GLENN HUGHES Says His Royalty Dispute Over DEEP PURPLE Catalog Has Finally Been Resolved

In a recent interview with the “Music And Me” podcast, Glenn Hughes confirmed that his dispute over the royalties to the DEEP PURPLE material that he co-wrote while a member of the band more than four decades ago has finally been cleared up. “As we sit here speaking, it’s three months ago, it’s all been resolved,” he told music journalist and presenter Kylie Olsson. “It’s taken a long time. It’s not really something I’ve spoke about in the press.

“People, of course, always ask me: ‘How come you didn’t write on ‘Burn’?’ And I don’t really go out of my way to give the definitive answer, but the fact is I was signed to another company,” he continued. “And if you look at [THE BEATLES‘] George Harrison and [LED ZEPPELIN‘s] Robert Plant, they were off a couple of records too — Robert being ‘Led Zeppelin I’. It’s the same scenario. I decided I’d leave my name off to… take care of business, if you will. At a young age as well — I couldn’t believe I did that.”

According to Hughes, he doesn’t harbor any bitterness toward the DEEP PURPLE camp over being inappropriately compensated for his work on the four albums he appeared on: “Burn”, “Stormbringer”, “Come Taste The Band” and “Made In Europe”. “I never hold a resentment,” he said. “Because the resentments are about people who are no longer with us. Let’s just say that I was mismanaged — young and mismanaged — and I was promised things that… Being an only child living with his mum and dad up in the north [of England], I was offered a handshake, and I took it.

“The thing that’s kept me alive is I’ve never held a resentment against anyone,” he explained. “Never. Resentments would kill me — it would take me out drinking, it would take me out cavorting. I never held a resentment. And now, 44 years later, it’s been resolved. It’s a long time.”

Asked if he got back payments, Hughes said: “I’m getting paid, yeah. It’s going back. But more importantly, I’m getting paid going forward. But there are some things I’m getting paid for, like film stuff and sync rights and streaming and stuff from lately. But there are other ways to go about it, which I can’t talk about.”

“I am right now… never been so healthy, and my mind is in a good place,” he added. “As you know, mind can take you down. If I wake up in the morning and my mind goes, ‘It’s gonna be a crap day today,’ it will be. So I do meditation at the bedside before I hit the floor and I go into a good place.”

Hughes was with DEEP PURPLE from 1973 until the band split up in 1976. As bassist and co-vocalist, with David Coverdale, he helped steer the legendary rock group in a slightly more progressive direction, while touring the world for three years.

Hughes was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2016 along with fellow DEEP PURPLE members Coverdale, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Rod Evans, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and Ian Paice.

In addition to DEEP PURPLE, Hughes has, during his six-decade career, been associated with more than a handful of bands, including TRAPEZE, a short-lived collaboration with Pat Thrall (HUGHES/THRALL), a brief stint with BLACK SABBATH, and, over the past decade, the ill-fated CALIFORNIA BREED, and the recently revived BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION. As a solo artist, he has collaborated with everyone from Joe Satriani and RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith to KLF and Gary Moore.