Ian Gillan Admits Deep Purple’s Goodbye Tour Was ‘Just a Joke’

Ian Gillan admitted that Deep Purple never intended to retire, despite calling their 2017 trek The Long Goodbye.

During a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk, the singer explained the reasoning behind the tour name.

“That was a joke, actually, because it was the promoters,” Gillian confessed. “And someone said, ‘We’ve gotta sell some more tickets.’ And it’s the good old standby, the farewell tour. So I said, ‘OK, we’ll call it ‘goodbye’ tour, but let’s call it ‘the long goodbye’, and let’s make the emphasis on the word ‘long’,’ so it’s kind of an enigmatic phrase.”

READ MORE: 15 Farewell Tours That Weren’t Actually Goodbye

The singer’s explanation deviates from what he said six years ago, when he claimed Deep Purple named their tour ‘The Long Goodbye’ because they were considering retirement. At the time, guitarist Steve Morse added further fuel to the fire when he said, “For me, personally, it’s a farewell tour.” Morse departed the band in 2022.

During his conversation with Trunk, Gillan made clear that Deep Purple will not be slowing down any time soon.

“There’s no intention to stop,” he affirmed. “We’re already booked to the end of ’26, in the planning stage, in the diary, with all the projects we’ve got for Deep Purple. So, yeah, years to come, hopefully.”

When Will Deep Purple Retire?

During a recent conversation with UCR’s Matt Wardlaw, Gillan alluded to when he might be ready to retire.

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“As soon as you start feeling unable to deliver at that [high] level – of course, you adjust, of course, you adapt and make do the best you can. But when the energy level goes, that’s time to stop because then it gets embarrassing and nobody wants that,” the rocker explained. “But so far, so good.”

Deep Purple’s North American tour dates conclude Sept. 9 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. From there they’ll head to South America and Europe for tour dates stretching through the end of the year.