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King David of Hollywood
Louder Sound reprints a Classic Rock feature on Whitesnake that originally appeared in their 2006 special issue Classic Rock Present 1980s.
“Oooh, hello, cheeky.” David Coverdale breaks off from our interview to greet a vision emerging from one of the many fabulous bedrooms found in what was then London’s most expensive hotel room – the penthouse suite at the Ritz Carlton in Kensington, at £1,200 a night.
The night before, the suite had hosted King Hussein of Jordan. Today, it was the no less regal Coverdale, with his Roman nose and rows of glistening teeth; the white T-shirt and the fancy waistcoat; the black riding boots; the jodhpurs; that fabulous meringue on his head. And here he was, introducing us to a woman, familiar in the same way that he was: from video, from television, from MTV.
“Jon,” he says, “I’d like you to meet the wife. She’s been lying down. She’s been lying down because she’s been shopping.”
The last time I had seen “the wife”, she’d been doing cartwheels over a car bonnet in a rightly famous Whitesnake video.
Continue reading in Louder Sound.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Max, do you agree to this:
October 19th, 2025 at 11:00“The old bluesers, however integral to Whitesnake’s European sound, were more like sprung and busted old sofas. Bernie Marsden had to go. So did Micky Moody and Cozy Powell and the rest of the band.”
Well of course that’s true if you talk about the looks. Moody and Marsden…or later on Galley and Hodgekinson didn’t look the part if you wanted to compete with the Bon Jovis or Guns& Roses of the MTV age. But they DID deliever wonderful songs, a warm sound and tons of feel…even humour. All of that was gone when they were gone. WS in 1990 was an American entertainment machine….and DC put it to rest for a reason.
October 19th, 2025 at 19:51Coverdale’s own invention of an amalgamated Brit accent has been the object of much derision from Ritchie (“The way he speaks now … he’s from up north and we all know how they talk there!”).
I herewith claim: Had my countrywoman Claudia Schiffer been in the video she would have known who DP and WS were (unlike Tawny), DC would have fallen in love with her and she with him after ole Cov’ charming her with some of his broken German, they would have married and lived happily ever after in London and not Lake Tahoe because (i) Claudia is ein anständiges deutsches Mädchen, (ii) not high maintenance like Tawny (still buying Düsseldorfer Löwensenf im London specialty shops to this day)
https://www.loewensenf.de/Marken/Loewensenf/Kanaele/loewensenf.de/Shop/Produkte/Senf/Extra/image-thumb__11539__productImageDetailDeveleyLoewensenfBundle/loewensenf-extra-250ml-toennchen-extra-scharf-senf-original-qualitaet-min-bb1.webp,
and (iii) leads more durable marriages. History would have been changed and the world a better place! (DC also richer because there would have been no costly divorce from Tawny and Claudia would have been the reliable breadwinner in the family.)
Good looks aside, the crew that presented 1987 in the vids never recorded anything impressive, the only guy who shone besides DC on Slip Of The Tongue was Steve Vai, ill-fitting as he was.
Adrian Vandenberg was to me never a great guitarist, just ok, but not in John Sykes’ league, John Kalodner was right.
Rudy Sarzo especially is an imposter freak of nature: The man is associated as the bassist “face” of no less than four multi-platinum albums (the Ozzy debut and sophomore effort, Quiet Riot’s Metal Health and WS’ Serpens Albus/1987), yet only played on half of one (!) of them (a few tracks on the QR album and not even its title track). Some kinda luck for the boy who fled Fidel Castro with his parents. 😁 (To his defense: He’s an able bassist with great technique, but no Neil Murray or Colin Hodgkinson in terms of originality.)
And while Bernie Marsden’s girth could even at his best/skinniest of times not compare favorably to Sykes’, Campbell’s, Vandenberg’s and Vai’s girlie waists, he is the one who could live comfortably off his royalties from HIGA alone. That is why he never complained about hair Metal WS’s later success or said disparaging things about them, he just leaned back, smiled and enjoyed the cash rolling in: Sykes, Campbell, Vandenberg and Vai were working for him and DC had to pay them! Ultimate justice. 🤗
https://youtu.be/nyRjIoYjIUg
October 20th, 2025 at 00:10@2
Yes Max, too bad he didn’t kept the old Whitesnake people.
October 20th, 2025 at 06:33But maybe money is alluring no matter who you are 😝
I remember having a chat with Bernie after an M3 gig. He said that over the years he’d have loved to do some dates with the Ready An’ Willing lineup, and had even approached David about it, but DC was never interested and seemed to hold it against Bernie that he was out playing Whitesnake songs. Bernie, Micky and Neil signed some Whitesnake albums. I mentioned my 12″ single of Ian Gillan’s South Africa (which Bernie wrote and played on), and Bernie said it was one of THE best things he’s ever done, loved doing that with Ian.
Stefan Berggren sang fantastically well for M3, and at times reminded me of a young DC. I mentioned this to Neil Murray, who agreed, and said that not many can sing like that, and Coverdale certainly isn’t able to anymore! Shame that Bernie and Micky fell out and never fully reconciled.
October 20th, 2025 at 12:17@3
“Had my countrywoman Claudia Schiffer been in the video she would have known who DP and WS were (unlike Tawny)”
October 20th, 2025 at 14:53– she didn’t know! 😱
Karin, Tawny was born 1961 and raised in Southern California, she was also the girlfriend of Ratt guitarist Robin Crosby, I’m sure she had heard of DP sometime in her teenage years in the 70s,
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTNaWk15DhANb8576PSUmATCckPJeOizJxeL3xVD_OTEFVTi-PT1R4GDU4&s
but she was likely unaware who David Coverdale was prior to the shoot and how he connected Whitesnake to Deep Purple.
She seems to have had an eye on becoming a rock stars’ wife early on, Wikipedia writes:
Julie Ellen Kitaen was born in San Diego, California, on August 5, 1961.[1][2] She was the eldest of three children born to Linda Kitaen (née Taylor), a housewife and one-time beauty pageant participant, and Terry Kitaen, an employee of a neon sign company.[3][4] Kitaen’s mother was of Irish and Scottish descent, while her father was of Russian-Jewish heritage.[5] Kitaen was raised in her father’s Jewish faith.[6][7]
She began using the nickname “Tawny” at the age of 12 on her own initiative.[8] As a child, she struggled with dyslexia, which led to her dropping out of Mission Bay High School.[9] At the age of 14, with backstage passes after a Peter Frampton concert at Balboa Stadium,[10] she witnessed the VIP treatment afforded Frampton’s girlfriend Penny and aspired to achieve it for herself.[11]
Peter Frampton and Ms Penny McCall in happier days (Penny in both pictures on the right should you be initially confused):
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUt4B_8-N37vlcJ4GGR0SOifUGi6Q7wUMjQvIwBRpkYznqW2ou_SRSPnE_&s=10
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT4E9kTPLDGjGgYTPedrSGsV2SDuUgCSz5lttR6N2sIwRLKVSB5DInjaNc&s=10
October 20th, 2025 at 22:32@7
Thank you very much for the enlightenment!
Well, gold diggers also have a right to live ☺️😉
October 21st, 2025 at 08:59She fell for his fame and his potential access to resources (a biological thing), he fell for her looks and youth signifying fertility (a biological thing as well). Who am I to judge what’s better or worse? Fact is no powerful man has yet refused a beautiful “gold digger” for seeing through her motives. And that women rarely marry to elevate their partner in class (something men have no issue with and even find masculinity-defining) can become a problem of society as it entrenches class borders over the generations. As the old trope goes: The number of female medical doctors marrying male hospital orderlies and ambulance drivers is miniscule, the other way around (male doctor marries nurse) is a tried and trusted sociological concept of mixing classes.
David Letterman was visbly enchanted by Tawny too – and to be fair: She had showbiz charm (and knew it).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=486JJ8TXX_0
From all I’ve heard, the DC/Tawny companionship ended when he found her (too) high maintenance (demanding telephone calls about interior design issues of the new-found spousal home at Lake Tahoe while he was recording eith the band etc), surprise, surprise, what the fuck did he expect? That he could treat her like Neil Murray when he was busy with other things?
October 21st, 2025 at 23:21@9
Awww she was cute 😄
Ohh man I miss David Letterman!
“Who am I to judge what’s better or worse?”
– Well Uwe! I think you are the obvious choice 🤣
“is a tried and trusted sociological concept of mixing classes.”
– let’s pay tribute to the existing system 😄
I really don’t care what people do to each other, as long as both are agreeing 😃
And now to some music:
https://youtu.be/-L3zpXrVtnE?si=ma-OaAReqadDRMfE
I think the gentlemen in this band suffer from female ignorance 😄
October 22nd, 2025 at 12:52That’s even reasonably poppy for AC/DC standards, I like it!
October 24th, 2025 at 13:36DC does GnR? 😂
It’s all AI of course, but whoever fed it here seemed to know what he was doing, not just with the vocals (where I also hear quite a bit of Sammy Hagar in his Van Halen era), but also with the uncanny arrangement and the halftime beat:
https://youtu.be/obFg6C0MgPY
Sometimes AI can at least be amusing.
October 25th, 2025 at 09:43@12
“Sometimes AI can at least be amusing”
– or rather bemusing!
I was so confused with the AI examples with my beloved Purple!
And I absolutely don’t like when some persons use AI to make dead people move and talk!
In Denmark there has been a debate regarding this phenomenon. A woman was very happily married, and she and her husband have a son. Then the husband got a horrible disease and before he died, his voice was put into this AI sh*t, and now he is gone, and his beloved wife and little son seems to be stuck in that dreadful sorrow forever. Whenever they want to, they “talk” to him, well the AI of course, but HE isn’t there.
Or at least that’s how it seems to me.
What do I really know?
I just don’t find it the most healthy way to deal with death and sorrow.
And what if the woman finds another love in her life, how will she manage that?
Well, live and let live 😊
I prefer this song as a lovely pick-me-up tune:
https://youtu.be/dwgeEnv6uDw?si=7ee01GY8Z0F2nSPh
Woah woah woah, that was a mistake 😄
Here’s the right one:
https://youtu.be/3EX7OL9__e8?si=7nOvrEyg8JbmvV31
Yeah 😍 that’s much much better 😃
October 25th, 2025 at 12:20For a moment, Karin, I thought you had seen the sinful errors of your ways with the IGB link … but alas!, you even rejoice in your belligerent nescience! 😱😔😭
Spiteful girl! 😂
https://youtu.be/Vbcxo4Q8ACU
October 26th, 2025 at 22:21@14
Spiteful you say 😃 well at least I’m always completely honest!
What you see (read..) is what you get 😊
I love Ian’s voice, no doubt about it, but IGB’s music annoys me. Sooo much 😝
I hope one day someone will sit me down, bring me a lovely cup of coffee, and then explain the music/genre of IGB to me, so I can come to appreciate it as much as you guys in here.
But it needs coffee and lots of it, and a kind and caring atmosphere – and please no yelling 😅
But this I dig BIG TIME 😍:
https://youtu.be/F00xG7szj2Y?si=ZxCZQK8zqewa_bzV
And this:
https://youtu.be/kmMFxIRme_4?si=bh_XKl5P4EaQeV3g
This one too:
https://youtu.be/oGqCCnFxQLU?si=S287eyD02CzHxlJQ
And of course this beauty:
https://youtu.be/G8w638t_MtU?si=RhJTSakaRi2wJHS7
But the jazz fusion, I have to learn to like that 😄😄
October 27th, 2025 at 09:28Hey gossip girl Karin, some news for you:
In the new Whitesnake bio by Martin Popoff we learn straight from late Tawny’s mouth:
– She had indeed no idea who Deep Purple, Whitesnake or David Coverdale were when she met DC, “I was too young for that”.
– Contrary to conventional wisdom, DC did not fall in love with her on the set of the WS vids, but had been dating her for a while. She was having dinner with a female friend in LA when a guitarist who was dining there with DC as well (likely Adrian Vandenberg) approached her whether the two women “would like to have drinks” with DC and him afterwards. She coyly declined that she “didn’t drink”, but that is when DC entered the scene and with his rich baritone said “would you then like to have some tea with us?”. You know how wimmin are, they fall like flies for this kind of crap if delivered by the right guy. 😆
– In hindsight, Tawny makes a caveat though: “I didn‘t know he was 2 million Dollars in debt with his record company at the time, that is the last thing I wanted, a rock musician in debt!“
– So Tawny and the boy from Saltburn-by-the-Sea become an item and he takes her along to a meeting with the video producer who has slated a back then not yet famous Claudia Schiffer***
https://img.diepresse.com/public/incoming/iogsww-e5MnH0VIEo4b5182m0xUyBhKo1_500.jpg/alternates/WEBP_FREE_1200/e5MnH0VIEo4b5182m0xUyBhKo1_500.jpg
to be the female lead in the three WS vids (all filmed at pretty much the same time in early 1987). And the director lays eyes on Tawny and says “She’s it, we don’t need to check out anybody else!” The rest, as they say, isss ssslithery hissstory.
– And on they lived happily, if not “forever after” then at least a good 18 months or so … 😂
***Something doesn’t add up here: Claudia (who wanted to study law as a teenager and never thought of a modeling career) was only discovered by a model agent in a German disco in the fall of 1987 – by that time the WS vids with Tawny scrubbing and waxing the Jaguar hoods were long in the can and already being power-played by MTV. Claudia’s rise to fame as – initially – the new Brigitte Bardot only came in 1988/89 with the iconic GUESS campaign which put her on the map. Did DC perhaps mistake her with Adrian Vandenberg? 😱
If there was a German model that was slated for the job it could really only have been Tatjana Patitz whose career preceded Claudia’s by a few years and who in 1986 was already under contract with Vogue USA.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRwI-XbT4uVLDtwhqPmvSh2Pw2ITEB_Mw5ByHcUe1wpTEquxpWrKnTrz1E&s=10
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS1C1Jqtqr6M5iihLg4kpM–ZI6uL41f4D7zw&s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyeZ9vthGRY
A riddle that awaits being solved. Watch this space!
November 4th, 2025 at 23:51