Ian Gillan

Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945 in Hounslow, London) is an English rock music vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist for Deep Purple. During his career Gillan also fronted his own band, had a year-long stint as the vocalist for Black Sabbath, and sang the role of Jesus in the original recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.
In his early days, he was known to have an extremely high screaming capability, being able to soar to a possible C6 in some songs.


Early life
Gillan's father was a storekeeper at a factory in London. He grew up moving between council flats before settling in a three-bedroom semi-detached on a council estate in Cranford, Hounslow.


Career
Early years
Between 1962 and 1964 Gillan was in a band called The Javelins. He then joined Wainwright's Gentlemen until 1965. Between 1965 and '69, when he joined Deep Purple, he achieved minor success with Episode Six.

Deep Purple (1969-1973)
After Deep Purple members Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore saw one of his lead vocal performances with Episode Six, they approached him to replace Rod Evans in Deep Purple.
Gillan was a member of Deep Purple from 1969 through to 1973, appearing on such now-classic Deep Purple albums as In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head, Made In Japan and Who Do We Think We Are. He had initially joined the band for its 1969 Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a one-off show with England's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra that was made into an album. During these years, he also was the voice of Jesus on the original 1970 album recording of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was offered the lead role in the 1973 film adaptation. Ian demanded to be paid not only for his role in the movie but insisted, without the consent of his manager, that the entire band be paid because filming would conflict with a scheduled tour. The producers declined and Ian continued on in the band.Citing exhaustion and a poor working relationship with the band, particularly Blackmore, Gillan left Deep Purple in the summer of 1973.


Namesake groups

After his departure from Deep Purple, Gillan retired from performing to pursue business ventures. However, encouraged by his reception at the Butterfly Ball in 1975, he decided to resume his singing career. He formed the Ian Gillan Band. The early band sound had a distinct jazz-rock aspect which proved unpopular and was replaced by a more high powered hard rock sound as Gillan changed the lineup and shortened the group's name to Gillan. Writing the bulk of new material with keyboardist Colin Towns, the release of Mr. Universe saw Ian Gillan back in the UK charts, although the independent record company the album came out on – Acrobat – folded soon after the album was released, prompting a contract with Richard Branson's Virgin Records. Through several more lineup changes the band released a string of UK hit singles and successful albums including Glory Road, Future Shock, Double Trouble, and finally Magic.
In 1982 Ian Gillan announced the band would fold as he needed to rest his damaged vocal cords. The tone and style of his singing changed considerably when he eventually returned. His voice had a more nasal tone and this can be heard on albums he has made from 1983 to the present day. His use of multi tracking backing vocals also became highly prominent.

Black Sabbath
In 1983 he joined Black Sabbath (replacing Ronnie James Dio) for a year to record the Born Again album and tour (on which Black Sabbath played the Deep Purple standard "Smoke on the Water" as an encore). He was largely dissatisfied with his stint in Sabbath, notably the final mix of the Born Again album (though he liked the songs and their original mixes), and its cover, which featured a demonic-looking baby. He was quoted in Kerrang! in 1984 as saying "I looked at the cover and puked." In an interview supporting Deep Purple's reformation in 1984, he stated of Born Again, "they had sent me a box of records. And when I saw the cover and heard the mix, I smashed every single one of them to pieces."
The album spawned only one semi-successful radio track, "Keep It Warm". In an interview on Part 2 of the VHS, The Black Sabbath Story (1992), he said, "I was the worst singer Black Sabbath ever had..." However, he stated in the same interview that he liked the members of Sabbath personally: "I love Tony, love Geezer."


Rejoining Deep Purple, 1984-1989 and 1992-present

Gillan joined a reunited Deep Purple in early 1984, after the somewhat disappointing Black Sabbath album [by his own admission], Born Again in 1983. The 1984 comeback with Deep Purple was a highly-acclaimed and very successful album Perfect Strangers that was followed by one of the most successful rock tours of 1985. Another studio album with this formation, The House of Blue Light (1987), was followed by the live album Nobody's Perfect (1988). The live album actually featured one studio song, a re-recording of the 1968 hit "Hush", with Gillan on vocals, to commemorate Deep Purple's 20th anniversary. (The original 1968 release had been sung by Rod Evans.)
Gillan was sacked in 1989, being replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner for one Deep Purple studio album. He rejoined in 1992 to record the album The Battle Rages On, at the urging of Lord and Paice, who wanted him in the fold for the band's 25th anniversary tour. During the 1993 tour for this album, Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple for good. The rest of Deep Purple carried on, eventually replacing Blackmore with Steve Morse, and Gillan remains in the band to the present day.


Solo activity in the 2000s

In June 2004 Gillan performed guest lead vocals on Smokescreen as part of Dean Howard – Volume One. Dean Howard (T'pau/Gillan/Repo Depo) co wrote some of the material that went towards Gillan's Dreamcatcher album.
In February 2005 Ian Gillan guested at Jeff Healey's concert in Toronto, Canada and was also among artists performing at the House of Rock concert in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In April 2006 Gillan released a CD/multimedia project to document his 40-year career called Gillan's Inn. Tony Iommi, Jeff Healey, Joe Satriani, Dean Howard, as well as current and former members of Deep Purple such as Jon Lord, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Don Airey and Steve Morse are featured on this 2006 CD and DVD. The project includes a re-recorded selection of his Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and solo tracks. It was produced by Nick Blagona. In a recent interview, Gillan announced that his solo albums from the 1970s and 1980s would be re-issued late in 2006 through the Demon record company. These albums began to be released in early 2007.
Also, on September 11, 2006, Ian Gillan promoted the Gillan's Inn tour by having local guitarists compete through local radio stations to play on stage with the band during the famous song "Smoke on the Water". The promotion was titled "Smoke This!". On the September 11 show, Lars Ulrich, drummer for thrash metal band Metallica joined Gillan on stage for "Smoke on the Water," along with the local contest winner, David Gizzarelli. Joe Satriani was scheduled to join the lineup as well, but was called to the studio for last minute revisions.
In 2006 a single called Eternity was released for the Japanese Xbox 360 game Blue Dragon, composed by Nobuo Uematsu and featuring the vocals of Gillan. That same song was reused in the fan-made, freeware RPG game Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden for battles against VinceBorg2050 (a combination of cyborg & Vince Carter). The Eternity file in the Barkley game music folder is labeled "jesus christ the guy from deep purple sang this".
On 31 March 2006 Gillan appeared at the Tommy Vance tribute concert in London. He was accompanied by Roger Glover, Steve Morris, Dean Howard, Michael Lee Jackson, Harry James, Sim Jones and Richard Cottle.
Also in 2006, Ian Gillan sang on two songs off the Jon Lord & Hoochie Coochie Men studio album, Danger. White Men Dancing, released in late 2007.
On 2 April 2007, Gillan released a DVD Highway Star - A Journey in Rock. The DVD has 6 hours of footage including documentaries and music clips.
In June 2007, he sang with the group Sed Nove and Ann Wilson in the Festival of Music in Paris.
In February 2008 Gillan released a double live album on Edel Records, Live in Anaheim that features Gillan and Deep Purple classic songs and several rarities. A companion DVD was released in May 2008.
On 3 May 2008 Ian Gillan performed at the Jeff Healey memorial concert in Toronto, Canada.
He released a new studio album entitled One Eye to Morocco in March 2009.
In recent years Ian Gillan has been performing occasionally with orchestras in Europe singing mainly Deep Purple hits (2007: Greece, 2008: Italy, 2009: Germany, Poland). During his visit in Poland, in August 2009, Ian Gillan was presented with the plaque at the Gdansk Walk of Fame.
On 2 October 2009 ,in honour of the 20th anniversary of 'Rock Aid Armenia', Gillan together with Tony Iommi, Geoff Downes, and the project organizer Jon Dee were received by the Prime Minister of Armenia who awarded them with the republic's Orders of Honour.
On March 26 and 27 2010, in Yerevan, Gillan performs with State Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia. At a press conference in Yerevan on March 27, Gillan said he considers Armenia his spiritual motherland.
Ian Gillan will be meeting Tony Iommi, Nicko McBrain and Jon Lord at a studio in London to finish recording a song called ‘Out of my Mind’. This is for the benefit of the music school to be built in Gyumri, Armenia – a project Ian Gillan has been working on with others since his concerts in Yerevan (17–20 May 1990).
On the flight back from Armenia last year, after each receiving the Armenian Presidential medal of Honour, IG and Tony decided to form the band WhoCares for ad hoc recordings (and possible performances) dedicated to raising money for specific causes.


Personal life

Family
In 1984, Gillan married his girlfriend Bron, to whom he had dedicated "Keep It Warm" from Black Sabbath's 1983 album Born Again. They have twice since renewed their marriage vows. Gillan has two children and three grandchildren all of whom were brought up in Scotland. Gillan moved to southern Portugal in the late 2000s.
Gillan's mother, Audrey Parkinson, often visits him while he is touring with Deep Purple in the United Kingdom. She can often be seen sitting to the side of the stage.

Other
He is a passionate football fan, supporting Queens Park Rangers F.C. He is also a big fan of cricket.
Gillan is well-known for his intolerance of aggressive crowd security personnel at concerts. On 15 August 1998, he was charged with assault after striking a security guard on the head with a microphone. In 2004, he was banned from driving for 16 months and fined £500 for being twice over the legal alcohol limit.
His surname is often misspelled as "Gillian". Gillan himself made light of this in the lyrics to "MTV", a track from Deep Purple's 2005 album Rapture of the Deep.

Poor Relationship with Blackmore
Gillan was room-mates with Ritchie Blackmore in the 1970s, but left the band in 1973 amid tensions with Blackmore and overall exhaustion. In a 2006 interview, Gillan said of Blackmore's final 1993 departure from Deep Purple, "he turned into a really weird guy, and the day he walked out of the tour was the day the clouds disappeared and the day the sunshine came out and we haven't looked back since." He added that "there are certain personal issues that I have with Ritchie, which means that I will never speak to him again. Nothing I'm going to discuss publicly, but deeply personal stuff."
In March 2009, Gillan claimed that prior to the 1993 reunion of the band, Blackmore had requested $250,000 be deposited in his bank account in order for him to continue with the reunion. The other members of the band did not receive anything. This claim was subsequently denied by Blackmore's solicitor in a statement released soon after.