Glenn Hughes – HuffPost 5.30.14
Mike Ragogna: This is a perfect spot for me to ask you my traditional question. What advice do you have for new artists?
Glenn Hughes: It’s a gift, Michael! You know this, you’re a musician, it’s a gift freely given to us. When I first held a plectrum pick in my hand when I was eleven, let’s just say that I’ve still got that pick in my hand at sixty-two. You give a kid a guitar when they’re nine years old and when they’re nine and a half they’ve moved on to hockey or something. For musicians and artists who are indebted to their career and art form that’s what I’d suggest: You know you’re a musician if you live and breathe it. Nothing comes before your art. Nothing. I used to put drinking and drugging before my art, and looked what happened to that. Music runs through the center of who I am. I have no say so on a daily basis to write songs because I just do it. Even if nobody hears that song, I become a better person by doing something that I love. I’m chuckling because people would give anything to have the career that a lot of us have had, but I don’t take this for granted, man, I’m a guy that really works at being honest with my art form.
MR: And that’s how others should be to experience a more fulfilling aspect of the music?
GH: Michael, Generation Y meets Generation X. I’m a Generation X-er, and I’m going to assume you’re a Generation X-er. Well, Generation X people have worked a long, long, long time to get what they get. Some people have lost their lives and what have you. Andrew is Generation Y but he’s a seriously ambitious young man. You’ve got to work for what you get. It’s all about putting the work in. It just doesn’t fall off a tree anymore, you’ve got to put the work in. This is a life-long ambition for me to continue. People say to me, “You ever think about retiring?” I say, “Retire? If you’re a real musician you can’t retire!” You can’t ever stop playing, whether it’s in front of ten people or ten thousand.
MR: I totally agree, beautiful.
GH: We hear about people, “Oh, he’s hanging that guitar up for the last time.” Then there’s something wrong, they must be ill. Look at Tony Bennett. Eighty-seven years old; try telling him to stop. That’s ambition. He lives this life. Long may that continue for me. On this album I don’t think I’ve ever sounded so enthusiastic, exuberant and extremely excited. Look, man, I’m always going to grow and learn. I’m never going to say, “I know my style, I’m there now.” No, no, no, no, I’m forever changing, man. If you listen to my work, I change. I never let it stand still. I’m not frightened to throw a weird chord in or leave a mistake in. Not me.