Although the singer David Coverdale might be best known these days first as the frontman and leader of Whitesnake, he first achieved fame as the vocalist of Deep Purple, joining the band in 1973, recording the albums “Burn” (1974), “Stormbringer” (1974) and “Come Taste the Band” (1975).
Coverdale recalled in an interview with Outlaw magazine his audition and how the band felt intimidated by Ritchie Blackmore‘s personality.
David Coverdale recalls Deep Purple audition and Blackmore’s personality
“I think I was the only singer they auditioned. First, they asked me to go into the Purple office at 25 Newman Street in London to be grilled by the managers, who, of course, wanted to know if I had a criminal record, a drug bust, or anything that could have caused any potential issues. (At the audition) Ritchie was standoffish. But Jon was just great. During my audition, Jon calmed me down – and Bell’s whisky also helped.”
“Apparently, they decided that night that I was in, but they didn’t tell me for a week. I was already making excuses why I didn’t want the gig, but once I was actually confirmed as the new singer, I was told to get the train down to London, where I was driven to Ritchie’s house in Surrey, called Blockhütte. That was the big test. Sitting in Ritchie’s crazy German-style bar, listening to his amazing demos on a Revox tape machine, we realised we had a very solid connection for writing together… and drinking, of course! We did like a drink or four.”
He continued:
“I was with this fucking amazing guitar player who was already a global superstar, and actually writing with him! It could have so easily been a royal fuck up, but thankfully, it wasn’t. It was the beginning of a journey for me.” When asked if Blackmore intimidated him, he said: “Who didn’t? Once I started getting more and more ‘in’ with the band, I could see they were all intimidated by him. Ritchie took me under his wing initially, and I was his willing disciple. I learned so much from him and most certainly from Jon Lord, who was another amazing mentor for me, and much more sociable than Ritchie,” David Coverdale said.
Deep Purple‘s MK III line-up dissolved in 1976 and in 1978 David Coverdale formed Whitesnake. The original line-up also had Bernie Marsden, Mick Moody, Neil Murray and Dave “Duck” Dowle. Two former Coverdale Deep Purple bandmates joined the band afterwards: Jon Lord (1978 to 1984) and Ian Paice (1979 to 1982).