Glenn Hughes

Glenn Hughes — British bassist and vocalist born in 1951 — is one of rock's great voices, with a path crossing five decades and some of the genre's most important bands. He left Trapeze to join Deep Purple in 1973, in the line-up that recorded Burn (1974) — considered by many the band's best record after Machine Head. There he shared vocals with David Coverdale, a pairing of two strong voices unusual for the hard rock of the time. His voice comes from somewhere other than his colleagues': it carries direct soul and rhythm-and-blues influence, which earned him the nickname "The Voice of Rock". In the 1980s he recorded Seventh Star (1986) with Black Sabbath, and in the following decades built an extensive solo career, alongside Black Country Communion, the project with Joe Bonamassa that became one of his most consistent phases. Hughes lived through years of substance dependence that nearly ended his career and his life — a subject he has made public in detail, without euphemism, and speaks about openly since his recovery. It is inseparable from his story, and from why his longevity is striking.