Fame & Fortune: Deep Purple's Ian Gillan He won't mind his own business
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Bankrate: You have several potential income streams, including publishing from the old music, touring, and sales of new records. What is the most lucrative for you?

Ian Gillan: The biggest income we make is from live performances, without any doubt. That's about a 4-to-1 ratio from anything else.

Bankrate: I'm surprised. I'd figure publishing on the old stuff would be more lucrative.

Ian Gillan: You may be right if you're talking gross amounts, but what winds up in my account is definitely, on at least a 4-to-1 ratio, the live music. My first contract was in 1965. There were six of us in this band -- my band before Deep Purple -- six in the band plus management, and the entire royalty rate was three-fourths of 1 percent. So things took a while to pick up. When you were a kid, you walked in and they said, "Sign here, son," and you signed there and that was it. Now, of course, when you try and adjust it they say it's too late. There's too many years gone by, you can't really bring this to court. We've had some very understanding record labels and publishers over the years that have made adjustments, shall we say, but my personal income is at least 80 percent from live work. We get paid very well live, and we do a lot of it.

Bankrate: When you got into the really heavy success in the '70s, were any of you business-savvy?

Ian Gillan: Not really, no. I think that's why we're still going, because the only thing we really cared about was the music. We talked to a tax inspector in the UK who was retired; he worked as a consultant for us for six months. He said, "I will never go to court and say this, and you can never quote me, but I've been through the paperwork. As a tax inspector, all I can say is, you guys were screwed royally." So there you go.

Bankrate: When you left Deep Purple the first time, in the '70s, you actually tried running a few businesses. Tell me about that.

Ian Gillan: In both of my autobiographies, I've detailed those misfortunes in great lengths. I wasn't trying to run a business. I was just trying to occupy my time. The thing is, I'd spent almost my entire adult life in hotels, and I kind of felt lost without one, and I like building. So I found this derelict building and turned it into a hotel. It's only when I opened it as a hotel -- this beautiful thing -- that I realized I'd better get somebody to run it. And that's when I lost it. I had it one day and the next day it was gone. Somebody else has it now. There you go. I had a recording studio because I like music. I'm not very good at running things, the business side of it. I had a motorcycle business because I like racing motorcycles. We started designing and developing motorbikes, but I had no idea what was happening on the investment end. It was just about the time of the Japanese invasion on the small bike market in the UK, and they wiped us off the map. But we had a lot of fun doing it.