Glenn Hughes has been around the block a few times; hell, he’s been around the globe and even outer space a few times. The rocker has been clean and sober for years and while his journeys have been limited to the earth this time around, it must be said that with Black Country Communion he is making music that is out of this world.

Since becoming sober, Glenn has been dedicated to creating real music for real people. Never has his desire to be the best he can be been as strong as it is now, as his band, a supergroup of sorts is the best thing to come along since the wah-wah pedal.

The group consists of Hughes on bass and vocals, Joe Bonamassa on guitar, Derek Sherinian on keys and Jason Bonham on drums. The band has recorded their sophomore album; simply called 2, an album that will take the world of hard rock by storm very soon.

The music is part Led Zeppelin, part Deep Purple, part Joe Bonamassa and part Black Country Communion. This is not a tribute band nor is it a band that is copping others riffs. Sure, they pay homage to the great bands of the past, here and there, but BCC has found the magic formula to make great ‘70’s sounding hard rock in 2011. This is the real deal and rockers of any age will be smiling from ear-to-ear when they crank this one up for the first time. They will still be smiling when they crank it up for the thousandth time.

I caught up with Glenn on the phone to discuss the new music. We almost missed our interview, as he kept not answering the phone. I was ready to give up and go out to dinner when a voice in my head told me to try the number one more time. I’m glad I did as Glenn and I have been doing interviews for ten years and he is always a blast to talk with. I have never heard him more enthusiastic and confident about any musical project he has been involved in. After hearing BCC 2 for myself, I understand why he is so pumped up.

To cop a line from AC/DC, for those about to rock out to Black Country Communion… we salute you!

Glenn: I was a bit upset as I hoping you would call on time. This other guy called twenty-five minutes late, and I didn’t know this guy, and I didn’t have a history with him. I could see you calling on the other line and I was bit upset that I was missing you. To make matters worse, this guy had not even heard the album. I bet you have heard it.

Glenn: You can ask me all the questions you want, as we have a history together. I am very, very proud of this record.

Glenn: You and I have known each other for ten years or so, you know I am a fun loving guy and that I really love life but this fucking band has taken up a really big part of my life.
 

Glenn: We hit #53 on the US album charts, which is quite an accomplishment for this band. I am going to cut to the chase, it is very simple: Kevin Shirley asked Joe and I last year, “Do you and Joe fancy making the second record? Wouldn’t it be great if we had a second record out when we decide to go play live.” He looked at Joe and Joe looked at me and said, “Over to you pal.”

Joe does not write a lot on the road. My schedule was pretty open as I was taking the summer off. I went into my studio for sixteen hours a day until I came up with what I thought were the best songs for album two. It was a lot of fucking work. “Faithless” was the first song and then the music that followed came very quickly. The difference between this album and the new one, if you listen to the lyrics, is that the new one is darker. I really wanted to go beneath the surface and sing about stuff other than boy-meets-girl. I wanted to talk about life and death and all the dark things that we go through.

Glenn: I know Joe’s family and if you listen to the lyrics that is Joe thanking his mom and dad for all they have done for him. Joe heard what I was doing on this album and I have to say that we are hearing a much more mature Joe Bonamassa; we should all embrace that.

Glenn: I’ve got to tell you the truth; I have never, ever, ever been so inspired and ambitious as I am now. I won’t name names but lets just say that some of my peers have taken their foot off the gas and they aren’t writing like they used to. Not your friend, Glenn, I am going, “Fuck this shit man, give me the flag and lets run with this baby.” You could say that I am driven.

I don’t mind telling your readers this for the first time in an interview; Big Daddy has a vocal coach. All the great tennis players and athletes have coaches and my friend Stevie Wonder has a vocal coach. Big Daddy went and got a vocal coach and it is paying off for me. I have to warm up my voice, get plenty of rest, drink lots of water and really watch what I am doing but that is the way to do it, as the results are great. If you don’t take care of yourself then you will be in trouble.

Glenn: I am telling you man, and I told you this when we talked last year, I knew the guys in Zeppelin and John Bonham was a major, major component, not just as a drummer but also as an arranger in that band. We have the same common denominator. Jason Bonham is playing the best drums of his fucking life right now. We went for the same sonic. Kevin knows how to do that. We got the Bonham sound. We went for that and we fucking got it.

Glenn: I read your interviews and you are always very thorough. Kevin has told me that this album is the most fun that he has ever had in his life. Kevin said that this is the peak of his career and that he will never be able to top this album. That is coming from a guy that has worked Jimmy Page, Rush, the Black Crowes and, of course, Iron Maiden. On 2, we are taking about a project that was once only on paper and is now a fully functioning, animalistic rock n’ roll band.

Glenn: Joe and I, about five years ago started hanging out. We went from having lunch together to grooving in my studio. We started jamming and we found our music getting louder and heavier. Next, we found ourselves playing the House of Blues and Kevin Shirley was there. Joe’s fan base, which is a blues audience, seemed to think that we worked well together. Kevin came backstage after the show and suggested that we form a rock band with Jason and Derek [Sherinian]. Six weeks later, we were in the studio making the first record. Making that album answered the question if we could live and breath together and make good music. The answer was ‘yes’ because we charted everywhere. With 2, we have a fully-fledged rock n’ roll beast going.

Glenn: We start June 9^th in San Diego. We will go clear through until Washington D.C on the 20^th of June. That night we will be recording live for HD.net. We are doing eight dates in the States and then going to Europe for six weeks. After that, we are going to come back here, regroup, and then hit it hard early next year.

Glenn: We didn’t set out to be the next big thing. When you have a guy who was in Deep Purple, John Bonham’s son, the best new blues and rock guitar player of the decade and a great Hammond player then you really should focus in on the target of what your audience is going to be. You need to enjoy the graft in the craft of what you are doing. Our band loves to play. You know when you hear the songs you are hearing that it is not faked, or forced, and that it is very natural. This band is Glenn Hughes returning home to play hard rock music. I’m the figurehead, and you can call me that, but the band has given me this role. I am the Ambassador and I am the one with the flag in my hand. I write most of the songs; the band has given me the green light to do that. We’re a very democratic band who votes on things; I have been outvoted many times but I am also the guy who has the flag out and it planting it in the ground.

Glenn: Derek’s role is very, very important to our band. He is like Jon Lord was in Deep Purple. He is featured more on 2 because he is simply brilliant. Musicians are a weird breed, as is Derek, but he brings something very special to this band. With Joe, Jason and myself, what you see is what you get. Derek is really the glue that holds us all together.

Glenn: It is very simple, around 1973, before all the shit started, things were great in Deep Purple. Being in the room with these guys is very much like being with Deep Purple at their peak. The musicianship in this band is of the highest quality and you’ve got to be very strong to be in this band.

Glenn: I couldn’t do it. I’m not angry about it. I think my music, lets just call it the Other Glenn, was groove-oriented music that a lot of rock fans didn’t understand. A lot of musicians understood it and it was a very cool thing for me to do. In the last 18 months, a lot of critics and friends have said that they are very pleased that I have come back and began to make hard rock music again. It does feel good to be back.

Glenn: There was a lot of great music on that album. I think that was the album that turned the corner for me. I made Fused with Tony Iommi that same year.

Glenn: Geezer is one of my neighbors and Gabby and I see Geezer and Gloria on a regular basis. Geezer and I are good mates. Tony lives in England. Whenever Tony and I get together then you know there will be music made. All is quite in the Sabbath house right now, but I can tell you that the friendship between Geezer, Tony and myself is stronger than ever before due to the loss of Ronnie James Dio last year. You can guarantee that at some point down the line, something may happen. It won’t happen right now though because of my commitment to BCC.

Glenn: As you know, Kevin adored me and he thought I was a good man. Frankie [Banali], you and me were the only people in the world that thought Kevin could do no wrong. I know Kevin irked a lot of people and he had a big mouth but I won’t hear a bad word said about him. He was my little brother. He would live in my house and he would cook my breakfast. He was in awe of the way I turned my life around. He really wanted to do the same but he was just too damn intelligent to figure out that this disease of addiction wanted him dead.

Glenn: [Laughing] I remember that; that was Kevin. He is in one of the pictures that is coming out in my book. I really miss that guy. I went to Vegas and I wrote three or four songs on that album. I went up to Kev’s house for the weekend and I knew he was dabbling a bit on the weekends. I kept finding mirrors and coke straws. It wasn’t cute but he tried to make it cute. We almost fell out over the fact that I couldn’t get him sober, I know that for a fact. I actually found him dead. That whole situation still rankles me. I was the one who made the call to the paramedics. It was on Gabby and my anniversary, which is two days after my sober anniversary. You know the story but it is still so fresh in my mind.

Glenn: My book is out. It took five years to write and it took three years to be rigorously honest. It will shock you; there is stuff in there that will be shocking even to sober people. By the way, the writing of the book actually encouraged me to go dark on the new BCC album. I needed to go dark on the album and you can really hear it. You can hear the desperation in my voice. I had to sing about this stuff. This is not me being like one of my contemporaries and singing about “sliding it in’, although I love David’s [Coverdale] songwriting. My stuff is about what happens when you are out of your fucking mind. Lets face it Jeb, I was on the roof, naked, seeing Nazi’s coming out of the chimney and shit. I needed to talk about it. You will understand it because you are a sober man but others may not get it. It is none of my business what people fucking think about me but as long as I am telling the truth, my truth, then I am setting it free.

Glenn: When you read the book for the first time then you will understand it. I was very famous for being a coke freak. I wasn’t the angry guy with a gun, I was the guy who couldn’t speak and was gibbering in the corner. I was a pathetic coke freak. I was overweight and I was the opposite of the man I am today. This book will be the last time I speak about these things.

There are people in our industry who glamorize themselves on drugs and talk about how many needles they have in their arms and that they have died ten times. That is not what I am about. If these two Black Country Communion albums serve a purpose for people then so be it.

Glenn: I had dinner with Joe before I left for this promo tour. I said, “Joseph, we have to invest in this band.” Solo careers can only go so far. Joe is on a roll right now. We could be headlining the forum with this band but we really have to invest some time into it. I don’t want to play clubs with this band; I want to go all the way. We started out in theaters and I think we can go higher and higher. We are a band that sounds like the Seventies. Young people that never saw the Led Zeppelin may get a certain feeling from hearing our band.

Glenn: You interview guys like Paul Rodgers, and others who are very professional, and still have what it takes to do great things. I don’t think you will talk to anyone this year who is as driven as Glenn Hughes. I am not trying to be conceited or say I am better than anyone. I am saying I am driven. I was a mess in the Eighties --- you couldn’t even find me in the Eighties. In the Nineties, I was coming back from all the drug stuff. Now, twenty years later, I am almost at the summit and I have the flag in my hands and I am about to pierce the fucker at the top.

Glenn: I know what you’re referring too. The elephant in the room is that there is no such thing as record sales anymore. There are no CDs and everyone just downloads music. Young people growing up will not even know what CDs were. Now, we are looking at the 3D performance and we are looking at Blu-rays and the visual aspects of the performers. People want to look at, and try to touch, the live aspect of the band. This band, BCC, is embracing this. We are shooting a Blu-ray in July in Germany that will come out around Christmas. We are looking at the visual side of our band. I am very involved in the marketing of the band. Joe is not too involved with that as all he wants to do is play guitar. Kevin Shirley and I are the ones who are dealing with where this band, visually, will go in the future.

Glenn: No one has asked me this question before. If I had my druthers, then I would have Joe in my studio, to write with me, for two weeks every Christmas. In reality, I only get Joe in my studio for three days. This band is insane. We are not the Allman Brothers. We don’t have the time to get in the studio and jam for two months. I hate to say this, but this music feels like it is coming from another fucking universe. Call it synchronicity, karma, mumbo jumbo, fate or whatever… I just don’t know what it is but I ain’t analyzing it, I am just fucking living it.

Glenn: This is kind of personal but Joe and I have a very special bond. Joe and I are very respectful of each other’s past. Joe knows where I have been and that I have lived a very colorful life. Joe comes to me with questions about life, which I find very humbling. Sometimes he will ask me if he should wear a certain shirt with a certain pair of pants. I find I am getting into the same kind of nurturing relationship that I had with Kevin Dubrow.

We all know that Joe can play guitar better than anybody right now. What people don’t know is that Joe is growing spiritually. He isn’t even scratching the surface of where he is going to head. Let me say this to Joe’s fans, which we all love… Joe wants to be in a rock n’ roll band. I need Joe’s fans to accept that Joe, while he is a bluesman, loves rock music. He grew up with rock music and he is at a point in his life where he wants to rock. I just hope his fans hear him when he says to them that he wants to rock with Glenn Hughes. I think what we are doing is a beautiful thing.

Glenn: I try to get Joe to sing more on the albums but he only wants to sing on two songs on each album. I fucking wrote songs like “Smokestack Woman” for Joe to sing and he wouldn’t sing it. He wanted me to sing it. I want his fans to know that if I had my druthers then I would have him sing more. I think his fans will be very happy when they hear the album when it comes out June 14^th.

This is the album of the year. This is the one. You’re one of my guys in America and I need you on this record, Jeb. Let people know how special this record is.