Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan is 70 years old today (August 19).
Deep Purple formed in 1968 and were initially a pop band fronted by Rod Evans. Gillan (and Roger Glover) joined for the fourth album ‘Deep Purple In Rock’ and the band evolved to become a metal band.
Gillan recorded four albums with Deep Purple ‘Deep Purple In Rock’ (1970), ‘Fireball’ (1971), ‘Machine Head’ (1972) and ‘Who Do We Think You Are’ (1973) then left the band to be replaced by David Coverdale.
In 1984 he returned for the ‘Perfect Strangers’ album. which featured the classic line-up again for the first time in 11 years. He made one more album with Deep Purple, ‘The House Of Blue Light’, before leaving again to be replaced by Joe Lynn Turner for 1990’s ‘Slaves and Masters’.
Gillan returned for the next album ‘The Battle Rages On’ in 1993 and then recorded the next five albums with Deep Purple, the most recent being ‘Now What?!’ in 2013.
Ian Gillan also fronted Black Sabbath for one album ‘Born Again’ in 1983 and has released more than a dozen albums as Gillan, The Ian Gillan Band and Ian Gillan.
