Photo by Mike Prior

In an exclusive interview with Dave Lewis for the forthcoming TBL magazine, Glenn Hughes reveals that the new Black Country Communion album has a darker theme lyrically:

‘’For me the lyrics are darker. As usual I began with nothing but a blank canvas. After we recorded the last song for the first album which was Too Late For the Sun, the tank was empty.  So I am upstairs in my studio, the old lady’s sleeping, the dogs are downstairs, and the house was quiet. That was when I wrote most of the material .The first one I wrote was Faithless, and Gabby heard it and woke up. I was singing “My lack of faith has no shame and is reckless and there’s no flame for the faithless.’’

You know I’m normally about ‘puppy dogs’ and ‘kiss me’ and it was like ‘Where the fuck did that come from?’ Here I am singing about I’ve got no faith, lack of faith, hung by a rope, cast out to sea again. It gave me a blueprint to write a darker album.  I’d been listening to a lot of Rolling Stones recently because Keith’s book is so insanely good that I’ve been listening to a lot of lyricists like Dylan and Jagger.Something other than ‘Boy meets girl.’  Black Country Communion has to have substance lyrically and that’s where this album really evolved.’’

Talking about Jason Bonham’s input Glenn comments: ‘’As I’ve said before, Jason has really come into his own. The sound he’s got on this album is amazing. We had this huge room, it’s Frank Sinatra’s old studio, this huge room where I made the Hughes-Thrall album. So you can get a really big drum sound with a 40 foot ceiling. It’s the East West studios which used to be called United West – it’s down near SIR where Zeppelin used to rehearse’’.

Running through the tracks on the album Glenn reveals: ‘’Man In The Middle is going to be the video clip. We have already shot the studio stuff and I completed it in Los Angeles. The Battle For Hadrian’s Wall is a complete Joe thing and really amazing.  Save Me is the centerpiece of the album and the way that the vocals sound, well we can’t beat round the bush, it does have a Zeppelin vibe to it – that’s no bad thing. We are not trying to be Zep, and I would hate for anybody to go there – it’s too much sacred ground – but if there has to be one song that people go…‘wow,’ well there it is.’’

Finally Glenn summarizes the current state of play and how he balances his solo and band involvement: ‘’I love playing with my band and I get to stretch out a little bit which is great. At the moment, the focus for me is Black Country Communion and getting to play as much as possible, but I will always do some solo stuff. I’ll perform acoustic shows. So it’s balancing the two things.”

‘’What we’re looking to do is establish the band – and as you saw at Shepherds Bush we just want to get out there. I guess like Zep we are very much a live band and the new songs will morph into their own little movies on stage. I am about playing live – I am not always sitting at home with my lovely wife and dogs. We are super excited to be doing the High Voltage festival and being out there as Black Country Communion on tour.’’

Glenn commences his 11 date solo tour in Northampton this Saturday May 14th. This week also sees the launch of his long awaited autobiography ‘’Deep Purple and beyond :Scenes from the life of a Rock Star’’. Glenn is scheduled to be a guest live on the Steve Wright in the afternoon show on BBC Radio2 this Thursday.  For latest Glenn news see http://www.glennhughes.com/

Black Country Communion have just issued a free download of the first track  from their forthcoming second studio album “2”. Entitled “The Outsider”, the new song is available as a free download from the Official BCC website http://bccommunion.com/outsider/.

In the UK and the rest of Europe, Mascot Records will issue an exclusive limited edition digipack of Black Country Communion’s “2” album, produced by Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith, Journey, Black Crowes). The limited edition digipack is available for pre-order now, and includes hand-written liner notes from each member of the band, plus exclusive photographs. The sleeve artwork will be embossed in a high quality “grain texture” finishing.

Fans can order the limited edition CD digipack from Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/ipSfbr, and Play.com: http://bit.ly/lBOr0V. An exclusive double gatefold vinyl edition can be ordered from Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/isMIO5.

The full interview with Glenn Hughes appears in the new issue of the TBL magazine –due for distribution next week – another reason to be sure to subscribe for the 2011 issues

Issue 29 kicks off the three issue subscription that  be followed by issue 30 in late September and issue 31 in January 2012.

If you are a 2010 subscriber your subscription ended with issue 28.

I am sure you will not want to miss out on this year’s trio of magazines. There’s another action packed line up of news, views and features ready to provide you with an ongoing Zep fix through the year.

Now is the time to re subscribe!

If you have purchased a single issue previously this is the perfect opportunity to get on board and ensure you never miss an issue. If you have yet to purchase the TBL magazine – TBL 29 is a great starting place

All the details of how to subscribe can be found on the TBL Subscriptions link below:

http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/?page_id=1469

Don’t miss out – Get ready for some essential Zep reading for the summer!

Dave Lewis, May 10th 2011