Deep Purple lead vocalist Ian Gillan opened up about the financial problems that he went through during the band’s first years in his recent interview with MOJO. He revealed that he had to eat a very unusual things to save more money and survive in the middle of this financial crisis.
Deep Purple’s early years can be considered as a very challenging process for the band members especially when their self-titled third studio album was released on June 21, 1969. The record turned into a great disappointment for them because of their constant problems with the record company and lack of promotion. It became one of Deep Purple’s least commercially successful albums and they had to face different challenges.
When Ian Gillan joined the band as their new lead singer, he had to live under harsh conditions until they started to gain money from their records. In a recent interview, the singer admitted that he would eat dog biscuits from the local petal shop as he didn’t have enough money to buy proper food by highlighting that the adversity was funny.
Moreover, the frontman recalled Deep Purple’s break up in 1976 after the arising addiction problems, and their guitarist Tommy Bolin passed away due to multiple-drug intoxication saying that actually, he didn’t want to go back to the band. However, Ian Gillan decided to reunite with Deep Purple along with the other legendary and famous members of the band almost a decade later.
Gillan said in his interview that:
“I supplemented my diet with dog biscuits from the local pet shop. The adversity is part of the fun. You don’t think it is at the time, but it is. I was thrilled, scared. I thought, ‘This is what it’s all been leading up to.’ I would rather slit my throat than sing with that band again. I can’t in a million years imagine any of us being close socially if we weren’t in Purple. The bonding factor is the music and the humor… I’m underplaying it, but I absolutely adore it.”
Deep Purple singer added that they remained connected with each other thanks to Deep Purple otherwise they wouldn’t be so close. According to Gillan, the band is bonded with music and humor which he thought he is ‘underplaying’ but he admitted that he loved this style.
