Glenn Hughes has announced his retirement from live work. The 74-year-old former Deep Purple singer and bassist, who underwent surgery in 2013 to repair an enlarged aorta, has decided to stop performing on medical advice. The announcement comes just days after Hughes performed with all-star covers band Kings Of Chaos in Los Angeles.
“This past year, I’ve had some health issues,” says Hughes. “The results from numerous MRIs, CT scans, and an echocardiogram have alerted my medical team that I need another open-heart surgery. I really have no option and no choice, as health is my number one priority. Grateful to have been chosen with a life full with the gift of music. Thank you for walking beside me.”
In 2014, Hughes revealed he was diagnosed with a heart murmur when he was a child, and claimed he was lucky not to have suffered heart problems earlier as a result of his high-profile battles with drink and drugs in the 1970s and 80s.
“I had a heart attack on Christmas Day in 1991,” Hughes told Classic Rock in 2016. “God obviously had a sense of humour: ‘Let’s see if he’s paying attention – kapow!’ He gave me the heart attack. Or something did – well, that would have been the drugs, wouldn’t it?
“I realised how close to death I was then. I knew I had to get in a car, and my girlfriend drove me to hospital. And I very distinctly said to them at the hospital: ‘I’ve OD’d.’ And then I blacked out.
“I woke up, and I’d been sober for twenty-four hours. Which was a great moment for me, because I’d been trying for years. I was an embarrassment to myself. I never really went out in public. I lived in Laurel Canyon [in California] for two years and never really left. I used to get my food from the Country Store down the hill. I was kind of a hermit. Pretty sad.”
Hughes finished his extensive Chosen Years tour last November in Argentina, but cancelled his touring plans for this year in January. “I’m taking advice from my medical team, who I am working closely with,” he said at the time. “Hoping to see you, on the road of happy destiny.”
In May, Hughes appeared with his former band the Dead Daisies at the Arcadia Club in St. Charles, IL. A second show, scheduled for October 2 at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA, has been cancelled.
