WHITESNAKE's DAVID COVERDALE: 'A Lot Of The New Rock Bands Don't Really Have Guitar Heroes'

In a recent interview with Subculture Entertainment, WHITESNAKE frontman David Coverdale was asked how he goes about picking a setlist for the band's live performances. He replied (hear audio below): "I'm involved with a bunch of guys who care genuinely about what we do. So I want people to express themselves individually.

"If you listen to [WHITESNAKE's latest album] 'Flesh & Blood', you can hear that the individual performances are all incredible," he continued. "The rhythm section is a separate entity and the incredible guitar interplay is like a beautiful sonic tapestry. And I want that in performance that people get to see.

"A lot of the new rock bands don't really have guitar heroes, and, to me, it's fucking synonymous with rock. And also the sexy 'roll.' I'm not interested in just being a rock band; I wanna be a rock and roll band. I like the sex [element] in rock, which that's the 'roll' aspect. The whole expression 'rock and roll' was [coined] in the blues and jazz days as a sex act: 'C'mon, baby, let's go and rock and roll.' Nothing to do with fucking guitars. [Laughs]

"Yeah, putting the setlist together… You won't be disappointed, I can guarantee," David added. "We're definitely featuring some of the new songs. We found stuff like 'Hey You (You Make Me Rock)' and 'Shut Up & Kiss Me' are huge crowd[-participation] songs. All of 'em. And 'Trouble Is Your Middle Name' — they just fit right into the live performance. It's as if we've been doing 'em for 30 years. But what it's done is refreshed the older songs. So you come out of doing 'Trouble Is Your Middle Name' and then play 'Slow An' Easy' or 'Slide It In', and those songs are amped up even more because you just played something fresh and new. So it just feeds itself. And the crowd and the fans of WHITESNAKE, from what I can see on social media, are extraordinarily proud of the fact that their favorite band is still creating relevant rock and roll music that stands up to the biggest successes we had 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. And that's one of the very validating things [about WHITESNAKE today]."

WHITESNAKE will team up with SAMMY HAGAR & THE CIRCLE and NIGHT RANGER for a summer 2020 U.S. tour. Produced by Live Nation, the outing will kick off July 9 in West Palm Beach, Florida at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre and make stops in Tampa, Cincinnati, Dallas, Phoenix and more, before wrapping September 20 in Chula Vista, California at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre.

"Flesh & Blood" was released in May 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl. The disc followed the 2011 critically acclaimed studio album "Forevermore" and 2015's "The Purple Album", a reimagining of DEEP PURPLE classics from Coverdale's time in that band.