Ian Gillan only found out that a classic Deep Purple track had been used by the producers of Stranger Things when he was asked about it in an interview.
“Child In Time,” from the band’s 1970 album In Rock, was heard in the trailer for the Netflix show’s fifth and final season earlier this year.
Stranger Things has featured rock musicians from Kate Bush to Metallica during its run – so making use of Purple’s music was perhapsnot a surprise to fans.
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But it was a surprise to Gillan, who was asked about it in a recent interview with Classic Rock. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
When told Stranger Things was a Netflix show, he responded: “[I] don’t have Netflix. I don’t have a television. So yes, in that respect it’s a surprise!”
At the age of 80 and with eight months of touring ahead of him, Gillan compared the artist he’d been with the artist he’s become. “Throughout your entire life, you’ve had to deal with this thing – you get older every day,” he said.
“It’s a slow process, but it happens. When you’re a kid, you write about fast cars and loose women and that sort of thing, or at least we did in those days. And it’s very rock ’n’ roll and had a lot of attack and youthful energy.
“But I started thinking in my thirties, ‘This is ridiculous; this feels uncomfortable.’ So you have to find other things to write about – stuff that’s interesting and off-the-wall. You have to adapt, otherwise you look like a fool. But you can write a song about anything, at least in my experience.”
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He acknowledged that getting older, and having lost 70 per cent of his vision, required increasing effort to keep going. “[N]othing’s changed really, apart from I can’t pole vault any more! Other than that, things move a little more slowly. … If you’ve got a sense of humor you can get by with most things.”
He added: “I think if I lose my energy I’m going to stop. I don’t want to be an embarrassment to anyone. We’re not far off that. It creeps up on you – you don’t really notice.
“But then this isn’t like a normal job. It’s all in your mind. The writing certainly is, and the ability. And these guys who I work with just seem to keep improving. The hard thing is to keep them down.”
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Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp