The supergroup David Coverdale would have “dropped everything” to join
It’s easy to forget just how much David Coverdale has built himself as one of the giants of the hard rock industry.
Although there’s a generation of kids who probably know him for being the guy with the mile-high hair in Whitesnake, seeing him as one of the premier vocalists of the 1970s already would have been a lifetime of achievements for any other rock singer. But when all of the dust had settled over his career, there were bound to be a few missed opportunities that happened along the way.
He may not have had as much star power as a Robert Plant, but it’s insane to think that anyone wouldn’t want to work with Coverdale after hearing his voice. Deep Purple could have gone with virtually any one of their friends when they sent Ian Gillan packing from the band, but even with someone like Glenn Hughes in the group, Coverdale shone above everyone else as soon as the opening notes of ‘Burn’ started.
But when the band finally called it a day after Come Taste the Band, Coverdale knew there was always room for him to make it as a solo star. Even though Whitesnake could have easily been called ‘The David Coverdale Experience’ if he wanted it to be, he never wanted it to be a strictly solo outfit. He knew he was only as good as the people he worked with, and some of the best moments on the records came from them collaborating.
John Sykes was already responsible for making some of their greatest licks when they started to make those timeless music videos, and even when they started the revolving door of guitarists, getting someone like Steve Vai in the band for a brief period certainly wasn’t going to hurt. If Coverdale had his way, though, he would have gladly not seen any of Whitesnake’s early success if it meant working with legends like Jeff Beck.
While he had a split-second moment in his career to work with the guitar genius, he was gutted knowing that he had to turn it down for Whitesnake, saying, “The most interesting one for me is mostly unknown: there was a management guy who got in touch with me and asked if I’d be interested in singing with Jeff Beck, Willie Weeks, Andy Newmark, and Jean Rousseau. Jean Rousseau was the keyboard player with Cat Stevens. I would have dropped pretty much everything for that.”
Not everyone was going to get excited about the greatest session players coming together, but this was about more than making hits. Anyone would have given their left arm to work with Beck on any project, and while Willie Weeks might be a strange choice for Coverdale, it would have made all the sense in the world if you thought about the kind of stomping grounds that he came from.
There was always a soulful element to everything Coverdale sang, and by the time that he had begun writing with Purple back in the day, the records that wouldn’t leave his stereo were by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway rather than trying to do a pale imitation of what someone like Robert Plant was doing.
So, really, this could have been the kind of supergroup no one realised they needed, but it’s not like any of them had to worry about landing on their feet. Weeks would spend time playing with George Harrison, Beck would go on being his badass self, and Coverdale would even get the chance to work on projects with Jimmy Page, so leaving only a handful of names not checked off his bucket list is pretty good all things considered.
