Ian Gillan — born in Hounslow, London, on 19 August 1945 — is the singer of Deep Purple's Mark II line-up, the one that recorded the albums which defined the band. He joined in 1969 and sang on In Rock (1970), Fireball (1971) and Machine Head (1972). His voice set a template: power, high range and above all the sustained scream — the wail at the end of "Child in Time" is one of the most imitated moments in rock, and practically invented a technique that whole generations of heavy metal singers would try to reproduce. His path contains an unusual episode. In 1970, in the same period he was recording with Purple, he was cast to sing the role of Jesus on the original recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar. It is a credential no other hard rock singer holds. He left the band in 1973, worn out by the touring pace and by friction with Ritchie Blackmore, and spent the following years on his own projects. In 1983 he recorded Born Again with Black Sabbath, an album that divided opinion and lasted a single tour. He returned to Deep Purple in 1984 and has been its permanent voice ever since, across all the group's modern output.
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