David Coverdale is the Saltburn lad who went on to front two of the world’s biggest rock bands. Matt Westcott talks to the 61-yearold as he prepares to bring Whitesnake to Newcastle next month

I’M laid lower than a snake’s belly when the phone rings. A virus, courtesy of my youngest son, has knocked me for six, but I’m determined to take the call. After all it’s not every day a true rock God calls your house. “Poor bugger,” says Coverdale, on hearing my plight, his concern genuine. “My family and I were ill for the whole of January.

How come I always put on weight when I’m ill?”

With that in mind, I ask how, having entered his 60s, he prepares for the kind of gruelling schedule that awaits him over the next few months.

“About three months beforehand, I start doubling up on my cardio,” says the singer, whose calling from his home on the shores of Lake Tahoe in California. “Tone the love handles, which have sadly settled over the last six months, and vocal workouts of course. I have a steam room at home, so I steam regularly and keep the pipes hydrated. I use room temperature steam when I travel and swimming, I swim a lot under water.”

He tells me a tale of how Frank Sinatra, while working with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, was amazed at how long the legendary jazz musician could hold a note on his trombone.

“He followed him and saw he swam underwater a lot to increase his lung capacity and I have done that myself,” says Coverdale. “So by the time I get to rehearsals in Los Angeles, in a month’s time, I’ll be ready to rock.”

How times have changed. In the early 1970s, Coverdale was lead singer with Deep Purple, after the departure of Ian Gillan. When they folded he formed his own band, Whitesnake, going on to sell millions of albums to those with a love for ear-splitting vocals and screaming guitar solos. “Nobody really worked out and prepared for tours, I can’t even remember hearing the word ‘treadmill’ until the late 1980s,” he says, admitting he and his fellow rock stars “seriously indulged” in those days.

So, with that in mind, it’s somewhat surprising that he is still bounding onto the stage in 2013.

“It wasn’t part of a plan,” he says. “If you had told me five years ago I would be doing this in my 60s I would have laughed and ordered another pint.”

Whitesnake has been an on and off affair for Coverdale, for various reasons, not the least the birth of his son, Jasper.

He admits to having put the band ahead of his daughter, Jessica, who was born during the time of Whitesnake’s first album, Trouble, and was determined not to repeat the mistake.

Facing the 25th anniversary of the band this year, it seemed a good reason to dust off the guitars.

Two albums followed, Good To Be Bad in 2008 and Forevermore in 2011.

Albums with songs that he can relate to today in a way he no longer can with some of his back catalogue.

“Those were all musical diaries of experiences that I was having at that particular time in my life,” he says of some of the earlier recordings.

“My first marriage promoted lyrics like Fool for your Lovin’ and Don’t Break My Heart Again. It was fascinating how oblivious that relationship was that provided so much inspiration for those songs.”

Coverdale now talks about the perfect partner at home, his authoress wife, Cindy, and another in the recording studio.

“My song-writing partner and guitarist Doug Aldrich and I are great friends and that extends into very, very natural conversational musical exchanges,” he says. “We write together extremely well. It’s almost effortless. Most of the stuff we do is fresh and, thank God, has been embraced by all generations of Whitesnake fans.

“My inspiration has always been the extraordinary spectrum of love in all its manifest naughtiness, gloriousness, celebration and heartbreak. That’s what inspires me and I gave up fighting that years ago. To me, it’s an inexhaustible supply of themes.”

DESPITE having left Saltburn many years ago, Coverdale still considers himself a Yorkshireman and is proud of his roots.

“I start every day with two mugs of Yorkshire Gold Tea, so I am immediately umbilically connected,”

he says. “I am totally conscious of that.

I travel everywhere, all over the world with my Yorkshire Gold, I am a huge ambassador for it, but have never had a thank you, the cheeky buggers.

“Somebody started Yorkshire bottled water and my assistant called up and asked ‘Do you ship?’,” continues Coverdale, adopting broad Yorkshire tones. “‘Oh yes’, came the reply ‘30 miles radius’.” He’ll be able to stock up when the circus reaches Newcastle. Even though Coverdale and co will be well into their tour, he says its impossible to become complacent in a band like Whitesnake.

“We are very fortunate that, wherever we walk out on stage in the world, they are familiar with Whitesnake and we are greeted with such a phenomenal welcoming roar it is just an inspiration to do your best,” he says. “I am 61 and I sit down and go ‘Man, I am still doing what I love and being rewarded for it, it’s astonishing’.”

With that, it’s time to wind up the interview, but not before he asks once more about my health and shares a potential remedy with me.

“Are you a drinker? Get yourself some Bushmills.

It is the best I have ever found for flu and colds,” he says. “A bit of lemon, honey, hot water and a generous supply of original Bushmills and you will be as right as rain flower.”

Cold cures from a rock God, who would have thought it?

  • Whitesnake, Journey and Thunder will take to the stage at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena on May 22