Glenn Hughes Feels Honored To Have Been On Van Halen's Vocalist Candidate List

JAKARTA - While appearing on the SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" program some time ago, former Deep Purple vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes revealed that Eddie Van Halen almost asked him to join Van Halen.

The moment occurred when the South California rock band was looking for a new vocalist nearly four decades ago after David Lee Roth's departure.

"So the story is that I was at Eddie [Van Halen's] home in the early 90s. And if I may say, Eddie was only aware at the time. And we had conversations about things from the 80s," Hughes opened the conversation.

Eddie's manager, Noel totaling, was my tour manager at Trapeze in the early 70s. So Eddie said they thought about me before asking Sammy [Hagar] to come in. But the thing that stopped it was because I wasn't a guy like me today in the mid-80s, as you know it; we all know it now. So he thought it might be a good idea, but is Glenn going to be the right guy? He's solid to do that? And they signed Sammy," he continued.

"So we'll never know. But it's an honor for Eddie to think that, you know, he's going to invite me to at least come down and sing. So, yes, it will be very, very interesting. But Eddie almost recruited me, and I really miss him."

Hughes went on to say that Eddie was a big fan of Hughes's pre-Deep Purple band, Trapeze.

"Keepin' Time is a Van Halen cover from Trapeze," said Hughes. "So, yes, Eddie is a fan of the song Burn [Deep Purple].

Eddie previously revealed repeatedly that Deep Purple was the influence of his music. Told Billboard magazine in 2015 that Burn written and recorded during Hughes' tenure with Purple was one of his favorite guitar riffs of all time.