David Coverdale
David Coverdale is an English retired singer and songwriter. He is best known as the founder and lead singer of the hard rock band Whitesnake. He was also the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976, and he has had a solo career as well.
Coverdale founded Whitesnake in 1978. Whitesnake gained significant popularity in the UK, Europe, and Asia. In 1987, the band released the Whitesnake album. Featuring the hit singles "Here I Go Again" and "Is This Love", the album went multi-platinum and made the band popular in North America. During Whitesnake's first hiatus from 1990 to 1993, Coverdale collaborated with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page on the album Coverdale–Page, which went platinum.
Coverdale is known for his powerful, blues-tinged voice. In 2016, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Deep Purple.
Early life
Coverdale was born on 22 September 1951, in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, son of Thomas Joseph Coverdale and Winnifred May Coverdale. According to Coverdale, his maternal side and mother "were the singers", while paternal side "were the painters, the sketchers, the artists". He was initiated into music at his maternal grandmother's place and school, at an early age started learning to play guitar and piano, but drawing was his primary medium of expression.From the beginning, Coverdale showed singing talent; he "discovered that he could project" and had a "gut voice".
Career
Deep Purple (1973–1976)
Coverdale started his career performing with local bands Vintage 67, The Government, and Fabulosa Brothers. By 1973, he had left art college and was successfully working as a "singing salesman" until he saw an article Melody Maker that said that Deep Purple was looking for a singer to replace Ian Gillan. Coverdale had fronted a local group called the Government that had played with Deep Purple on the same bill in 1969, so he and the band were familiar with one another. After sending a tape and auditioning, Coverdale was admitted into the band due to "his singing and songwriting talents", with new bassist Glenn Hughes also providing vocals.In February 1974, Deep Purple released their first album with Coverdale and Hughes. Entitled Burn, the album was certified gold in the United States on 20 March 1974. In April 1974, Coverdale and Deep Purple performed to over 200,000 fans on his first trip to the United States at the California Jam. In December 1974, Burn was followed-up by Stormbringer. The funk and soul influences of the previous record were even more prominent on Stormbringer; for this reason and others, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left the band in June 1975.
Coverdale was instrumental in persuading the band to continue with American guitarist Tommy Bolin. As Jon Lord put it, "David Coverdale came up to me and said, 'Please keep the band together.' David played me the album that Tommy did with Billy Cobham. We liked his playing on it and invited Tommy to audition.'" The band released one studio album with Bolin, 1975's Come Taste the Band, which was less commercially successful than its previous records. The supporting tour proved difficult, with both Hughes and Bolin having drug problems. In March 1976, at the end of a concert, Coverdale walked off in tears and handed in his resignation. He was told there was no band left to quit, as Lord and Ian Paice had already decided to break up the band. The band's breakup was made public in July 1976. Coverdale said in an interview: "I was frightened to leave the band. Purple was my life, Purple gave me my break, but all the same I wanted out."
Early solo efforts (1977–1978)
After the demise of Deep Purple, Coverdale embarked on a solo career. In the wake of the punk movement, he stayed true to his blues rock roots. He released his first solo studio album in February 1977, titled White Snake. All songs were written by Coverdale and guitarist Micky Moody, and the music shows funk, R&B and jazz influences. As his first solo effort, Coverdale later said: "It's very difficult to think back and talk sensibly about the first album. White Snake had been a very inward-looking, reflective and low-key affair in many ways, written and recorded as it was in the aftermath of the collapse of Deep Purple." Even though the album was not successful, its title inspired the name of Coverdale's future band.In 1978, Coverdale released his second studio album, Northwinds. Its "blues- and R&B-influenced hard rock" style was received much better than his previous album had been. In 2021, Classic Rock described it as "a remarkably mature album that can still send shivers down the spine 30 years after it was recorded" and as the "antithesis" of Whitesnake's super-slick self-titled 1987 album". Before Northwinds was released, Coverdale had already formed a new band.
Early Whitesnake era (1978–1983)
After recording Northwinds, Coverdale soon formed the band Whitesnake, with Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody both handling guitar duties. Although this was originally a touring band for Coverdale's first solo album, it soon developed into a full-time band. In early 1978, the band released an EP titled Snakebite, which was later expanded into a full album, also titled Snakebite, released in June 1978, with the EP on side one and select tracks from Coverdale's Northwinds album on side two. For the follow-up album, Trouble, Coverdale was joined by his former Deep Purple colleague, keyboardist Jon Lord.For Whitesnake's 1980 album, Ready an' Willing, another Deep Purple member, drummer Ian Paice, joined the group. Ready an' Willing also featured "Fool for Your Loving", which reached No. 13 on the British charts and No. 53 on the US Billboard Hot 100; the single was the band's biggest hit to that point. Ready an' Willing was followed up by the even more successful Come an' Get It in 1981.
Coverdale put Whitesnake on hold in early 1982 to make time for the treatment and care of his sick daughter. When he felt that the time was right to return, he reformed the band, which thereafter released the album Saints & Sinners. Also in 1982, Coverdale was considered for the vocalist position of Black Sabbath following the departure of Ronnie James Dio, but he declined, due to him wanting to continue with Whitesnake.
International success of Whitesnake (1984–1990)
Whitesnake gained significant popularity in the UK, Europe, and Asia, but North American success remained elusive. In 1984, the album Slide It In dented the US charts, but not enough to be considered a hit. In time for the US release of Slide It In, Coverdale made a calculated attempt at updating Whitesnake's sound and look by recruiting guitarist John Sykes from the remnants of Thin Lizzy.In 1985, Sykes and Coverdale started working on new songs for the next album, but Coverdale soon contracted a serious sinus infection that made recording close to impossible for much of 1986 and which had doctors thinking he might never sing again. Coverdale eventually recovered, and recordings were continued. Before their upcoming album was fully recorded and released, Coverdale had dismissed Sykes from the band. In many period interviews, Coverdale stated that the next album was a make-or-break album for Whitesnake, and if not successful he would disband Whitesnake altogether. In 1987 and 1988, North America was finally won over with the multi-platinum self-titled Whitesnake album. Propelled by hit singles such as "Here I Go Again" and "Is This Love", as well as MTV airing of "Still of the Night", it finally made Whitesnake a "bona fide arena headliner" in North America.
Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, caught in the "hair-band" era, Coverdale kept Whitesnake going with great success despite changing line-ups. In 1989, Coverdale recruited Vandenberg to record a new album, Slip of the Tongue. Vandenberg co-wrote the entire album with Coverdale, but a wrist injury sidelined him from contributing the lead guitar work. Steve Vai was recruited, re-recording most of Vandenberg's existing parts and finishing the album. Upon release, it also was a success in Europe and the US, but it "was a considerable disappointment after the across-the-board success of Whitesnake".
On 26 September 1990, after the last show on the Slip of the Tongue tour in Tokyo, Coverdale disbanded Whitesnake indefinitely. Tired of the business in general, the rigors of touring and troubled by his separation and later divorce from Tawny Kitaen, Coverdale wanted to find other values in life and took "private time to reflect" and re-assess his career direction.
At that point Coverdale had grown uncomfortable with the entity he believed Whitesnake had become, and admitted that he got "caught up in it". In a 1993 interview with Robert Hilburn, he commented that he "had to stop everything, this whole circus. I had never gone into for the image thing at all, and I really couldn't do it anymore". In another interview from the 90s, Coverdale recalled "it got louder and louder, and so did I, to the point now where I have to get dressed up like a "girly man" and tease one's questionable bangs or hair and it's all becoming a bit... boring".