Adrian Vandenberg recently appeared on The Metal Voice, revealing why he turned down David Coverdale’s offer to join Whitesnake.
According to Coverdale, the band’s A&R executive John Kalodner convinced Coverdale that the band needed a ‘guitar hero’ to match Coverdale’s frontman skills for maximum potential. Ultimately, the band reached out to Michael Schenker and Vandenberg as a replacement for their former guitarist, Micky Moody. In the latest interview, Vandenberg told the story of Coverdale’s offer.
The rocker was asked to clarify that he was offered to join Whitesnake before the Thin Lizzy guitarist, John Sykes. Vandenberg affirmed and explained how even he didn’t know he joined Whitesnake:
“Oh, yeah, way before. The first time was in ’82, and the first Vandenberg album was about to get released, and David mentioned in an interview, I always read his interviews because I was a fan, an interview in one of the English music magazines, I think it was Melody Maker, and he said, ‘Well, I got a new guitar player and an unknown best guy called Adrian Vandenberg.'”
Vandenberg shared his initial reaction and explained why he had to turn down the offer:
“And I read the interviewer and go, ‘What?’ I didn’t know about it, and a couple of weeks later, David invited me to come to a Whitesnake show in Holland in Utrecht. He invited me backstage, I got picked up by the tour manager; he said, ‘David would like to meet you,’ and they suggested to join Whitesnake. I said, ‘Well man, I’m a big fan, I can’t do it because this album is coming out of the sign the conflict with Atlantic, I can’t stop the band.'”
Apparently, the Whitesnake frontman offered Vandenberg to join his band not only once, but twice. The guitarist shared the second time:
“And the second time was around the ‘Slide It In’ album. David was recording it in Munchen, Germany. I got asked again and I was… Actually, the second time was when Whitesnake was headlining [in a festival] in England and again David invited me backstage, and he repeated his invitation, but I was recording the second Vandenberg album in Jimmy Page’s studio again, I said, ‘Well, bad timing again. Let’s stay in touch.'”
Although the guitarist declined the frontman’s offer, he eventually disbanded Vandenberg and joined Whitesnake, initially to be a session musician. The band then had Steve Vai join the band for the guitar parts of their studio album ‘Slip of the Tongue,’ due to Vandenberg’s injury with his hand.
After the band’s break-up, the guitarist declined to join the reunion shows to focus on spending time with his daughter and painting. The rocker is now focused on playing and recording with his band, Vandenberg, and recently released a new studio album titled ‘Sin.’
Below, you can see the full interview.
