Coverdale 1977 Promotional Trek

David Coverdale visited Scandinavia and other countries in March 1977 in order to support his first solo album “White Snake”. Fresh out of Deep Purple (well, it had been a year since he left, but “Made In Europe” was still a new release at this point), journalists loved to meet the guy to get his take on what had happened. Swedish journalist Mats Olsson, whom had supported Purple during the “Burn” era, but was very negative about Rainbow for years (he was basically a punk rocker at heart, or so it would seem), met with David and this resulted in his best coverage in Sweden in years since this appeared in major newspaper Expressen. I remember seeing this back in the day and it really was a big deal. Finally some publicity with an ex-member of Deep Purple. And he looked great. He had a few things to communicate and he was pretty honest about things. Mats Olsson did a good job here and I doubt that he would mind me sharing some of the golden bits here. This is a few of the answers that he got from his meeting with Coverdale, based on particular topics.

DEEP PURPLE – “I was 20 when I got the job. I was working in a boutique and I had never been singing professionally. I can not believe that I dared to replace Ian Gillan. I was very insecure. I was hiding before the first gig in Copenhagen, but Christ that audience boosted my self confidence enormously”.

RITCHIE BLACKMORE & BAND MECHANICS – “Ritchie Blackmore and myself wrote most of the music. “Mistreated” was my song. I was very happy for a while, both musically and socially. Then it went south socially. Musically, I liked blues, Ritchie hard rock, Glenn Hughes soul, Ian Paice jazz and Jon Lord classical. What kept it together was our love for rock´n´roll”.

THE LIFESTYLE – “We behaved intolerable, complained about everything. But it was the pressure that did that, it had to come out in some way”.

TOMMY BOLIN – “We thought we had more to give. We tried to find a guitarist that we could work with. Everybody had Jeff Beck on top of their lists. Tommy Bolin was number two on mine. Then everything went to hell. In Liverpool, in March last year, I walked. I could not take it anymore”.

AFTER PURPLE – “Jon and Ian came to me in Munich and wanted me to sing in their new band, but, nah, we were still friends but there was something missing. Ritchie has been in touch. As I understand it, he wants to do a record with me”.

Some interesting bits here. The fact that Jon Lord and Ian Paice still fancied working with him in their new band (what eventually became Paice Ashton Lord). The fact that Blackmore had signalled interest (maybe not in person but through management). We know that Blackmore also showed interest in Ian Gillan again around this time (clearly, his interest in working for much longer with Ronnie James Dio had waned). All in all, a very interesting period. Considering that Tommy Bolin had died just a few months prior to this interview, it seems that he was holding back on that subject. Or maybe Mats Olsson did not ask? In any case, a very cool interview from the wilderness years.

(My shot of said article, picture of David was taken by Olle Wester – credit goes to Mats Olsson)

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