Ian Gillan admitted that Deep Purple never intended to retire, despite calling their 2017 trek The Long Goodbye.
During a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk, the singer explained the reasoning behind the tour name.
“That was a joke, actually, because it was the promoters,” Gillian confessed. “And someone said, ‘We’ve gotta sell some more tickets.’ And it’s the good old standby, the farewell tour. So I said, ‘OK, we’ll call it ‘goodbye’ tour, but let’s call it ‘the long goodbye’, and let’s make the emphasis on the word ‘long’,’ so it’s kind of an enigmatic phrase.”
The singer’s explanation deviates from what he said six years ago, when he claimed Deep Purple named their tour ‘The Long Goodbye’ because they were considering retirement. At the time, guitarist Steve Morse added further fuel to the fire when he said, “For me, personally, it’s a farewell tour.” Morse departed the band in 2022.
During his conversation with Trunk, Gillan made clear that Deep Purple will not be slowing down any time soon.
