![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan7.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan.jpg)
A drink or four
Music Radar has an article about Coverdale joining Deep Purple, with input from the man himself.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but also a daunting challenge – not least because of the fearsome reputation of Purple’s moody guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore.
“I think I was the only singer they auditioned,” Coverdale recalled in an interview with Outlaw magazine.
“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.”
Blackmore was famously difficult to read. Keyboard player Jon Lord, by contrast, was known for his charm, and welcomed Coverdale with open arms.
“Ritchie was standoffish,” Coverdale said. “But Jon was just great. During my audition, Jon calmed me down – and Bell’s whisky also helped.
Read more in Music Radar.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
“also a daunting challenge – not least because of the fearsome reputation of Purple’s moody guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore.”
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“Ritchie was standoffish,” Coverdale said. “But Jon was just great. During my audition, Jon calmed me down – and Bell’s whisky also helped.”
– well, I would have loved to hear what RB thought about the brand new vocalist!
“Asked if he found Blackmore intimidating, Coverdale laughingly replied: “Who didn’t?””
September 22nd, 2025 at 05:58– 😄😄
Have a wonderful musical journey Mr. DC…and happy birthday
September 22nd, 2025 at 12:11Well… already in late 1974 the man in black was tired of Coverdale and Hughes..and for good reasons.
September 22nd, 2025 at 13:03How I wish Gillan would have calmed his emotions down a little in 1972 and instead demanded that all members took half a year to a year off to be reunited again after that year. but you cant always get what you want as somebody once sang…
@3 As a self-professed Mk III and IV fan, I disagree. Personally, I found the period between Burn & CTTB much more exciting, and the vocal duo DC/GH was incredibly versatile. The different voices harmonized very well, and it wasn’t as one-dimensional as before. I also found the reunion with PS rather staid (only 2-3 good songs/PS/KAYBD & Wasted Sunsets). THOBL was a low point for me, simply uninspired.
September 22nd, 2025 at 14:31Everyone’s tastes differ.
Interestingly, I have never heard of an audition with another singer either. That just shows how impressed they must have been with the voice of an overweight northerner suffering from strabismus (cross-sightedness).
The management was concerned about DC’s looks above anything else – following someone perceived as handsome as Ian Gillan. That is why they put DC on a slimming pill diet and had his eyes operated before the first promo shots were taking at Clearwell Castle (where DC was still wearing corrective glasses to correct his strabismus post-surgery in case you ever wondered).
I always wonder: Did Jon receive the thanks of DC for being comforting to him in 1973 at the audition almost 10 years later by being the only member from classic Marsden era WS to survive DC’s purges that cost at one point or another six (!) WS members their jobs in the course of two years or so? By mid 1984, Jon was the last man standing from the original line-up, Bernie, Neil, Ian, Micky, Colin and Mel had all been given the boot (Neil to return). John Kalodner who had masterminded a lot of the later personnel changes had the view that “Jon Lord wasn’t vital for WS’s future, but not detrimental either, being British rock royalty as he was”.
So had the DP reunion not come and Jon not left WS at his own volition, they might have even kept him on stage. 😑
September 22nd, 2025 at 15:34#5 Nobody fires a lord, DC once said.
September 22nd, 2025 at 19:145 Herr Uwe
You know yourself but I’ll write.
September 23rd, 2025 at 02:28Jon Lord was not a part of the songwriting in WS the keyboards are not as impressive as in DP, but his hand was definitely felt in the most important songs of his era in WS and the band itself
“Walking in the Shadow of the Blues”, “Fool for Your Loving”, Ready an’ Willing” “Ain’t Gonna Cry No More”, “Don’t Break My Heart Again”, “Here I Go Again”.”Gambler”
David Coverdale can divide his career into-…with Jon Lord and after Jon ..
Jon knew his place in the song, to be the star or let someone else take the lead, to be a significant support
No argument from me, Jon was a huge part of early WS’ sound. He played more traditional and less leading than with Purple, not part of a Gorgan tandem, but nonetheless left his stamp. He himself described it as “providing a halo” for the two lead guitarists Bernie & Micky.
“Nobody fires a Jon Lord”, true, but Jon was still displeased when he found out that DC was paying Cozy a higher wage than him.
September 23rd, 2025 at 08:31Ritchie was a very stoic brilliant individual, who sizes up everyone like a manager does for an interview.
September 23rd, 2025 at 12:02#8 While Jon only moved his Hammond C3 around during his live solo spot, Cozy had to smash his Yamaha set almost the entire time. So, perhaps the higher wages were justified 🙂
September 23rd, 2025 at 12:59While I liked Mk 3 and Mk 4, Mk 2 was the definitive Deep Purple. The 3 original members even said it was a mistake not to take a break after all the touring and remain Mk 2. As far as Whitesnake goes, they were a much better band with Paice than they ever were afterwards. They became much more commercially successful, because they became just one more ’80s hard rock guitar-shred band, but the early stuff was more creative and musically superior.
September 23rd, 2025 at 13:19The first time I saw Jon was actually with WS! In 1979, Duck Dowle (who did a fine job with Neil Murray) was still drumming and seeing Jon hulking over his Hammond and all his head-throw-back and tipping-the-organ (show)mannerisms, I swear I found it more impressive than Ritchie! I’ve always had a special respect for the Hammond and the sounds it can emit, it’s like that make-believe machine in The Wizard of Oz.
https://media.tenor.com/QKDByd2mG-MAAAAM/veil-wizard.gif
And live his organ with WS was always suitably loud plus you could really see that Bernie and Micky were chuffed playing with him.
That was likely the best Whitesnake gig I ever saw (though the following one a year later or so with Paicey in Offenbach was great too). They played in a tent and the acoustics were great, Coverdale oozed confidence with the line-up he had found.
That was the time when they still had Might Just Take Your Life in their set and I almost creamed in my pants when Jon introduced it with his mighty Hammond roar.
September 23rd, 2025 at 13:47Hindsight again. I still do NOT buy into the ‘taking a break’ scenario and that that would have solved issues within DP in 1973. There is no way both Ritchie and Ian Gillan would have gone back into that scene after a break of six months or whatever amount of time. Look how long they both lasted after a nine year break. Regarding Jon Lord staying put in the Snake at the 1984 era. Most of us would be surprised he did stay as long as he did, wouldn’t we? Cheers.
September 23rd, 2025 at 22:28And NO ONE gets that Hammond sound like Jon Lord !
September 23rd, 2025 at 23:17As glad as I was about the return of the glorious 5 in 1984 I always thought it was a pity the Snake as we knew it came to an end. Whitesnake were one of the best British bands ever imho – and without Lord and Paice things not only never were the same again… the band had lost the mojo after that.
September 24th, 2025 at 11:17“I still do NOT buy into the ‘taking a break’ scenario and that that would have solved issues within DP in 1973. There is no way both Ritchie and Ian Gillan would have gone back into that scene after a break of six months or whatever amount of time.“
As always except in the few rare, yet sufficiently documented cases where he is talking unadulterated nonsense, Herr MacGregor and yours truly are in perfect agreement!
People don’t want to face the fact that Blackmore had by 1972 grown tired of Ian’s voice, vocal melodies and likely also lyrics. Not DC, not GH, not RJD, not Bonnet and not JoLT remotely sang and wrote like Ian. Later attempts to lure Ian into Rainbow or reunify Mk II were due to Ritchie’s realization that “Blackmore & Gillan” was somehow a commercial formula, but not owed to his love for the man’s voice. You can tell by how increasingly (decreasingly?) short the periods of satisfaction with Ian were for Ritchie.
Blackmore’s development as a songwriter who also writes vocal melodies which began around latish Mk III exacerbated things – Ian doesn’t like to be told what and how to sing and Blackmore prefers arch-conventional vocal melodies to Ian’s more experimental and expectations-defying approach.
A 1974 version of Mk II with Gillan & Glover would not have featured Ritchie. And Ian would have flipped Ritchie the bird rather than write lyrics like the ones to Burn, Mistreated, Stormbringer and Soldier Of Fortune.
September 24th, 2025 at 13:11#16 Uwe:
I think so too,
Ritchie was not only tired of Ian or his voice (or both), but he was tired of Deep Purple and wanted to do his own thing without the “usual faces” around.
In Rainbow he chased out musicians to do this, in Purple he left directly.
I also think that if Purple had split up completely after MKIII he wouldn’t have wanted to use the name Deep Purple for himself, he wasn’t interested in doing so.
September 24th, 2025 at 21:06@16 & 17
“Ritchie was not only tired of Ian or his voice (or both)”
– well gentlemen, do you wanna hear a female’s point of view?
Yes of course you will!
Ok then! I have this notion that RB, being this god-given guitarist, also wanted to be number 1 in all other aspects.
And it is without a doubt certain that Ian Gillan was rather popular among the female part of the world, and I sincerely believe that RB was jealous!
It will explain everything you see 😃
September 25th, 2025 at 12:52Gillan and Blackers were always competitive with each other, that much is true. DC and GH were almost five years younger than Ritchie and met him as already this established rock god so they never endangered his position. But Gillan would take no shit from him.
Ritchie also had this unfortunate tendency of discovering talented people and nurturing them for a while, only to eventually suck them dry and ultimately discard them. David Bowie was like that too. The five “F”s: find’em, fool’em, feel’em, fuck’em & forget’em.
September 25th, 2025 at 22:53@19
“Gillan and Blackers were always competitive with each other, that much is true.”
– wait a minute while I collect myself, and try to get up off the floor where I just fainted like a young woman getting her first compliment!
Did you, Uwe Hornung, Lawyer and misogynist, actually agree with me?
I will mark this day in my calendar with a big X! 😁
“But Gillan would take no shit from him.”
– of course he wouldn’t!
Really strong, confident and assertive men never do (unless it’s from a woman they hold dear, then they are otherwise sweet and surrendering 🥰)
“The five “F”s: find’em, fool’em, feel’em, fuck’em & forget’em.”
September 26th, 2025 at 07:59– ok, now I’m confused! I never saw RB as nothing but a gentleman!
Whenever you’re reasonable, Karin, I always agree with you! The scarcity of these moments takes nothing away from the intense happiness I feel when they do happen – once in a while that is.
Me, a misogynist? But I live in absolute dread of wimmin!
September 26th, 2025 at 16:08#19 Uwe:
Your words on the Gillan-Blackmore dualism give me another food for thought:
bigIan (and Roger) was not one of the founders of the band, but I think that if Deep Purple had started with MKI with Gillan (and Glover), Ritchie would have had a different approach towards bigIan (and Roger), they would have been more cohesive, or better to say more respectful towards each other as Ritchie regarded Lord & Paice with respect.
September 26th, 2025 at 20:28I hope I have made the reflection clear….
Fla76, that is certainly true, in the 70s there was an old boy’s network going on in DP with the triumvirate of Blackmore-Lord-Paice. Ritchie also spared both of them with his practical jokes which they likely weren’t fond of.
That Mk IV didn’t last longer than it did certainly had to do with the above triumvirate being broken by Blackmore’s departure, Tommy was a wonderful musician but he couldn’t step – and really didn’t want to either – into that triumvirate role with Jon and Ian.
If anyone might have pulled Mk IV through, it might have been DC but he was in 1976 not yet quite up for it in his personal development.
September 27th, 2025 at 14:18@21
“Me, a misogynist? But I live in absolute dread of wimmin!”
– well, it’s often anxiety that feed the hate….☺️
https://youtu.be/LBtuk4JcYTs?si=-V4BhvVXa3ILPLHY
Compared to
https://youtu.be/7v2r_VnmL6A?si=sjlnKCexWOirIUhT
And of course the musical hero:
https://youtu.be/a5kwyHjL7ZU?si=dlJSfBwWhiYtav0_
Oh, he is my musical hero ☺️
Our musical hero is fantastic:
September 27th, 2025 at 17:09https://youtu.be/SGgz-kRiuPs?si=EB897apxw4ei6MpI
@21
So sorry, the last link was not the right one! It’s a beautiful song, but this one was the song I meant to link to 😊
https://youtu.be/IKFM6mQqRn8?si=9zJymgPh_Ank-JbY
Sometimes my fingers are quicker than my brain 😉
September 27th, 2025 at 17:11Tsk, tsk, tsk, Karin, all these bad links, get a grip!
https://youtu.be/DovzOPOQer4
Sehr unordentlich, muss man leider sagen.
September 29th, 2025 at 14:15