Ian Gillan

His pole vaulting days may be behind him, but even at the age of 80 the Deep Purple singer is still in demand.

- Dave Everley

I an Gillan has lost count of how many times he's been asked to sing on other people's songs. “Thousands,” says the Deep Purple singer, speaking from his home in Portugal at the impressively early time of 8am on a Tuesday morning. “I don’t normally say yes, but this seemed right at the time. I loved the song and they’re a lovely bunch of guys.”

The bunch of guys in question are Italian rockers Urock, led by singer Umberto Urock. Gillan appears on the title track of the Rome-based band’s second album, The Line, trading lines and harmonies with Urock. He’s not the only recognisable name to have been enlisted for the album – prog wizard Alan Parsons and, more bizarrely, former Nirvana producer Jack Endino are both involved in a production capacity, though Gillan didn’t cross paths with either.

It comes during a period of downtime for Deep Purple before they hit the road once more next April.

“I just thought doing would be a bit of fun,” the singer says of The Line. “And it was.”

How did the collaboration with Urock come about?

Umberto lives just down the road from me in Portugal. He did a couple of interviews with me for various magazines, and Urock did the Portuguese show on Deep Purple’s tour [in 2022]. But the main thing I remember is when I went to Rome, I went to the radio station [Rome Rock, which Urock is involved in]. It was just like going to someone's house, just a bunch of fantastic people.

They sent me some music they’d written. I thought: “That’s pretty good.” One thing led to another, so I went in the studio down the road and sang on the track.