BLABBERMOUTH.NET
David Coverdale has expressed his exasperation at
DEEP PURPLE for how he and
Glenn Hughes were treated by their former band ahead of their
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2016.
The
WHITESNAKE frontman made the comments while speaking to
Eonmusic about the band's new album,
"Love Songs", which will be released on November 6 via
Rhino Records.
Coverdale said that initially he was going to decline the invitation to attend the event if founder
Ritchie Blackmore was going to turn it down. He explained: "[
Ritchie and I] had been talking about it. We'd been nominated before and never got in, and I said, 'Are you going to go?', and he said, 'Nah.' I said, 'Well, I won't go then.' [
Laughs]".
He continued: "But what had happened in 2016, literally, once it had been announced that we were officially being inducted into it, the current
DEEP PURPLE refused to go if
Ritchie Blackmore was going to be there. And this was, like, 72 hours before, when I was ready to fly with my family. And this cost me, like, $75,000 [or] $85,000, because you have to pay for all the tables apart from the one you're on, and I had my daughter fly in from Germany, my son came out of college. It was a family affair."
The singer, who played with
DEEP PURPLE along with
Hughes from 1973 to 1976, went on: "Suddenly,
Glenn Hughes and I were told, 'Well, we don't want you singing with us.' Initially, I'd spoken to
Ian [
Gillan] about coming up and singing the backgrounds of
'Smoke On The Water', because originally they were going to close the show. So, that suddenly was pulled, the plug. They tried to stop us doing speeches, and my wife was fucking furious, apart from the fact she spent a fortune on posh dresses. [
Laughs] And I said, 'Fuck it! Nobody's going to keep us off.' I got in touch with
Carole,
Ritchie's manager, and I said, 'Tell him to come with me. Nobody's going to fucking touch him. Tell him to come with me,' and he didn't want to do it."
Coverdale added: "The first thing I said when I was up there, was, 'None of us would have been standing here without
Ritchie Blackmore,' and I made sure of that point.
Steve Morse and
Don Airey [current
DEEP PURPLE members] were more complimentary to
Glenn and I than the other guys. We had a blast; we had a fucking great time. I'm very happy that I am who I am, and I just talked to
Glenn the other day about it: 'What the fuck was up
their ass?!'
"So we didn't get to jam, which was fine," he said. "We were back doing press while they were performing, just having a good old time like the unrighteous brothers always do."
Making a final point about
Blackmore's towering contribution to
DEEP PURPLE,
David said: "He doesn't give a shit, and he knows he was responsible for the majority of the music there, and it's true — none of us, none of us would have been on that stage without
Ritchie Blackmore. None of us."
Read the entire interview, where
Coverdale talks about the bucket list guitarists he'd like to work with, and plans for his farewell "gratitude and appreciation tour," at
Eonmusic.
Blackmore is a co-founder of
DEEP PURPLE and wrote many of their most memorable riffs, including
"Smoke On The Water", but he has not played with the group since his 1993 departure.
Morse effectively took over
Blackmore's slot in 1994 and has since been in
DEEP PURPLE longer than
Ritchie.
Despite
Blackmore being a no-show at
Rock Hall, he was given several shoutouts during the induction speeches of the
DEEP PURPLE members in attendance. In addition,
METALLICA drummer
Lars Ulrich, who inducted
DEEP PURPLE into the institution, praised "
Ritchie fucking
Blackmore" for one of the most memorable guitar riffs of all time on
"Smoke On The Water".
DEEP PURPLE's first three lineups were inducted into the
Rock Hall, including
Blackmore, drummer
Ian Paice, keyboardist
Jon Lord, and various singers and bassists —
Rod Evans,
Gillan,
Roger Glover,
Coverdale and
Hughes.
DEEP PURPLE's acceptance speeches included turns from
Gillan,
Glover,
Paice,
Coverdale and
Hughes before the current lineup of
DEEP PURPLE —
Gillan,
Glover,
Paice,
Morse and
Airey — took the stage and played a short set consisting of
"Highway Star",
"Green Onions" (with an image of
Lord behind them),
"Hush" and
"Smoke On The Water".