decent head of hair but I can't grow it long anymore."
Personal life and legacy
Gillan's wife Bron, whom he married in 1983, died four years ago of heart failure at Exeter Hospital. The couple shared a daughter, Grace. "I actually married her three times over the years. I quite liked her in the end," he joked. "She was in the music business when we met so she understood. I still feel her presence here in our villa in Portugal. Her plants are all around me in the garden and I feel her at our house in Lyme Regis too."
Deep Purple were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 and won an Ivor Novello Award in 2019. The band's global record sales have exceeded 200 million copies. "I still love playing with the band," Gillan said. "There might not be any wild parties for me anymore but writing and playing the music is still really exciting."
Tickets for Ian Gillan's Talking Gib'rish Tour are on sale now, and details for Deep Purple's UK tour are available at deeppurple.com.
