To celebrate what would have been iconic MÖTÖRHEAD leader Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister’s 76th birthday, the official MÖTÖRHEAD YouTube channel has released the next in the “The Löst Tapes” series, a previously unreleased concert from Norwich UEA which was recorded on the “Snake Bite Love” tour in 1998. Check it out below or at this location.

Lemmy died in December 2015 at the age of 70 shortly after learning he had been diagnosed with cancer.

He had dealt with several health issues over the last few years of his life, including heart trouble, forcing him to cut back on his famous smoking habits.

MOTÖRHEAD had to cancel a number of shows in 2015 because of Lemmy’s poor health, although the band did manage to complete one final European tour a couple of weeks before his death.

In June 2020, it was announced that Lemmy will get the biopic treatment. The upcoming film, “Lemmy”, will be directed by Greg Olliver, who previously helmed the 2010 documentary of the same name, “Lemmy”.

“Lemmy” will follow Kilmister’s life growing up in Stoke-on-Trent, becoming a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and a member of seminal psychedelic rock band HAWKWIND before forming MOTÖRHEAD.

A custom-made urn containing Lemmy’s ashes is on permanent display in a columbarium at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Former JOURNEY singer Steve Perry has criticized the pitch-correction technology Auto-Tune, saying it is the imperfections of the human voice that make music appealing.

Created by musician and geophysical scientist Dr. Andy Hildebrand in 1997, Auto-Tune is a software program that digitally corrects pitch, allowing singers who sing off key to produce perfectly tuned vocal tracks. Since its introduction, the plugin has become standard equipment in professional recording studios, but the anti-Auto-Tune movement is vocal.

In a new interview with Kyle Meredith, Perry stated that perfect pitch is almost impossible to achieve, and that it is natural flaws and imperfections that make a voice memorable and affecting.

“Auto-Tune has turned everybody into the same singer, which I think is tragic,” he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

“I was told a long time by a very bright musician, he said when you listen to somebody as beautiful as a [Barbra] Streisand, your heart just goes, ‘I can’t believe she can do this. How is she doing this?’ And then you listen to Muddy Waters and you get an emotional touch too. Well, they’re totally two different vocal directions, totally two different vocal timbres, different styles. Well, one is angelic and beautiful and the other has some struggle in it, and it’s the struggle and the imperfections that you pull for too. There’s this human thing.

“Singing is the most primal thing — it really is a very primal form of communication,” Perry added. “And, obviously, it’s gonna be around for a while. Which is why I’m not so happy that people are washing out this description we just talked about with Auto-Tune.”

Proponents of of Auto-Tune have compared the human voice to an instrument, and have argued that Auto-Tune is merely an effect like a vocodor, talk box or a wah-wah pedal.

According to Hildebrand’s Antares Audio Technologies, more than 90 percent of its Auto-Tune units are in the hands of hobbyists; amateur musicians and looking to smooth out their latest basement recording.

Earlier this year, Paul McCartney made headlines when he said he believes John Lennon would have loved using Auto-Tune, which was invented nearly two decades after Lennon’s death in 1980. “I’d say that if John Lennon had had an opportunity, he would have been all over it,” McCartney said. “Not so much to fix your voice, but just to play with it.”

Perry’s holiday album “The Season”, came out November 5 via Fantasy Records.

One of the most iconic voices in rock and roll history, Perry has captivated generations with the sheer power of his range and extraordinary warmth of his tone. His phenomenal career has included landing on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” list, fronting JOURNEY during the band’s most massively successful era, and gaining entry into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

ASHES OF ARES, the band featuring former ICED EARTH members Matt Barlow and Freddie Vidales, will release its third studio album, “Emperors And Fools”, on January 21, 2022 via ROAR! Rock Of Angels. The LP ends with the eleven-minute-long epic “Monster’s Lament” which features the long-imagined joining of forces between Barlow and another former ICED EARTH singer, Tim “Ripper” Owens.

Speaking to Metalheads Forever about how the collaboration with Owens came about, Matt said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Tim and I and Freddie, we keep in contact through social media and all that stuff anyway. And we have a lot of like interests and things, obviously, outside of that connection with ICED EARTH. We’re all in this together right now, especially going through COVID and all that.

“Tim does music for a living. So we just thought it might be cool. We’ve been talking about doing a collaboration for a while. It just seemed like the right time because we could actually pay him as a musician and get him to participate. And we did that for a couple of musicians that had done guest spots.

“We just thought that this was a good idea,” he continued. “This was a song that actually Freddie has had for a while. Freddie wrote the lyrics for it. He had the concept, this idea of a duet-type thing. It’s a duet, but not really. I mean, it is, but it’s two separate characters — Tim and I are playing two separate characters. And it’s quite lengthy, but it’s really cool too. It’s got the face-ripping parts and then more mellow stuff and kind of coming back up. It’s over 11 minutes long. I think it really is a very cool composition. And I hope that people like it.

“Freddie had lyrics but he didn’t necessarily have the vocal melodies, so I worked the melodies out,” Matt added. “And then the stuff that I worked out, I worked out for Tim and I and then I gave it to Tim. But I didn’t hold him in kind of contraints — I didn’t say, ‘Hey, man, use this kind of voice’ or ‘Do this.’ I just wanted him to do Tim. Whatever struck him the way that it struck him and just kind of following at least the template and staying within certain boundaries but letting him be himself. And I think that really played off. I was able to kind of do something almost point-counterpoint to what he’s doing. So Tim’s doing Tim and Matt’s doing Matt, and so hopefully it hits people in the right way that we were trying to create something that was ebb and flow. We’re not competing against each other. We’re weaving it so that it’s making a cohesive song with different characters involved. So I’m hoping that people dig it.”

“Emperors And Fools” will be released as a digipak CD, limited turquoise/black splatter vinyl (300 copies worldwide), limited red/black splatter vinyl (300 copies worldwide) and digital streaming and download format.

“Emperors And Fools” was produced by ASHES OF ARES, and mixed and mastered by Byron Filson at Villain Recording in Phoenix, Arizona. The cover artwork was created by Kamil Pietruczynik.

Track listing:

01. A City In Decay (intro)
02. I Am The Night
03. Our Last Sunrise
04. Primed
05. Where God Fears To Go
06. Emperors And Fools
07. By My Blade
08. What Tomorrow Will Bring
09. The Iron Throne
10. Gone
11. Throne Of Iniquity (CD-exclusive track)
12. Monster’s Lament

ASHES OF ARES is:

Matt Barlow – Vocals
Freddie Vidales – Guitars, Bass

Guests:

* Drums on all tracks by Van Williams
* Keyboard intro composed by Jonah Weingarten
* First solo “The Iron Throne” by Wiley Arnett of SACRED REICH
* Second solo “The Iron Throne” by Charlie Mark
* Second solo “Monster’s Lament” by Bill Hudson
* Guest vocals “Monster’s Lament” by Tim “Ripper” Owens
* Keyboards “Monster’s Lament” by Brian Trainor

In December 2020, ASHES OF ARES released the 12-inch black vinyl EP, “Throne Of Iniquity”. Limited to 300 copies, the EP contained one new ASHES OF ARES song, “Throne Of Iniquity”, as well as two cover tracks, CHICAGO’s “25 Or 6 To 4” and KANSAS’s “Dust In The Wind”.

ASHES OF ARES’s second album, “Well Of Souls”, came out in November 2018 via ROAR! Rock Of Angels. It was the follow-up to ASHES OF ARES’s self-titled debut album, which was released in September 2013 via Nuclear Blast.

Three years ago, Barlow told “The Classic Metal Show” about ASHES OF ARES: “Sometimes it’s hard to escape the comparisons [to ICED EARTH], because my voice is still my voice no matter what, and I’m still gonna deliver things emotionally like I have before, so people are always gonna draw comparisons with ICED EARTH, and that’s fine; I’m completely cool with that. I’m proud of my time in ICED EARTH, proud of everything that I’ve done with them, proud of them right now, going on and kicking ass. So I don’t have any problem with that whatsoever — the comparisons. But that being said, I want ASHES to have its own identity as well. I think, again, as my writing partner, Freddie deserves that — he deserves to have his own identity in ASHES — and I think that’s really important; that’s what we’re striving to do. And also, hey, man, there’s already an ICED EARTH out there; they’re touring and they’re kicking ass, as I stated before. Why would I wanna do ICED EARTH stuff?”

MASTODON drummer Brann Dailor has described the recent Astroworld concert tragedy as “a horrible situation.”

Ten people, including a 9-year-old and two teenagers, died while many more were injured after a crowd surge during Travis Scott’s performance at the Houston music festival. The rapper has since been critized for appearing to keep the show going despite pleas of help from the crowd. Although he paused a few times, many are saying this response was not enough. In the weeks the incident, dozens of lawsuits have been filed and a slew of questions remain unanswered about what went wrong.

Dailor addressed the deadly event in a recent interview with “The What” podcast. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’s kind of an anomaly. Fortunately, it’s not something that happens a lot; it’s pretty rare. So that aspect of it is… It’s not like it’s rampant: ‘Oh my God. People are just being crushed at every show. There’s people dying. Oh my God. This is insane. What’s going on? And something needs to change.’

“I guess the writing was on the wall,” he continued. “I haven’t read super deep into what exactly went on. And I think that there’s an investigation into what was happening there, so I don’t know all the ins and outs of it. It’s a horrible, horrible tragedy.

“I trust the people that come out to our shows to be mindful of each other. And I trust the security at the venues that we play. They’re a little smaller than probably what that show, what was happening there at that festival. The festival seemed a little further out of control of what we can do.

“Our tour manager has a security meeting every show and they talk about what needs to go down and how we want things done. So it’s a little more in our control when it’s our show. When it’s a festival, it’s a little bit out of our control.

“I can see how easily it could happen,” Brann added. “I remember myself, going to see… I was in the pit for RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE in 1993 at Lollapalooza, and a bunch of people’s legs just kind of got locked. There was a bunch of people in front of me that were trying to get out of there because it just got real tight real fast and a whole bunch of people fell down and I was one of them. I remember my face just going right into the dirt and people were just stepping on my head. I’m, like, ‘I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die in this pit. This is insane.’ I finally pulled myself up out of there. Nobody helped me. It was really scary. So you can see how it can happen. It can happen like that in an instant. And then there’s nothing anybody can do. What a horrible, horrible situation.”

All ten victims’ cause of death was listed as “compression asphyxia,” according to documents from the Houston medical examiner’s office. One victim had a contributing cause of “combined toxic effects of cocaine, methamphetamine, and ethanol.” All deaths were ruled accidental.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Live Nation Entertainment, the concert promoter behind Astroworld, is now under investigation by a congressional panel.

The House Oversight Committee announced Wednesday that it is launching a bipartisan investigation into “the roles and responsibilities for Astroworld Festival, security planning for the event, and the steps Live Nation Entertainment took after being made aware that law enforcement had declared the event a ‘mass casualty event.'”

Last month, MASTODON was announced as one of the “Best Metal Performance” nominees at the 64th annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on January 31, 2022, at the Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) in Los Angeles, California. The progressive metallers were nominated for their song “Pushing The Tides”, the first single from their latest album, “Hushed And Grim”, which came out in October.

The follow-up to 2017’s “Emperor Of Sand”, “Hushed And Grim”was recorded at West End Sound, which is located inside of Ember City, the rehearsal facility that members of MASTODON manage in Atlanta. Helming the effort was Grammy-winning producer/mixer/engineer David Bottrill, who has previously worked with MUSE, DREAM THEATER and TOOL, among many others.

The “Hushed And Grim” artwork was created by longtime MASTODON collaborator Paul Romano, who also designed the sleeves for “Crack The Skye”, “Blood Mountain”, “Leviathan” and more.

“Emperor Of Sand” debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. That LP was nominated for the 2018 Grammy Award for “Best Rock Album,” and its opening track, “Sultan’s Curse”, won the Grammy Award for “Best Metal Performance.”

In a new interview with “Diary Of The Madmen – The Ultimate Ozzy Podcast”, bassist Rudy Sarzo, who recently rejoined QUIET RIOT after an 18-year absence, was asked if there are any plans to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band’s classic third album, “Metal Health”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[Next] year we’re gonna be celebrating the recording of the album, ‘Metal Health’. But the following year, in 2023, we’re going out promoting 40 years of ‘Metal Health’.”

As for whether fans can expect QUIET RIOT to perform “Metal Health” in its entirety from front to back, Sarzo said: “It’s an interesting thought. I guess if you’re gonna present it as performing it front to back and it’s not sequenced properly from front to back, even though we’ll probably wind up doing that and we do kind of like an arrangement of… For example, we do — we have been doing this for over 20 years now — starting with the riff to ‘Metal Health’; that’s how the set begins. We started doing that way back — kind of like a teaser. Then we go into the first song of the set. And then at the end we do [the song] ‘Metal Health’. It’s kind of like what they call an ‘overture,’ except the overture is bits and pieces of all the music in a classical performance.

“I did something like that [when I was playing with DIO],” he continued. “It was a ‘Holy Diver’ celebration — either a 20th or 25th anniversary. [‘Holy Diver – Live’] was recorded in 2005, so I think it was the 20th anniversary [of the original album]. But anyways, it was an anniversary. And with DIO, we did play ‘Holy Diver’ from front to back. So we did do that. And it was interesting, because we went into it, we actually played a lot of RAINBOW. We opened up with ‘Tarot Woman’ from RAINBOW. And then I believe we did some BLACK SABBATH — maybe, maybe not. But we definitely then, after we did the last song of the record ‘Holy Diver’, we finished it off with more material.”

Rudy was one of the members of QUIET RIOT’s “Metal Health” lineup. He played bass on the classic LP, which sold over ten million copies and spawned the hits “Cum On Feel The Noize” and “Metal Health” and on the follow-up record “Condition Critical”.

Sarzo appeared in the most notable music videos in the MTV age and toured with the band until 1985 and again from 1997 to 2003. During his years out of the band, Sarzo was a member of OZZY OSBOURNE, WHITESNAKE, DIO, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, QUEENSRŸCHE and THE GUESS WHO.

Joining Sarzo in QUIET RIOT’s current lineup are guitarist Alex Grossi, vocalist Jizzy Pearl and drummer Johnny Kelly.

Drummer Frankie Banali, who joined QUIET RIOT in 1982 and played on “Metal Health”, died in August 2020 after a 16-month battle with pancreatic cancer. A month after Banali’s death, QUIET RIOT announced that it would carry on.

Grossi was in the last version of the band, from 2004 through 2007, before founding singer Kevin DuBrow passed away, and was asked by Banali to return in 2010.

QUIET RIOT went through two vocalists — Mark Huff and Scott Vokoun — before settling on Pearl in 2013. Pearl announced his exit from QUIET RIOT in October 2016 and was briefly replaced by Seann Nichols, who played only five shows with the group before the March 2017 arrival of “American Idol” finalist James Durbin. Pearl returned to QUIET RIOT in September 2019.

For a list of upcoming QUIET RIOT shows, visit QuietRiot.Band.

Sarzo discussed his return to QUIET RIOT in a recent interview with Adika Live!. He said: “My decision, in addition to [it] being Frankie’s request that I return to the band, was a decision that I had to meditate on it, because it is that important. Not meditate whether it was the right decision to make or not — no, that wasn’t the point — it was to meditate about the timing of it. Because it could not be an abrupt decision that you drop everything you’re doing and you change the band.

“Regina [Frankie’s widow] and I, we sat and we talked about it, and we said, ‘Okay, the best thing to do is to let everybody fulfill their commitments.’ Because I have commitments to the band that I’ve been playing in for the last five years, THE GUESS WHO. And I wasn’t about to tell them, ‘Hey, I’m outta here, guys. Good luck.’ I’ve never done that. So I have commitments with them. And QUIET RIOT has commitments with [longtime bassist] Chuck Wright. And we felt that the only thing that we can do, really — [we felt] that all these commitments must be fulfilled so our agreements with everybody is fulfilled.”

Rudy went on to say that he has been “making the transition” and “embracing again the whole QUIET RIOT consciousness” by going “back and playing the songs” again. “And actually, it’s been wonderful because, I’ve gotta tell you, to be able to go back to something that you did 40 years ago with the musician I am today, I’m looking at the songs a little bit different, as far as my own contributions,” he said. “Of course, it’s not gonna be something that is gonna turn into completely something else, but there are certain note choices that I can improve on.”

Prior to his recent exit from the band, Wright had served off and on with QUIET RIOT for nearly 40 years, appeared on nine albums, and is known as the bassist for QUIET RIOT’s mega-hit “Metal Health” (Bang Your Head) and “Don’t Wanna Let You Go”. He was a contributing songwriter on 1986’s “QRIII” and appeared in the band’s video for “The Wild And The Young”, among others. Wright had been one of the band’s longest touring and recording members.

††† (CROSSES) — DEFTONES frontman Chino Moreno’s project with FAR guitarist Shaun Lopez — has released its cover of Q Lazzarus’s “Goodbye Horses” as a digital single. The track was previously covered by ††† (CROSSES) back in 2014.

Earlier this week, Lopez confirmed that ††† (CROSSES) had signed a new deal with Warner Records.

Prior to “Goodbye Horses”‘ digital arrival, ††† (CROSSES)’s last release was a cover of “The Beginning Of The End” by ’90s electropop band CAUSE & EFFECT. Made available last December, it was the first new music from the alternative band since its 2014-released, self-titled record.

Moreno told The Pulse Of Radio how he got involved with the group in the first place, which was started by Lopez and Chuck Doom. “Shaun and Chuck were working together for a while before I came into the picture, and I just so happened to come in one day,” he said. “These guys were, you know, writing some stuff and I heard it and I liked it right off the bat, and I sort of weaseled my way [Laughs] into the project. I think their idea was to get a bunch of different singers to, you know, just write different tracks, and… it didn’t happen.”

††† (CROSSES)’s CD included the songs from the band’s two previously released EPs along with five new tracks.

Moreno told Rolling Stone about ††† (CROSSES)’ sound: “By listening to the music, you can tell that a lot of the influences come from the new-wave era. That was basically the scene that I came up on. I just happened to wind up in a metal band when I was 15.”

Asked about ††† (CROSSES)’s heavy use of the cross in the band’s imagery and songtitles, Moreno said: “I think a lot of bands are influenced by religious symbolism and not even necessarily Christianity or Catholicism. Our band definitely doesn’t follow any of those. It’s more of the aesthetic. The art, the way it works. The initial name of the band was going to be HOLY GHOST. But at the last minute, another band came out with the name, so Shaun suggested CROSSES. It’s a very strong symbol. Three crosses is great. It’s great to look at, there’s three of us in the band.”

††† (CROSSES) made its live debut in January 2012 at The Glass House in Pomona, California.

CANNIBAL CORPSE vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher has released “Acid Vat”, the first single from his upcoming solo album, titled “Corpsegrinder”. Due on February 4, the 10-song effort was co-produced by Nick Bellmore (DEE SNIDER, KINGDOM OF SORROW) and Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED) and will be made available through Jasta’s new label, Perseverance Music Group.

“Acid Vat” features a guest appearance by Fisher’s CANNIBAL CORPSE bandmate Erik Rutan.

Corpsegrinder comments: “When Jamey approached me to do this record, I was fired up to get into the studio with Erik Rutan and record the vocals. It’s a mix of death metal, thrash and hardcore, and it sounds heavy as hell!!! I’m really excited about it, and I can’t wait for the world to hear it!!!”

Jasta adds: “Working with George has been a dream come true, he’s one of the best dudes in metal and one of the most brutal voices EVER. He’s outdone himself on this album!”

Throughout the years, Fisher has become a beloved figure in the metal scene and beyond, having one of heavy music’s most brutal voices. In addition to having spent more than a quarter of a century fronting CANNIBAL CORPSE, he has been involved in several side projects, including PATHS OF POSSESSION and SERPENTINE DOMINION. He has also guested on various recordings from such acts as SUFFOCATION and SUICIDE SILENCE.

Earlier this year, Fisher told Kerrang! magazine about how he first became interested in extreme metal: “I went from BLACK SABBATH to [JUDAS] PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN, but when we discovered the heaviest shit, it was SLAYER and VENOM and CELTIC FROST and VOIVOD and POSSESSED — it all hit us at once. We were listening to heavy metal and then they dropped a fucking building on us. One of my earliest memories is my friend Steve playing the MERCYFUL FATE EP, and I’d never heard anything like it. King Diamond is my favorite singer of all time, and when we first heard that EP, it was, ‘What the fuck was that?’ I started getting demos and exploring more underground bands. When the CANNIBAL CORPSE demo came out, I believe I was already in my first band, which was called CORPSEGRINDER. We named the band after a DEATH song.”

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Last week, Metal Pilgrim traveled from Kyiv, Ukraine to San Francisco, California for METALLICA’s 40th-anniversary concerts and to experience the METALLICA “San Francisco Takeover.” His 19-minute video report can be seen below.

Says Metal Pilgrim: “The best part? Meeting so many like-minded people at the many events @Metallica organised during the Takeover, including the volunteer opportunities with All Within My Hands Foundation @AllWithinMyHandsFoundation and many parties and activities planned.

“This video does not cover the METALLICA concerts as much as the events around it, yet a special episode on the concerts will be released in the future.”

Featured in the video:

00:00 – Let’s go!
00:32 – MTF merch and GIVEAWAY
02:45 – Pre party & anxiety
03:31 – Finally! The first show
05:32 – Afterparty in the cold
06:45 – Sleep in? NO, clean a beach w/ AWMH
11:04 – 4 hours in line to meet Ross Halfin
13:29 – Brunch with Blackened whisky
14:35 – Reflections…
16:34 – Getting PUMPED with Blackened whisky
17:35 – The second show

METALLICA’s two 40th-anniversary shows, which were held in at San Francisco’s Chase Center on December 17 and December 19, featured different setlists. They were part of the aforementioned “San Francisco Takeover”, a four-day citywide celebration of the band’s 40th anniversary that also included a film festival, photo exhibit and curated lineup of smaller venue shows featuring other acts.

The 40th-anniversary shows marked METALLICA’s return to Chase Center for the first time since the September 2019 “S&M²” concerts that also served as the venue’s grand opening. Those two shows grossed more than $4.1 million over the course of its two nights, according to reports submitted to Pollstar’s Boxoffice, and the band ranked at No. 4 on Pollstar’s worldwide touring chart that same year with a global gross of $175 million.

Formed in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield, METALLICA has become one of the most influential and successful rock bands in history, having sold nearly 120 million albums worldwide and generating more than 2.5 billion streams while playing to millions of fans on literally all seven continents. The band’s several multi-platinum albums include “Kill ‘Em All”, “Ride The Lightning”, “Master Of Puppets”, “… And Justice For All”, “Metallica” (commonly referred to as The Black Album), “Load”, “Reload”, “St. Anger”, “Death Magnetic” and “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct”, released in November 2016 and charting at No. 1 in 32 countries.

METALLICA’s awards and accolades include nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, multiple MTV Video Music Awards, and its 2009 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. In June of 2018, the band was awarded one of the most prestigious musical honors in the world: Sweden’s Polar Music Prize.

WHITESNAKE frontman David Coverdale has once again donned a Santa Claus outfit to as he shared a new “Merry Christmas” video message for his fans. Check it out below.

Coverdale, who turned 70 in September, recently opened up about his plans to retire from touring after the band’s next batch of concerts around the world, telling the “Appetite For Distortion” podcast: “I planned to retire on the 2020 tour when I was 69. I thought that was the perfect age for the singer of WHITESNAKE to call it a day. But sadly, it was not to be, as we know; other events were in store. So now the t-shirt designs don’t resonate as well for 70. But it’s mind-blowing to me that I’m preparing my farewell tour. And it is — make no mistake, this is the farewell tour. I’m 70. It’s a very physically challenging thing for me to do at the best of times. But it’s very important for me to achieve completion and to express my appreciation and gratitude to all the people — the millions of people over the years — who’ve supported me for five decades, fifty years. It blows my mind — it really does.”

“A lot of my peers and contemporaries are on their 20th retirement tour. I don’t intend to plan that,” he clarified. “I must explain, though — it’s me, just David Coverdale, who’s retiring from touring at that level. WHITESNAKE will still make projects. I’ve been writing music all through COVID. I wrote some beautiful new ideas. I have ideas in case Jimmy [Page] wants to do anything — write on FaceTime, which is an alien concept to him. But all songs that we can utilize for a WHITESNAKE project. But the music of WHITESNAKE will continue. That’s most important that people know. I’m just stopping touring at this level — that’s it.”

According to Coverdale, there could very well be new music from WHITESNAKE in the years following his retirement from the road.

“I’ve got a bunch of ideas for WHITESNAKE, so we may have another project there — I don’t know — without the pressure of having to go on tour,” he said. “We have such a solid fanbase, I think fans are gonna buy the record with or without a tour. This is just emotionally for me to be able to go out there and do stuff. And also, you’ve gotta remember, we’ve started this legacy series of box sets, similar to the 25th anniversary. We have, I think, the 35th anniversary of ‘Slide It In’; the 30th anniversary of the WHITESNAKE ’87 album; we have a very special project planned to accompany the tour; we have another box set planned for this time next year. And then in 2023, we have the 30th anniversary of COVERDALE/PAGE, and the 50th anniversary of me joining DEEP PURPLE. Mind-blowing. So it’s not like I’m retiring. [Laughs]

“Thankfully, physically and vocally, I still have the goods,” he continued. “As my wife reminds me, I was actually touring up to spring in 2020, before lockdown. And I was 68 years old, and I’m still kicking ass. Of course, having an amazing band and an incredible and enthusiastic audience gives you that energizing aspect. It’s just the traveling is challenging for me. But music is oxygen to me. I’m not gonna go fishing or take up crochet; I’m gonna definitely be doing projects. I’m lucky enough to have my own studio. It’s the best of a bunch of worlds. And I have to thank people in person around the world for helping me to be in this position that I am in my life at this time. I don’t wanna do it through a video [on] social media: ‘Sorry we can’t get out there, but thank you for 50 years.’ That would be heartbreaking for me.”

Coverdale had both his knees replaced with titanium in 2017 after suffering from degenerative arthritis. He later explained that he was in so much pain with arthritis in his knees that it hampered his ability to perform live.

WHITESNAKE had been touring in support of its latest album, “Flesh & Blood”, which was released in May 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.

This past July, WHITESNAKE announced that it had enlisted Croatian singer/multi-instrumentalist Dino Jelusick for its upcoming tour. Jelusick is a member of multi-platinum selling band TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA and was previously part of DIRTY SHIRLEY (with George Lynch), ANIMAL DRIVE and recorded with many others.