Coverdale is on the charm offensive in interviews, that's a well-known fact. No matter whether his counterpart is male or female, the singer compliments him, calls it by its first name as often as possible, he even pronounces German names without an accent. Coverdale is empathetic, joking, without changing the serious tone. If he meets people to whom he has already confessed speech and answer, he remembers earlier conversation contents, the meetings also lie years ago.
This binding manner may give an impression of how the 63-year-old Englishman has regained the trust of his landman Ritchie Blackmore. With the notorious Grantler, he actually wanted to set up a joint project. When the implementation became uncertain, his wife encouraged him not to abandon the plan to re-record Deep Purple material, but to realise it with Whitesnake instead.
eclipsed: Although "The Purple Album" consists only of songs from your time with Deep Purple, it has become a real Whitesnake album. Was that intentional?
David Coverdale: The story of the album starts about four years ago when Jon Lord contacted me because he wanted to talk to Ritchie Blackmore and asked me for help. The result of the many discussions about possible projects is now "The Purple Album". An album my wife Cindy encouraged me to release. She said that I had been so intensely involved with my Deep Purple past that it would be a shame to discard the ideas. Instead, she suggested making it an album with a recognizable Whitesnake stamp. And so we didn't try to outdo the originals, because who could be better than Blackmore, Lord, Hughes and Paice?!
eclipsed: So the rumors are true that Lord wanted to revive the MK III occupation?
Coverdale: Jon, who was already suffering from cancer, called me and asked if I had any contact with Ritchie. But I haven't for years. However, I had a private email address from Ritchie's wife. And after some pressure and assurances that his old singer was really behind the mail, she actually called me, apologized for her long hesitation and pressed the handset into Ritchie's hand. And already after a short time we had an intensive conversation again, just like before. And it became more and more concrete.
