Coverdale explains Purple Album idea

David Coverdale has explained how plans for a reunion with Deep Purple colleague Ritchie Blackmore led to the creation of Whitesnake’s upcoming Purple Album.

The tribute work is released on May 18, and it’s the first Whitesnake album to feature guitarist Joel Hoekstra in place of Doug Aldrich.

Coverdale exclusively told Classic Rock how late Purple keyboardist Jon Lord had wanted the Mark III version of the band to reunite, and discussions took place after his death.

Now he says in the video below: “A lot of the ideas weren’t appealing to me, unfortunately. But I was already doing preparatory work on these songs, hoping Ritchie would be open to bringing them up to date and reappraising some of them.”

When he told his wife it was a shame that his work had been wasted, she asked, “Why don’t you do it under the Whitesnake banner?”

Coverdale continues: “I took a little time to think about it, I spoke to my musicians and everybody was incredibly positive, so it was all systems go.”

Guitarist Reb Beach says of The Purple Album: “It was the most exciting thing David’s ever said to me – and David’s said some pretty exciting things.”

Deep Purple are the cover stars of the latest edition of Classic Rock, on sale now and also featuring Motorhead, Roxy Music, Free, Kate Bush, Chicago, Kyuss, The Cure, New York Dolls and much more.

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.