Glenn Hughes Says He Turned Down the Chance to Be Part of Ritchie Blackmore’s New Rainbow Shows

Ritchie Blackmore‘s “return to rock” shows with a revamped Rainbow lineup were a bit of a disappointment for fans who’d hoped to see Blackmore reunite with some of his former bandmates — but according to Glenn Hughes, Blackmore attempted to get at least one familiar face onstage.

“He asked me to do it with him,” Hughes told the press. “I said no because he wanted to, funny enough, he wanted to use an unknown singer, and I said, ‘It’s not me. It’s not me to do that.’”

To underscore the lack of hard feelings, Hughes emphasized that the lines of communication between the two are “completely open” despite the declined invitation. “I very eloquently said, ‘No thank you,’” Hughes explained. “‘I really would like to see you, but I can’t do this at the point where I am right now.’”

In fact, Hughes sounds like he’s on good terms with pretty much everyone he’s ever worked with — and is currently entertaining, to various degrees, the possibility of reuniting with everyone from Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi (“we still talk about it”) to guitarist Pat Thrall (“you just never know”). First, however, he’s got a new solo record to finish and the next Black Country Communion album is already booked too.

“It’s heavy in content lyrically and it’s musically heavy, but it’s got a lot of groove,” Hughes said of the next solo outing. “As you know, my music has got a lot of heavy groove to it. I think it’s quite dramatic, actually, and there’s a lot of light and shade. But the emphasis is really heavy grooves and that’s what I write.”