Дэвид Ковердейл: от Deep Purple до Whitesnake и сольной карьеры.

English rock musician

David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer and songwriter best known as the founder and lead singer of hard rock band Whitesnake. He was also the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976, after which he released two solo studio albums White Snake and Northwinds before forming Whitesnake in 1978. In 1991 1993, during a Whitesnake hiatus, he collaborated with ex Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page on the Coverdale–Page album, which was subsequently certified platinum. In 1997 studio album Restless Heart was initially intended to be released as a solo album, but in the end was released under moniker of "David Coverdale & Whitesnake". In 2000, Coverdale released his third studio album Into the Light. In 2016, Coverdale was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Deep Purple. Coverdale is known in particular for his powerful, blues tinged voice. According to Coverdale, his maternal side and mother "were the singers", while paternal side "were the painters, the sketchers, the artists". He got initiation 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. By 1973 he left art college and was successfully working as a "singing salesman", and in the UK on 1 July. 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, which also ranked at Gold album status in the US and the UK. The funk and soul influences of the previous record were even more prominent here and this was one of the reasons why guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left the band in June 1975. Rather than disbanding, Coverdale was instrumental in persuading the band to continue with American guitarist Tommy Bolin (of Billy Cobham and The James Gang fame). The band released one studio album with Bolin, Come Taste the Band in 1975, which was less commercially successful than previous records. The supporting tour proved difficult, with both Hughes and Bolin having drug habits. In March 1976, at the end of the final show of the tour, Coverdale reportedly walked off in tears and handed in his resignation, to which he was told there was no band left to quit. The decision to disband Deep Purple had been made some time before the last show by Lord and Ian Paice (the last remaining original members), who had not told anyone else. The break up was finally 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." As his first solo effort, Coverdale later admitted: "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. and in 2021 Classic Rock considered it as "a remarkably mature album that can still send shivers down the spine 30 years after it was recorded" and "antithesis of Whitesnake's super slick 1987". But before the album's release, he had already formed a new band. and No. 53 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Ready an' Willing was followed up by the even more successful Come an' Get It in 1981. Coverdale put Whitesnake on hold during part of 1982, to make time for the treatment and care of his sick daughter.

Whitesnake gained significant popularity in the UK, Europe, and Asia, but North American success remained elusive. 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. During 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", finally made Whitesnake a "bona fide arena headliner" in North America. In 1990, Coverdale sang and co wrote (with Hans Zimmer and Billy Idol) the song "The Last Note of Freedom" for the Tony Scott film Days of Thunder. 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 felt Whitesnake had become, and admitted that he got "caught up in it". In 1993 interview with Robert Hilburn commented that "had to stop everything, this whole circus. I had never gone into (music) for the image thing at all, and I really couldn't do it anymore". In one 2006 interview, 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".

In the early spring of 1991, a collaboration was set up with guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame. The US tour for the album had to be cancelled due to slow ticket sales, but held a limited Japanese arena tour before they parted ways and Page soon started collaborating again with Robert Plant.

In 1994, Coverdale assembled a new line up of Whitesnake (with the exception of Coverdale's musical partner, guitarist Adrian Vandenberg and bassist Rudy Sarzo, both of whom had been in Whitesnake since 1987) to tour for the release of Whitesnake's Greatest Hits album. After this Coverdale once again retreated from the music business, for three years. In 1997 Coverdale returned and released Restless Heart (with Vandenberg on guitar). The album was originally supposed to be Coverdale's solo album, but in the end the record company forced it to be released under the moniker "David Coverdale & Whitesnake". The first of the two shows was released the next year under the title Starkers in Tokyo. In 2003 was released compilation album The Early Years including his two studio albums White Snake and Northwinds from the 1970s.

In December 2002, Coverdale re reformed Whitesnake for an American tour with The Scorpions in early 2003, They were also performing on the Rock Never Stops Tour in the same year. In April 2008, the band released its first new studio album in over 11 years titled Good to Be Bad to great success. On 11 August 2009 Whitesnake were playing a show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado when Coverdale suffered some kind of vocal injury. After seeing a specialist, it was announced on 12 August 2009 that Coverdale had been suffering from severe vocal fold edema and a left vocal fold vascular lesion. The remainder of the tour with Judas Priest was cancelled so that this injury would not worsen. In March 2011 the band released eleventh studio album Forevermore. In May 2015, the band released The Purple Album with cover versions of the songs that Coverdale had originally performed with Deep Purple. It was followed by a tour. In May 2019, the band released new studio album Flesh & Blood. In 2022, the band began their COVID delayed farewell tour with European dates kicking off in Dublin on 10 May 2022, but were able to continue only until their date in Croatia on 2 July 2022. After cancelling the last 11 dates of the European leg of the tour due to health problems affecting various band members including Reb Beach, Tommy Aldridge and Coverdale himself, Whitesnake subsequently cancelled the entire 2022 North American leg of its Farewell Tour as Coverdale was forced to deal with ongoing respiratory health issues.

In 2006, hard rock/heavy metal magazine Hit Parader named Coverdale as No. 54 on its list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. In 2009, he was voted as 5th out of 40 "the greatest voice in rock" in a poll conducted by UK classic rock radio station Planet Rock. In 2003 PopMatters proclaimed him as the "crown prince of '70s rock. Not even Plant, definitely not Bad Company's Paul Rodgers, or anyone else can touch Coverdale at this moment in time when it comes to rock icons from that era — it's just a shame that hardly anyone comes to see it". In 2015, Dave Everley of Classic Rock considered that "Whitesnake are one of the great British bands of the past 40 years, and Coverdale is one of the finest blue eyed soul singers, full stop". William Pinfold in Record Collector review of Martin Popoff's 2015 biography on Whitesnake commented that both the band and Coverdale "have been consistently taken seriously" but "are underrated compared with the plaudits given to their 70s/80s peers", considering Coverdale "outrageously talented, charismatic and in equal parts lordly and humble, he's a hugely likeable figure". In 2016, Coverdale was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Deep Purple.