Deep Purple’s Roger Glover explains why the band are against farewell tours: “A cheap publicity thing”
In an exclusive interview with Far Out, Roger Glover has explained why fans of Deep Purple will never see the band performing an official farewell tour or staging a hologram show.
The British rockers are on the cusp of releasing their 24th studio album, Splat!, on July 3rd, and with a massive tour billed for later this year, show no signs of slowing down.
As such, while speaking to Far Out, Glover explained Deep Purple’s mantra when it comes to not retiring, despite most of the band being in their 80s, and why they will defy convention in regard to farewell tours.
Comparing Deep Purple to Black Sabbath, who staged a massive farewell at the Back to the Beginning show weeks prior to Ozzy Osbourne’s death last year, he said: “Maybe six years ago, when Steve [Morse] was in the band, he said, ‘Why don’t we do a last tour and announce it, and go off on a high?’”
However, the bassist added, “That didn’t go down particularly well with the rest of us, because we don’t want to do that, but that’s why we started calling it The Long Goodbye tour.”
Glover claimed the band have not looked back since then, because “we thought goodbye is around the corner, but that corner was a long time ago now.”
Ultimately, when it comes to other classic rock bands of their era announcing final tours, Glover noted, “If anyone else wants to do it, to me it’s a bit of a kind of a bit of a cheap publicity thing,” before adding, “If it’s got emotions, and if it’s good for them, then fine. I can’t argue against it. It just wouldn’t work for us.”
Another option in this realm is the notorious hologram show, with classic bands like Abba already significantly cashing in on their Voyage experience, and others like Kiss putting their avatars into development.
However, Glover was adamant that Deep Purple would not give in to this opportunity. “It’s like a merchandising thing,” he said. “What can you sell on it? Yeah, nothing wrong with making money. I’m not against that. It’s just somehow a bit tacky.”
Subsequently, fans can look forward to seeing the very much alive and human versions of Deep Purple when they head out on their massive tour later this year, spanning across Europe, North America, the UK, and South America from July until December.
The full interview with Glover will be published on Far Out on July 3rd.
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