David Coverdale recently appeared as a guest on RHINO’s Totally 80s podcast and explained why he would never consider being a celebrity judge in a singing competition.
The host initially asked the Whitesnake vocalist whether he knew the band’s ‘Here I Go Again’ was covered on ‘American Idol’ this year. He said in his response:
“I have no idea of this year, but I was asked to do ‘American Idol’ way back when… But no, I don’t want to judge people on that level.”
Later in the conversation, the host also told the singer that Blake Shelton would be departing from the show after this season, leaving an empty red chair. If he were interested, she’d love to see him on the show. She also mentioned that she once interviewed Shelton, and when she asked him who he’d like to take his place, he mentioned David Lee Roth, showing his willingness to have a rocker fill his role. Coverdale said in his response:
“I have no idea what he [Blake Shelton] wants, and really, it’s nothing to do with [me]. I’m quite happy with what I’m achieving without all that stuff. It’s just, for me, to ruin somebody’s life’s dream by being negative or, you know…”
The rocker then recalled his own experience in his early career and shared how it felt:
“It’s just I’ve had an experience when I was starting out where an engineer in a demo recording studio was completely unhelpful, and it could have stopped me from going forward pursuing music. It was so devastating.”
In the past, ‘American Idol’ saw some rockers like Steven Tyler from Aerosmith and Gene Simmons from KISS as the judges. Tyler’s decision to join the show surprised both fans and his bandmates. He was on the show for two seasons, and it made him more popular and showed his independence from his band.
You can watch the rest of Coverdale’s chat below.
