Ian Gillan says Black Sabbath were more "important" than Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin: "Without them there would have been no grunge or heavy metal"

has declared who he believes to be the "most important" from the "unholy trinity" of British rock bands, a term which he explains was coined by the press. In a new interview with to promote Deep Purple's 23rd new album , the vocalist notes, "Just like ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’, the ‘unholy trinity’ was created entirely by our good friends the music journalists. "We knew them, drank with them and they put into words what everyone was doing — something distinctive and identifiable.

” Weighing up the trio of bands - which includes , Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin - and their impact on music as a whole, Gillian, who performed as frontman to the Brummie metallers from late 1982 until early 1984, continues: "To a certain extent, Sabbath were the most important because without them there would have been no Seattle (grunge scene) or heavy metal. "What Tony [Iommi] was delivering in those early days was just awesome. It was so powerful.

” Though he might view Sabbath as the most culturally significant, Gillan muses how altogether, the three bands "did something that had never been done before", adding that "they were putting into action all the things that had been building up over the previous ten years.” Elsewhere, Gillan reflects on the creation of Deep Purple's legendary hit from 1972's He explains: "We needed six more minutes of music to complete the album and we were short of time. We had this jam, so we quickly wrote lyrics that were a biographical account of.