Coverdale Page

how are you doing, dave? fine, fine. i've just said it's been two years since youlast came on the show now there's obviously a lot of water under the bridge since then where've you been hiding? uh,it wasn't really a matterof choice, mick, um the album should have been out a year ago march 1986 uh, in march '86 i got a dreadful sinus infection which was not drug-related and it cost me all of my vocal ability - if there is supposed to be any there and power, and everything - i couldn't sing for

eight months, nine months of last year. i had to go in for surgery and that's when i said to the members of the group that, uh there's no guarantee after this surgery that i would getmy voice back so i suggested that they find another band or something 'cos i couldn't afford just to keep things going well obviously i've just been listening to some of the new album and you sound in great voice again. thank you - well i think, uh hopefully it's better than ever

alright - look i want to talk to you about the new album and all the changes in the band that have been going on in a minute first of all let's have a look at the man in action this iswhitesnake and one of our most requested ever videos and this is "love ain't no stranger". ...a very popular video on this show. my guest today is mr david coverdale. it's really strange- you know the end part of that when er, i'm taken away on the lorry my child went: (draws breath)"they're taking my daddy away!" (laughs) she watches this show i believe? yes, in munich. just watching that video myself

i felt just a bit nostalgic because that line-up there cozy powell, neil murray, john sykes - when it first got together - that was great everybody was saying that this has got to bethe best whitesnake line-up yet. yes indeed. what happened there? it's just that attitudes changed. i mean the whole important thing to remember is that when i came up with the concept of whitesnake itwas just as a vehicle for good rock 'n' roll songs. it's not the monkees or duran duran; if somebodyleaves it's like a million broken hearts -

it's a musical outfit if an attitude creeps in and a personalitywants to change y'know, what i want to go for and any negative percent of attitude comes in then it's not interesting to me anymore it's the flexibility of being able to workwith some of the finest musicians in the business is always appealing to me and everybody benefitsi'm not like a dictator you know: "richard tator" (!)

it's er, everybody benefits.i think most of the new material on the album as far as i know was co-written by yourselfand john sykes. yeah when i sat down, john's never been known as a composer, and i encouraged him. that's all i can do is encourage and inspire peopleto spread their wings and fly - if they decide to doo-doo in the nest, y'know, i'm not prepared to clean it up. (laughs) tell me about your new single because alreadyit's rocketed into the top 40 here in the uk i hear it's doing very well in america - uh-huh probably just about to break down the doors in europe but it's a very long choice for a single isn't it? well, i don't compromise - i don't write singles.

it's arranged...all of the album isarranged to give whitesnake a whole new stage show it's like a live show... did you get the record company saying:"david don't be mad, you can't release seven-minute singles"? they can say whatever they want - y'know, i'm a songwriter first and the songs are all arranged to have legs and to walk straight off the disc intothe arenas and the concert halls. alright - good words. let's have a look at the brand new singlefrom whitesnake - this is "still of the night". whitesnake and their brand new single "still ofthe night" and just the odd flick there of david coverdale getting arrested by the sex police, yes!(laughs) why not? should please a lot of the uk press, i think (!) now a lot of our eagle-eyed viewers, of course will have spotted in that video...

tommy aldridge on drums, rudy sarzo on bass, er, vivian campbell -vivian campbell on guitar, adrian vandenberg on guitar... yeah, i'm gonna change the name to the united nations (!) there's a dutchman, an irishman, a cuban, a texan, and me - a serious englishman! i think what we've got to do now david is clear upthis question once and for all - who is in whitesnake and who isn't? well, these gentlemen that you see here already..they're on call to see... it has been a long time since i performedand also had an album out

"slide it in" was the most successful albumi've ever released, however, uh i want to know if people have missed me asmuch as i've missed them before i commit to global tours and things like this because these peoplethat i'm working with are all involved in different projects, y'know; they're prepared towork with me but i want to be able to guarantee that i can take care of them so with that i need some indication whether people are going to invite me to party with them in their respective countries. but as of right now, it's really david coverdale's show? yes, here i go again! on my own...

down the only road! tell me, have you ever considered actually dropping the whitesnake name and just going out as david coverdale? no, like - well i don't know, i get a lot ofpressure from the companies because i like to work under the title whitesnake, y'know the old bluesers you had, er, lightning hopkins, whitesnake david coverdale, i dunno (laughs) blind drunk david coverdale, who knows! tell me, do you ever, i mean

obviously there have been certain line-ups of whitesnakewhich have done better than others - do you have one or a particular memory that you're fond of?well, the best in terms of social was the actual original i mean unfortunately when the fun startedto creep in on stage and the attitude was not ...became lethargic or lazy in the studio -that's when i had to stop it then. it's too important to me - my responsibilitiesto, uh the audiences who have supported the whitesnake concept. all right well look, let's have a look at one ofmy particular favourite line-ups of whitesnake:

this is from castle donington in 1983 and this is"fool for your loving". ..the monsters of rock show and my guest this week mr david coverdale. yes! now david -just looking at "fool for your loving"brought back some funny memories including one - doesn't legend have it that that song was originally written by you for bb king? yes - bb, blues boy! what's the story there? well, uh bb was working with the crusaders at the timeand getting a lot lighter, funkier stuff and bernie marsden actually did an interview

on behalf of "sounds" with bb because bb is a big influence on him uh, and he was saying "why don't you guys get a tune together?" so we've got this thing together, when the demo -when we did sort of the demo to send over to him i was going: "this is a bit good!" - we kept it! (laughs) it was like - instead of taking from the black man and, y'know, stealing it - we didn't even give it! y'know, it's like inverted in some way and that was the first worldwide hit

whitesnake had. it was great because there was no compromise, it's a blues base -the whole idea of whitesnake is rock with a blues base. but there's also a track on the new album isn't there,called "is this love" which i understand was written originally for tina turner? yeah. emi asked me, when she was preparing material forwhat is now her current album she wanted to get back into a rockier thing, er... they knew i was going off on a writing spree and theysaid if you come up with any ideas suitable for tina we will put them forward. and this is one of the ideas i was messingaround with and up and john came and said "what's that?"

he started putting some little guitar embellishments inand we came up with, er, "is this love". then neil came over and said we ought to keep this - this is the kindof track that people like with whitesnake cos usually i write light and shade songs where i makea soft start and then go "i better bring the band in" - blamm! y'know, which is like on almost every whitesnake album this is the first time since "ain't no love in the heart of the city" or "help me through the day" that there's been just one blues groove going through it. right, right. well "slow and easy" of course was fairly bluesy, wasn't it?

oh yeah, well - there's always a blues base the situation is - blues is just another wordfor expression but there's no compromise in terms of artistic integrity,it's still as legitimate as the rock stuff. do you think if you were starting out now as a singerthat you'd bring in, like, a horn section, girl backing singers, lots of keyboards? if i felt the track needed it, yeah. if i felt that - that's it you know, you've got toget the best out of the song i don't think there's a lot of great songs nowadays - i mean the seventies - the late sixties and up to middle seventies the songs and albums you couldguarantee to get your money's worth. you can't really guarantee that any more.

alright - let's have a look at some sleazy blues nowfrom whitesnake and this is "slow and easy" (oh my god!) i'm in the studio here with mr david coverdale. yes, yes, yes! david, i must tell you that a lot of girls tell me that when they go to your shows or particularly see your videos that the reason they like it is that, you're so sexy - oh, thank you so much! at my age! do you feel sexy when you go on stage? no, i just basically respond to the physicality of the music and use the microphone as an extension of it! (laughs) the music, of...whatever. guitarists or whatever have a great physical instrument to present the music with - i don't like justto stand there, y'know, and sing. it's not a cliff richard situation - sorry cliff!

uh, i like the physicality of rock 'n' roll it's great physical and emotional therapy. alright well, you know, talking about physicality and rock 'n' roll sexy! sexiness in rock 'n' roll - when are we actually gonna see youwith the new band? hopefully in the summer. hopefully. what i'm trying to do is make some sneak appearances i've really gotta test the watersit's been a long time. when you say sneak appearances, i mean how sneaky are these appearances gonna be? will you do some festivals? if there's...yeah maybe it'll be a kind of special guest situation.

which will be worked out now - or might evenhave already been worked out. as we speak! and just get in and have a go. 'cos i definitely... contrary to what a lot of people have been saying in the press there's no way that i'm gonna leave europe unless they don't want to see me any more. right. obviously while you've been away - i say "while you've been away" -

it's only been a couple of years... it's quite substantial let me put it this way: in the last six months particularly inbritain and and europe we've seen the advent of people like bon jovi and europe both of which have been zooming into our top tens strangely enough i must say joey tempest from europereminds me a little bit of an earlier version of... i've got about fifteen years on him (laughs) yeah, it's good - i got a compliment sentfrom joey in stockholm that was very nice what did it say?

just that i'm a big influence on him. it's a compliment, y'know. so are you gonna chase these youngstersinto the charts? no, no, no, i can still bite the odd, er nether part i think i can still kick with them and show them a few tricks. alright - i'm sure you can. let's have some more whitesnake nowand this is "guilty of love". whitesnake there, guilty of love".david, thank you very much for coming in to see us today

my pleasure. good luck with the album, it's a stunner andwe're gonna review it on the show next week and tell everybody about it good luck with the tour as well. thank you very much. nice to be here if by the way you want to win one of those deep purpletour jackets we talked about earlier on in the show the address to write to: are you a thrash metal fan, david? a bit (!)

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