In a new interview on Hangin’ & Bangin’, Doug Aldrich talked about leaving Whitesnake in 2014 after a nine-year tenure.
Here’s what he said:
“We had done a bunch of work, and I was really proud of it, and I had a blast playing with David [Coverdale, vocals]. He was like my big bro, and I was really proud of what we did.
“But we were kind of taking a break, and it’s funny, John Payne called me around Christmas time after a tour had wound up, and I just wanted to be with my boy.
“I’ve been away for basically the whole year with Whitesnake, and he goes, ‘Hey, I got this show in Vegas, it’s really a kickback thing, we could take your Whitesnake live rig and you bring it, and you could play anytime you want, then we’d do a two-hour show, and you basically just stay in the hotel.’
“Basically, I went there with my boy, and then eventually my girlfriend came – she’s now my wife – and we had a blast. I was still playing, but I was with my son all the time.
“He would come to the show every night, I’ll show you, he would go on stage and he would kind of jam out with me. It was going great.
“And then David said, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this Deep Purple record,’ and I was like, ‘Cool, I can come out like three or four days a week or something like that.’
“And he goes, ‘No, no, I really want you to move here because I need you here full-time to do this…’
“I wanted to do it, but I knew if I was going to do it, then I’d be behind the computer and playing guitar all day.
“We would work 7 days a week, so I was like, ‘David, I love you man, I just need time with my boy…’
“That’s it. He needed me, he was four years old, and as you guys know, boys need their dad.”
2 comments
Awesome decision! You have way too much talent to deprive yourself of family time. Absolutely love your playing in revolution Saints, shredding a guitar doesn’t get any better than that. Keep rocking but spend time with your son…
It doesn’t matter if you play guitar, run a company or flip burgers in the fast food restaurant – family is what comes first. Always!