Adrian Vandenberg states no one could have predicted Whitesnake’s self-titled album would be “so big”
Adrian Vandenberg states no one could have predicted Whitesnake’s self-titled album would be “so big”
Vandenberg founder and guitarist Adrian Vandenberg was recently interviewed by Eamon O’Neill for UK’s eonmusic. The guitarist was promoting Vandenberg‘s upcoming new studio album Sin, which will be released on August 25, 2023.
Adrian Vandenberg discussed how he ended up joining Whitesnake back in the ’80s. The guitarist stated (with slight edits):
“It was an interesting situation because John Kalodner, the A&R Man for Geffen Records, he invited me over to talk about new contracts for Vandenberg. My manager and I managed to get rid of the Atlantic contract we had at the time, so I flew over to L.A., and he said; “well, I haven’t been quite honest, because I have two propositions for you, and one is to get rid of the rest of the line-up of Vandenberg and form a new Vandenberg in Los Angeles with top class musicians around you under that name”. I said; “okay, I’ll think about that”. I didn’t want to disappoint those guys, so it was morally complicated for me. And he said; “well, the second proposal is, I would really like you to join Whitesnake“. As people know, David [Coverdale] already asked me two or three times over the years before that, so I started thinking about it. I thought; “man, never in a lifetime I’m going to find a singer of David‘s quality, so might as well join David“.
On whether that’s how he ended up joining Whitesnake, Adrian Vandenberg replied: “Yes, and for a while that was just the two of us. We were a duo, so to speak, because David stopped working with Neil Murray [bass], and John Sykes [guitar], and Aynsley Dunbar [drums] who played on the album [the eponymous 1987 release], so it was just leaving me for a couple of weeks. Then Rudy [Sarzo, bass], and Tommy [Aldridge, drums] and Vivian [Campbell, guitar] got brought into the thing. So it was an interesting period of time because suddenly I find myself in Los Angeles working with David and nobody knew, nobody could predict that that album was going to be so big.”
The guitarist went on to add: “David was a few million dollars in debt to his record company, and he basically didn’t have any money. Over the years, I have read in a couple of magazines, and people said; “well, you made it. You stopped Vandenberg for the money”, and I said; “no!”, because there was no money. David didn’t have any money, and he was honest about it. He said; “sorry, man, I can’t pay you anything”. I said; “I don’t care. I want to make great music together and we’ll see how it goes. If we make great music, then we’re going to do well, and if not, at least we will make great music”. That’s always been my attitude. I’ve never done anything for the money, because if I did, I wouldn’t be as happy as I am.”
You can read the interview with Adrian Vandenberg via eonmusic‘s website.
Whitesnake‘s “Still of The Night” video (from Whitesnake album):
Wikipedia states the following in part about the album Whitesnake (with slight edits):
“The album was a critical and commercial success around the world, eventually selling over 8 million copies in the US alone and thus going eight times Platinum by RIAA in February 1995. It peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 for ten nonconsecutive weeks, barred from the top spot by three different albums, including Michael Jackson‘s Bad, and was more weeks in the Top 5 than any other album in 1987. Whitesnake was the band’s highest-charting album in the US and peaked at No. 8 on the UK Albums Chart.
Four songs were released as official singles, “Still of the Night”, “Here I Go Again ’87”, “Is This Love”, “Give Me All Your Love”, and one as a promotional single, “Crying in the Rain ’87”. Among them, “Here I Go Again” and “Is This Love” are the band’s most successful charting hits, topping the Billboard Hot 100 at number one and two respectively.”