‘A great kick in the backside’: Ian Gillan says Deep Purple has been reinvigorated by Now What?!

Deep Purple went some eight years between Rapture of the Deep and last year’s studio comeback effort Now What?! Ian Gillan doesn’t expect it to be anywhere near that long next time.

“We’ve never really made plans,” Gillan tells Nyheterna 4, “although I think it’s quite likely that now that we’ve found our feet again in the studio, we’ll be possible going into the studio again sometime in the near future. I hope, at least to start writing again — because I think we’ve got a taste for it at the moment.”

Ultimately, Now What?! wasn’t just a return to the studio, it was a return to form — and fans responded. The album shot to No. 1 in four different countries, and into the Top 20 across 13 others.

Deep Purple is continuing its world tour in the support of the album. Even as they do, Gillan is giving credit to Now What?! producer Bob Ezrin (who had worked with Purple guitarist Steve Morse during an earlier stint in Kansas) for helping jumpstart things for the veteran group again.

“That was a great kick in the backside that we got from our producer,” Gillan says. Meanwhile, “the diary is full for tours and performances, so it will be more of the same. It never gets boring on the road. And, so long as there is some fresh input, then we’re in great shape.”

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