BERNIE MARSDEN

Guitar Legend Bernie Marden Reminisces About The Early Days

Fiona McKeown from Deep-Purple.net spoke to guitar legend Bernie Marsden (M3, ex-WHITESNAKE) about a number of topics recently. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Fiona McKeown: Bernie, you have been in the music industry for over 30 years. You must be proud of your achievements in music. What makes you different from other musicians and bands that have been born, flourished and gone within this time?.

Bernie Marsden: "It must be, over thirty years now. I suppose I am proud of what has gone on, after all I only ever wanted to play the guitar for a living, and that is what I am still doing. I have seen so many bands and musicians fade away, especially the ones in my early days that treated me and my bands with contempt for no other reason than that they were headlining the show, not all though, with great exceptions such as SLADE and VINEGAR JOE."

Fiona McKeown: What was it like working with Whitesnake in the early days?
Bernie Marsden: "Very easy, very natural, a marriage made in London so to speak, David and I became easy writing partners almost straight away. The Coverdale / Marsden / Moody writing team was quite formidable in its time, check out those albums!"

Fiona McKeown: I am sure you are asked this all the time! Would the classic Whitesnake (1978-1982) line-up ever consider doing a one off tour? That would be amazing to see.

Bernie Marsden: "David used to say never say never, when he was asked this question in Whitesnake about DEEP PURPLE, so I will use his answer here, I have to say that it could be a winner though."

Fiona McKeown: You are releasing, through Sanctuary, A Snakeman's Odyssey in November. This is a fantastic album covering your full music career. It is a fantastic opportunity for new Whitesnake fans to hear you play and for all fans to have an awesome collection of your work. How did you select the songs on there? What are your personal favourites?

Bernie Marsden: "A lot of people have been very complimentary about the anthology, saying I must be proud to be asked to compile one. To be honest I never thought about it in that way, though now that it is done I see their point, having the anthology is a bit like a painting exhibition of your work I suppose. I wanted to get as much as possible in to it, so we even have SKINNY CAT recordings on a CD with some of the biggest Whitesnake, bizarre. There is an unreleased version of a Cozy Powell song, WILD TURKEY demos, BABE RUTH, I couldn't get any UFO though, takes us up to Big Boy Blue in 2004. There might even be a volume two."

To read the entire interview head here.