WHITESNAKE’S TANYA O’CALLAGHAN says DAVID COVERDALE ‘needs some time off the streets to heal’

WHITE SNAKE bassist Tanya O’Callaghan spoke with ampeg‘s “SVT Time Live” on the band’s decision to withdraw from their previously announced North American tour with the scorpions because of singers David Coverdale‘s “Continuing Treatment of Persistent Upper Respiratory Tract Infection”. scorpions has continued all shows on the trek, which began August 21st in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and will end on October 21st in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tanya said (as transcribed from BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “David needs some time off road to recover. I see everything positively. We had a wild successful European tour, and we hit it harder and longer than any Band I know is coming from COVID. Because a lot of bands would dip their toes to get back on the road and play like a month or six weeks. Including rehearsals, we were on the road for four months. And we had a really, really solid run to the end. We actually started playing through this heat wave that happened in Europe as well. So we had a few shows coming towards the end brutally. We did 105 degree festivals. I remember playing in Germany in an arena without AC [air conditioning]. And that was towards the end. And it’s starting to take its toll Everyone. And obviously people get this and that and that whether it was COVID or not and nobody really knows how to deal with this stuff yet. Everyone got sick or burned out or whatever. and David I just got this very persistent, like an upper airway thing in the sinuses and throat that doesn’t seem to shift. And he held his own for a while. And then it was such a thing. And the doctors said, ‘I mean, you’re the singer. So everything up here [in the throat or above] for a singer it’s like, do you… That could end your tour forever, or your recording, or whatever. So we scrapped the last, whatever it was, a week or so of the European tour, which was very sad because it was amazing up until then. But you say, ‘Okay. It makes sense.’ With the intention of returning to the US and resting. But there just wasn’t enough time. And he was ready to try and go, but all the doctors said, ‘You’re crazy. You have to let your body heal completely.'”

She continued: “I mean, it’s heartbreaking – for David and for the band. ‘Cause it was only five or six days since we had to make the unfortunate announcement that was like… As a musician in the band, it’s like your next few months are going by, [and we were] I’m worried about him too. But he’s up and down and on the mend, so he doesn’t want to put exact pressure on it. The US tour has apparently been canceled or postponed; the scorpions went on of course. So we’ll see next year. He needs a few months. He’s already tried to get back into writing and all that stuff, which is great. There’s no point in setting an exact time frame for it because it just depends on his body. He’s in great spirits now and he’s definitely doing much better. I mean it kicked my ass and I’m super healthy and fit and the kid of the band per se [keyboardist, guitarist and backing vocalist] dinosaur [Jelusick] is younger. And I can’t imagine doing that for so many years. He’s not the type of singer to do it half-heartedly; He’s out there really pushing every night. He doesn’t want to give his band a half-hearted performance. He just loves touring and he loves being in a band and that’s what I love most about him. It’s like he’s still 18; he just says, ‘I love being in a band.’ He loves the camaraderie. We will see. We had a hugely successful European tour and we’ll see what the future brings. He might already be talking about an album. So we’ll see.”

On June 28th WHITE SNAKE canceled three shows on its spring/summer European tour Coverdale‘s infection of the paranasal sinuses and trachea. Three days later, the rest of the trek was also abandoned. At that time, David blamed the decision on “ongoing health challenges, medical orders and our concern for the health and safety of all.”

David was not the first member of WHITE SNAKE falling ill during the group’s recent European tour. guitarist Reb Beach missed several shows on the June trek after being “under the weather”. On June 25th WHITE SNAKE canceled his show at the rock empire Festival in Spain due to the fact that drummers Tommy Aldridge “went under” and “was bad enough at the time to have missed the first show ever of his career,” so Coverdale.

WHITE SNAKE kicked off his farewell tour on May 10th in Dublin, Ireland’s 3Arena. The band’s 14-song set, which was part of a European tour with special guests EUROPE and co-headliner FOREIGNERSmarked WHITE SNAKE‘s inaugural performance with the group’s two newest additions, jelusk and O’Callaghan.

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

before the pandemic WHITE SNAKE had been touring in support of his latest album, “Flesh & Blood”which was released in May 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.