David Coverdale to retire from touring after farewell Whitesnake tour
He speaks to Planet Rock's Wyatt
Last updated 14th Jun 2021
Whitesnake’s David Coverdale has told Planet Rock he’ll definitely retire from touring once the band have completed a farewell tour.
As part of The Rocks 2021 awards ceremony on Friday (11th June), David Coverdale spoke to Wyatt from his home in America to accept the inaugural Rocks Honours Award recognising his outstanding contribution to the rock music genre.
Commenting on his distinguished career, which has spanned more than 50 years, David told Wyatt that his farewell tour will be his last.
Whitesnake previously cancelled their entire 2020 UK, European and US tour so David could undergo an operation for a bilateral inguinal hernia. Ultimately, the shows wouldn’t have gone ahead anyway due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve been very passionate about what I do. I try not to let my audience down - we've got a really loyal hardcore fan base around the world,” David told us.
“Last year we were supposed to do what was going to be my farewell tour, and it was sold out and it was amazing. Of course, everything was cancelled to Covid. So, God willing, I'll be able to do it hopefully next year.
“I'm going to show my appreciation and gratitude for the support that I've had, because you can't do it without an audience supporting you. It’s that simple. They know – the hardcore who follow me – they know that I do my best, the best I can do at that time. And that’s been my work philosophy for as long as I can remember.”
When Wyatt mentioned other bands like The Who that have supposedly embarked on ‘farewell tours’, David replied: “Mine’s going to be the farewell tour because I’m knocking on 70's door. Are you kidding?! It’s hard enough now to get into my jeans!”
Despite the retirement from touring, David insisted that Whitesnake will still remain an active band: “I'll be still involved in music. We've got a relatively long-term deal with Warner's. We have a poop load of projects to do under the Whitesnake banner, it's just the touring. It's not the performance so much that is exhausting, it’s the touring and I can't tour any more comfortably than I do.
“I spoke to my agent and said, ‘I want to do this (play a farewell tour) more than anything, it's after 50 years of incredible support for me.’ Not to be able to say thank you to the UK, not to be able to say thank you to Germany to Japan, Brazil, it would be heart-breaking.
“I'm getting up there for this kind of stuff, and so it's gonna have to be an easier tour schedule for me to be able to handle and recharge the batteries so I'm not hobbling around or doing wheelies in a chair.”
He added: “It's impossible for me not to (continue). I play guitar every day - the moment I start playing, I come up with ideas for songs. It's impossible for me not to (play music). It's like my hobby. It’s something that I'm supposed to do otherwise I think I wouldn't receive all these amazing ideas for melodies and naughty lyrics including ‘Slide It In’, darling!”
Later in the chat, David said he’s hoping to reconvene with his Whitesnake bandmates before the end of 2021.
“Right now, I have some great pieces of music, but it's still unsafe for me to fly Joel (Hoekstra) in from New York, Reb (Beach) in from Pittsburgh. Michele (Luppi) my keyboard player is from Italy for God's sake! I've never recorded remotely; I don't think we've ever done that.
“I'm hoping I can get the guys in later in the year. It seems to be calming down over here with more people getting the vaccination. I can't go out if there's a risk to any member of my audience, any member of my crew or my band.”
David also spoke more about his plans to work release a new version of the ‘Coverdale-Page’ album, his acclaimed 1993 collaboration with Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.
“I've been talking to (Jimmy) recently about… I've got a couple of ideas to present to him if he's up for it,” David said. “But this was kind of the depth of Covid and he was in his country place. I said ‘I’ll do the Coverdale mix of the ‘Coverdale/Page’ album, you do the Page mix. The fans will love it! Because it's gonna be the 30th anniversary (of the album) - put the running order that you want, and I’ll put the running order I like’ because it always was a 50/50 project.
“He goes, ‘I'm not going in the studio right now’ and I said ‘I get you!’ He says ‘you've got your own studio, I don’t.’ So there’s plenty of time, I’m hoping to sweet talk him into that if he's up for it.”
You can watch Wyatt’s full interview with David Coverdale below as part of The Rocks 2021 awards ceremony, where he also discusses his unique accent and explains what his Rocks Honours Award means to him.
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