28 Facts About David Coverdale

David Coverdale was born on 22 September 1951 and is an English singer who is best known as the lead vocalist of Whitesnake, a hard rock band he founded in 1978.

In 2016, David Coverdale was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Deep Purple, giving one of the band's induction speeches.

David Coverdale is known in particular for his powerful, blues-tinged voice as well as his vibrant, caring, and loving stage persona.

In 1973 David Coverdale saw an article in a copy of Melody Maker, which said that Deep Purple was auditioning for singers to replace Ian Gillan.

David Coverdale had fronted a local group called The Government, which had played with Deep Purple on the same bill in 1969, so he and the band were familiar with one another, and after sending a tape and later auditioning, David Coverdale, who possesses the vocal range of a leggiero tenor, was admitted into the band, with bassist Glenn Hughes adding his own vocals as well.

Rather than disbanding, David Coverdale was instrumental in persuading the band to continue with American guitarist Tommy Bolin.

In March 1976, at the end of the final show of the tour, David Coverdale reportedly walked off in tears and handed in his resignation, to which he was told there was no band left to quit.

David Coverdale released his first album in February 1977, titled White Snake.

In 1978, David Coverdale released his second solo album Northwinds, which was received much better than the previous album.

In time for the US release of Slide It In, David Coverdale made a calculated attempt at updating Whitesnake's sound and look by recruiting guitarist John Sykes from the remnants of Thin Lizzy.

In 1985, Sykes and David Coverdale started working on new songs for the next album, but David Coverdale soon contracted a serious sinus infection that made recording close to impossible for much of 1986 and which had doctors thinking he might never sing again.

In many period interviews, David Coverdale stated that the next album was a make-or-break album for Whitesnake, and if not successful he would disband Whitesnake altogether.

In 1989, David Coverdale recruited Vandenberg to record a new album, Slip of the Tongue.

At that point David Coverdale had grown uncomfortable with the entity he felt Whitesnake had become, and admitted that he got "caught up in it".

In 1990, David Coverdale sang and co-wrote the song "The Last Note of Freedom" for the Tony Scott film Days of Thunder.

On 26 September 1990, after the last show on the Slip of the Tongue tour in Tokyo, David Coverdale disbanded Whitesnake indefinitely.

Tired of the business in general, the rigors of touring and troubled by his separation and later divorce from Tawny Kitaen, David Coverdale wanted to find other values in life and took "private time to reflect" and re-assess his career direction.

In 1994, David Coverdale assembled a new line-up of Whitesnake to tour for the release of Whitesnake's Greatest Hits album.

In 1997 David Coverdale returned and released Restless Heart.

In 2000, David Coverdale released his first solo album in 22 years, titled Into The Light.

In December 2002, David Coverdale re-reformed Whitesnake for an American and European tour, with Tommy Aldridge on drums, Marco Mendoza, Doug Aldrich, Reb Beach and keyboardist Timothy Drury.

In June 2006 David Coverdale signed a new record deal with Steamhammer Records.

On 11 August 2009 Whitesnake were playing a show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado when David Coverdale suffered some kind of vocal injury.

In early February 2010, David Coverdale announced that his voice had seemed to have fully recovered from the trauma that sidelined him and the band on the Priest tour.

David Coverdale stated he had been recording new demos, aiming for a new Whitesnake album, and that on tape his voice was sounding full and strong.

In May 2015, with the addition of guitar virtuoso Joel Hoekstra the band released The Purple Album with cover versions of the songs that David Coverdale had originally performed with Deep Purple.

David Coverdale was married in 1974 to Julia Borkowski from Poland, and their daughter Jessica was born in 1978.

David Coverdale has lived in Incline Village, Nevada for more than 20 years.