Singer, songwriter, thespian, entertainer, raconteur, artist and personality plus, David Coverdale is everything a venerated, legendary rock star should be. You wonder whether the man still has an aura, an X factor, a larger-than-life presence, and within a minute of me seeing him for the first time in 22 years any lingering doubts are smashed to smithereens. Coverdale remains as lustful as ever.
.. The obvious add-on for that sentence would involve women, but for years now Coverdale has focused those affections and desires on his wife Cindy, to whom he has been married since 1997 and of whom he will speak lovingly on numerous occasions during our day together.
No, the lust I’m referring to is one for life. David Coverdale lives life, in its purest sense, as ‘large’ as he can. Up and at the exercise in the mornings, still walking around Lake Tahoe, Nevada, dodging bears, just as he did as a youth in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire (but bears, of course) and most importantly for readers, with a voracious musical appetite firmly re-engaged, Coverdale looks to be on the cusp of an enormous surge of re-popularity and respect.
It is impossible to have a quick chat with Coverdale. He doesn’t bother with trite soundbites, he produces wonderful, meaty feasts of quotes amid plenty more engaging, detailed conversation. Indeed, chats with him invoke big armchairs, fireplaces and a never-ending supply of refreshment going late into the night, resplendent with storytelling, me.
