WHITESNAKE Frontman Discusses Departure Of Bassist MARCO MENDOZA

Wisconsin-Music.com recently conducted an in-depth interview with WHITESNAKE frontman David Coverdale. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Wisconsin-Music.com: Throughout your career, you've worked literally with the finest rock guitarists ever. Ritchie Blackmore, John Sykes, Jimmy Page…

David Coverdale: "Well, not only that, don't short-sell the bass players and the drummers, the keyboard players. I've been extraordinarily fortunate."

Wisconsin-Music.com: Just incredible.

David Coverdale: "The remarkable thing is, the two sort of better known musicians I've worked with were incredibly inspirational to me, Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page. But everybody I've worked with has brought something to the party, whether it was positive or negative. And I'm grateful for all of that."

Wisconsin-Music.com: And your guitar players currently in WHITESNAKE are no strangers in the rock circles either.

David Coverdale: "Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach. Both great harp players. Got a great new bass player, I'm not if you'll have heard of him: Uriah Duffy…"

Wisconsin-Music.com: That was a question I was going to ask later, but let's cover it now. That's within the past month, correct?

David Coverdale: "Actually, it's been going on for some time. I worked beautifully with a fabulous musician and a great guy called Marco Mendoza. He's a master musician. But he just can't sit still for two minutes. I'd explained my philosophy of working, and everybody accepted that. But Marco would be consistently going, 'Are we gonna work, are we gonna work, are we gonna work?' and it was like, 'Enough already! No, we've just done six months.' So he would take other projects, and I said, with my blessing, as long as they don't conflict with WHITESNAKE activities.

"But they did. So, we just wished each other well. I love him very dearly, and do sincerely wish him well. But I cannot conduct my life around somebody else's agenda."

Wisconsin-Music.com: So how did you come across your new player?

David Coverdale: "There's a lot of people, surprisingly, who wanted to jump in the band, from very dark musical bands. You know, kind of metal-goth-grunge, and it was weird for me. I'm not sure I want that energy for what I do. But Uriah was the only one I spoke to. I felt a connection immediately, just going over his website and stuff. We met, and got on extraordinarily well. He's another master musician. And he continues the theme of that exotic bass player that Coverdale picks, you know?

"He's actually working now in London with the FAMILY STONE. I'm sure you remember SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE, this is some of the original members, and they're keeping that music alive. Fortunately, because it's one of my favorite elements of all time. So he's a great groove player, as well as a rock player. He's a bit too good-looking, but we can't have everything. But it should keep us on our toes."

Read David Coverdale's entire interview with Wisconsin-Music.com at this location.