Run For Cover

As we sit down to quiz Yorkshire-lad-come-good David Coverdale news has just broken that Whitesnake’s 11th studio album Forevermore (universally lauded as a return to form) has outstripped Britney Spears on Amazon pre-sales.

“Isn’t that the funniest thing?,” he exclaims in his plummy Brit tones. “I’m not sure whether it will sustain, but it’s a laugh if nothing else. As I have told people who ask me, there’s hope for civilisation yet! Regardless, we’re really happy with the album and the response we’re getting is overwhelmingly positive.”
During the course of his career, David performed beside some of the world’s most revered guitarists. But the boy from Cork was the one that got away.
“Did you know one of my top three choices of replacements for Ritchie Blackmore was Rory Gallagher?’ he asks. “The list was Jeff Beck, Rory and then Tommy Bolin. Pretty wild.
“The last time I saw him was when I was working with Roger Glover. I lived in Munich and he came over to do an album with Roger. He was very steeped in Catholicism. I loved him, I loved his work.”
Coverdale had followed Rory’s career since its early stages and as a young fan had the honour of opening for Taste.
“It was a show in Peterlee in the north of England and it was a miserable winter,” he recalls. “Their truck had broken down so they got the train from London to Darlington and walked in the rain. All carrying their instruments!”
“Can you imagine as a singer doing that appalling journey? I remember he was sitting there before the show drinking rum and coke for his throat with a scarf wrapped around him. Then they proceeded to play the most blistering set!”
David also opened for Irish act Skid Row in those early years and was mightily impressed by the young Gary Moore.
“Gary Moore was only a kid, 16 or so, but he was still a master,” says David. “Their practice amps were louder than my local band’s performance amps so you couldn’t fucking hear anything when they were jamming backstage!
“I was a huge Lizzy fan,” he adds. “I knew Phil, rest his soul. I’m a huge admirer and it is great that that music still stands up.”
Outside of his band guises, David’s highest profile collaboration was with Led Zepp ledge Jimmy Page.
“My agent Rod MacSween is friends with Jimmy and they had been talking and Jimmy mentioned the possibility of collaborating, so Rod said, ‘Why don’t you call David?’,” he explains. “I’ve been an admirer of Page since before he was in The Yardbirds, nevermind Zeppelin! So we spoke and I said, ‘Jimmy – there’s nothing I would like more, it would be a breath of fresh air to work with one of my heroes’.
“I remember meeting him in New York to discuss it and we went for a walk and stopped traffic! (Laughs) So we looked at each other both thinking, ‘Wow, this could be special’! We maintain a great friendship until this day.”
David also enjoys a close friendship with Dublin-based Def Leppard mainman Joe Elliot: the two were on a shared bill at one of the first shows in the newly re-opened O2 and have kept in regular contact.
“I’m going to have to start forwarding his emails on to his mother because some of them are so distasteful and so disgusting I’m sure she would disinherit him,” he jokes.
Unfortunately, Ireland is not on the current Whitesnake itinerary, which is gruellingly extensive nonetheless. Has David fully recovered after 2009’s vocal injury – he suffered a vocal fold edema and a left vocal fold vascular lesion?
“The voice thing was over-reported,” he notes. “The voice is fragile, the vocal chords are fragile and I thrashed the poop out of mine. We were playing so many venues that were never designed for bands, open air places where cattle were auctioned with the dust flying everywhere, in desert conditions, dry heat or whatever. It was very aggressive on my throat.”
David is now meticulous in the care he takes.
“I do vocal exercises,” he says. “I have started preparing now for the tour, doing scales. I am very aggressive with my voice, but basically it is used to it. I’m not really a throat singer, unless I’m doing ballads. I project from the diaphragm, more like old soul singers, blues singers and like male operatic tenors. They push and don’t rely so much on the vocal chords. Still, everything has to pass there so I do vocal exercises at least twice a day. When I’m touring I carry a portable steam unit. Most of the hotels I stay in have a steam room, which is where you’ll find me. If I could have room service there I would.”
In addition to his musical endeavours, David also made his first foray into the world of viticulture with Whitesnake’s 2009 Zinfandel.
“It is a perfect accessory to accompany an evening with the Snake,” he mocks. “Or if you read on the label ‘For adult friskiness and hot tub jollies’! We have a beautiful Whitesnake Merlot coming out too. It’s much more rounded. The other one gets you ready for action and this one if for after (laughs).
“Oh, I just got an email from Joe Elliot about Britney Spears,” he exclaims. “I told you that guy is disgusting!”

Forevermore is out now on Frontiers Records.