Why Glenn Hughes Believes David Bowie Would Be Pissed at Him

Glenn Hughes said his late friend David Bowie would be pissed at him for remaining closely connected to his Deep Purple roots.

The pair met in the mid ‘70s and Bowie wrote most of Station To Station while living incognito in Hughes’ home. In a recent interview with Guitar Interactive (video below), Hughes recalled the experience.

“I got a call from him in Feb. ’75. He asked me privately, ‘I’m gonna come on a train to L.A. – can I stay with you?’” Hughes suggested it was dangerous for Bowie to travel alone, but that’s what he did, arriving three days later.

READ MORE: Glenn Hughes Says He Shouldn’t Have Left Trapeze for Deep Purple

When Hughes, who was completing a Deep Purple tour, arrived home, Bowie was already there. “He was throwing some of my clothes away from my closet – some of the bell-bottoms, some of the boots.

“We had dinner one night and he said, ‘Listen, you’ve gotta keep changing, man…’ I saw him [becoming] the Thin White Duke and I learned so much from him changing; that’s what I’ve taken from him ever since.”

Hughes’ current activities include touring a Deep Purple based show – but he said that would soon end. “You’ll notice a definite change in my look next year. You’ll notice it in my clothes… I love the Purple legacy but I’m saying goodbye to it.

“Thanks to Bowie – because he was still alive right now he’d be calling me, saying, ‘Are you still doing that?’ He would be very pissed off!”

Why Glenn Hughes Won’t Talk to Deep Purple Again

In the same interview, Hughes looked back on Deep Purple’s Rock Hall induction in 2016, saying it marked the last time he’d ever interact with his former band.

“I will never speak to any of them again, simply because they were rude,” he said. “Roger [Glover], Ian [Paice] and [Ian] Gillan were rude to David Coverdale and I – very, very hurtful. I didn’t give a fuck, actually, because I knew they were rude to begin with.”

Noting he was “the only sober man there,” he continued: “Gillan was rude to me on stage, accepting the award. I went to congratulate him; he looked at me in the eyes like I didn’t exist. The guy has a problem with me.” He added: “I’ve tried to make some kind of friendship with him over the last 40 years. He doesn’t want to know. David Coverdale and I don’t exist to him. I wish him only the very best, but I have no time left for that behavior.”

Glenn Hughes‘ Guitar Interactive Interview