Deep Purple’s Roger Glover doesn’t like being famous.
In a new conversation with Spain’s Made In Metal, the bassist revealed that he lives a ‘very private’ life apart from the band:
“The hoopla of being in a big band and touring has to be balanced, if you like, by family life. And the family have a hard enough time ’cause I have to go away for such long periods of time, and they have to exist here without me, which is not easy. I have a wife and two children — young children now. It’s necessary for me not to be known as famous. I don’t like fame.”
He continued, sharing what young musicians generally ask him:
“People say to me, young musicians, ‘Hey, how do you get famous?’ It’s the wrong question. What you really need to ask is, how do you be happy? People who wanna be famous, I don’t know why, because it’s an imposition. It takes away your life. And so I’m very happy to keep my life as private as possible.”
Glover Speaks About Deep Purple’s Success
Glover thinks Deep Purple’s success comes from not copying others but leading with originality and taking risks. In an interview with HELLO! India earlier this year, the rocker said the following about their longevity:
“It could well be dangerous to analyse too much. I don’t know. First of all, we learned a long time ago that you don’t get anywhere by copying anyone else. You have to be a leader. You have to be out front and take chances and risks. There’s a degree of musicianship in the band that I don’t think many bands have. When I joined the band, I’d never heard musicians like Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord… Ian Pace they just blew me away. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, they’re so good and am I good enough?’ There was a kind of naivety.”
He added:
“Looking back on it, maybe there’s something to it, this naive side yet an honest and very musical side. If everyone was a brilliant musician, they would go over people’s heads, because only other musicians would appreciate them. But because we had this mix of naive and finesse, maybe that gave it a quality that appealed to people and that simplicity!”
Deep Purple will release their new album ‘=1’ on July 19. They’ll be touring this year, with their next show scheduled for June 13 in Madrid, Spain, at the ALMA Occident Festival in Parque Tierno Galvan.
You can watch his full interview below.