Former Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg revealed the details behind Vivian Campbell’s firing from the band. During a conversation with Real Music With Gary Stuckey, the former guitarist clarified the incident and addressed the rumors of him asking David Coverdale to fire him.
The rumor suggests that Vandenberg asked Coverdale to fire Campbell since he didn’t want two guitarists in the band. The guitarist clarified the misunderstanding with the following words:
“Well, no. I don’t know where that myth came from, because I always knew that Whitesnake was a two-guitar band. I think that comes from Vivian. Vivian was not a very happy camper and in Whitesnake. So that had a lot to do with the fact that David stopped working with Vivian.”
He then shared the real reason behind the former guitarists’ firing:
“But the main reason was that Vivian’s wife was a pain in the ass to everybody — to the sound guy, to the light guy, to the management, to everything; it was getting really complicated. And Vivian didn’t like it, apparently, that David couldn’t find… The songs that Vivian suggested, David didn’t think they were suitable for Whitesnake. So in the end, it didn’t work out.”
Vandenberg clarified that the rumors were not true and had nothing to do with anything between Campbell and him:
“And I heard from various fans at the time that Vivian thought I had something to do with David not wanting to keep working with Vivian. I had nothing to do with it. I heard it from the tour manager that they sent Vivian home. I didn’t know. I thought I got along fine with Vivian. I didn’t know.”
Although the rocker thought Campbell and him were fine in terms of friendship, it turned out that Campbell, too, thought he was fired due to Vandenberg’s dissatisfaction with two guitarists. Vandenberg was asked if he spoke to Campbell to make things clear after he was fired, to which he expressed his disappointment, stating that he hopes they can talk one day and that it still hurts for Campbell to have thought that he had anything to do with it.
Earlier, Vandenberg opened up about the same matter and revealed that Coverdale didn’t want to work with the former guitarist because he was moody since Coverdale chose to work with Vandenberg while recording, and the atmosphere didn’t sit right.
Below, you can see the short snippet from the recent interview.
