DEEP PURPLE's IAN GILLAN: Everyone Thinks 'Smoke On The Water' Is 'A Heavy Metal Song. It's Not.'

In a new interview with U.K.'s Planet Rock, DEEP PURPLE singer Ian Gillan spoke about the band's reputation for incorporating extensive, high-energy improvisation into its live concerts, with members often describing every show as unique. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When you're doing so many shows, which is our bread and butter, really — that's what we've always been, is a live band —you've gotta keep things energized when you're on a long tour. And you can't be changing the set every night because you find your best set, and you really wanna give that to every audience. So, the armchair warriors, they all go, 'Oh, you did the same set,' but it's not exactly the same."

Gillan continued: "[Late Italian operatic tenor Luciano] Pavarotti told me that he was very jealous. He said, 'Ian, I've seen you sing 'Smoke On The Water' six times, and every time it's different. If I did that with the emotion or the technical delivery of any of my famous arias, I'd be crucified by the critics and the fans. It's like that in the world of opera. But in rock and roll, you've got that freedom. I'm so jealous.' So one of the elements of what we do is improvisation. And so there are subtle changes every night that keep people on their toes. If you're not concentrating, you can get lost. And so everyone's in it and on it every night. I think that it's amazing to hear the trade-offs in the jam sessions between [keyboardist] Don [Airey] and [guitarist] Simon [McBride], and the shifting patterns between [bassist] Roger [Glover] and [drummer] Ian Paice, as what's happening on top, suddenly goes into a different groove. Ian Paice is the best swing drummer in living history, in my opinion, and Roger, they're tight as anything, but you feel the emphasis slightly changing. It's all subtle, but it's so exciting."

After the interviewer noted that Paice makes his drum parts sound deceptively simple and that the drummer gives the PURPLE songs a unique swing, Gillan concurred. "You listen to what [Paice] plays in 'Smoke [On The Water]'," he said. "Everyone thinks it's a crash bash, it's a heavy metal song. It's not. You just listen to the drums in 'Smoke'. [METALLICA's] Lars Ulrich came out and played it with me in San Francisco, and he battered the hell out of it. And I've worked with a lot of other drummers who've done it. And none of them actually realized that it's a gentle touch."

Asked about the lack of "production values" during DEEP PURPLE concerts and the band's emphasis on the instrumentation, Gillan said: "Well, there was a transition where we did start thinking about production. We do have a screen now, and there's some pretty nice stuff being shown up there that's relevant to the songs we're playing. I do remember the transition. It was during one of the DEEP PURPLE periods after 'Perfect Strangers', maybe two albums after that, where the manager suddenly... We were in Texas, down in Austin, and I turned up in the afternoon, and there was this huge aluminum framework around the stage behind the backline that somebody told me cost a quarter of a million dollars. And this was in the '80s. And I went out to a magic shop, joke shop, and I bought a stack of about 30 plastic urinals, and I got some Blu Tack [versatile, reusable and non-toxic putty-like adhesive] and I stuck them all along the line. It made it look much more interesting. I stuck one on the front of the Hammond, and then I got going and went out to the garden center and bought 25 trees in pots, young saplings, and put them all over the stage. The whole thing became more organic, and suddenly this new quarter-of-a-million thing was fantastic."

DEEP PURPLE will release a new studio album, "Splat!", on July 3 via earMUSIC. The band once again teamed up with renowned producer Bob Ezrin (KISS, PINK FLOYD, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper) to create what has been described in a press release as "the heaviest DEEP PURPLE album in many years."

To celebrate the release, DEEP PURPLE will continue their extensive 2026 touring schedule with no fewer than 86 shows across 28 countries on three continents.

There simply aren't enough superlatives to properly acknowledge the contribution DEEP PURPLE has made to rock music. Having sold more than 120 million albums and filled global arenas for decades, there's little wonder that the respected British radio station Planet Rock named the group the "Fifth Most Influential Band Ever". The band were also presented the "Legend Award" at the 2008 World Music Awards and were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2016.