I've always loved music, very simply, as a vehicle to express myself and that hasn't changed.

I've always loved music, very simply, as a vehicle to express myself and that hasn't changed.

When I was very, very young, seven years old, I heard there was school where you could go to learn to draw. That was my absolute driven passion, to become an artist or a painter. So the romantic realist in me, I studied to be a graphic design artist and an art teacher.

I stand by every decision I've made throughout my career and my life, good or bad, up or down.

The critics love to get out their knives and dine on Coverdale. But the worse the criticism gets, the more successful I become.

With Whitesnake it would have been inappropriate for me to have played Deep Purple songs, although I did at the beginning because I didn't have enough Whitesnake songs.

Artistic development is a thing of the past, sadly.