Adrian Vandenberg recently spoke with TotalRock about the subject of his upcoming album, “Sin,” which is scheduled for release on August 25. The subject of Whitesnake’s effect on Vandenberg’s music came up during the chat, which caused the guitarist to go back to certain comments made by David Coverdale.
Adrian was asked if he believed Whitesnake fans would enjoy the forthcoming album, and he responded:
“I sure hope so because, you know, I’ve been a fan of Whitesnake way before I joined Whitesnake, and we made quite some cool music together over the years. It’s interesting that you mentioned it because when the ‘2020’ album came out, quite a number of people said, ‘Well, it sounds at least just as much like Whitesnake as Vandenberg.’ Yeah, it’s called Vandenberg, but they forget I was in Whitesnake for almost thirty years, and early Vandenberg days was just four years, you know. It would be very weird if it wouldn’t have any influence on it.”
The guitarist continued by outlining Coverdale’s preferences for the music of his band:
“Also, when I joined Whitesnake at the time, David said, ‘Vandenberg has a couple of songs on them Vandenberg albums that I wish we could have done for Whitesnake.’ Like ‘Burning Heart,’ ‘Your Love Is In Vain,’ ‘Wait.’ All Vandenberg songs could be Whitesnake songs. That’s why David and I always […] connection in writing songs together.”
The two artists have occasionally argued regarding the sound and music of Whitesnake, though. In an interview with EonMusic published a year after the band republished “Restless Heart” in 2021, Vandenberg discussed the topic.
He responded when asked if he liked the new edition by saying:
“Yeah, a little bit. The thing was, we ended up in a disagreement about the direction of it. So Joel [Hoekstra] doubled the rhythms that I did on the album to beef it up a little bit.”
After joining the band in 1987, Adrian Vandenberg collaborated with Coverdale on all the songs on the “Slip of the Tongue” and “Restless Heart” albums. Whitesnake is now waiting to resume their final tour, which was postponed in 2022 due to health concerns.
