Latest Rock Spat Puts David Coverdale And Joe Lynn Turner At Odds

Referring to Joe Lynn Turner as a “daft bugger” and “total prick,” David Coverdale is clearly not happy about allegations coming from the former Rainbow frontman accusing Coverdale of lip-synching during live performances.

According to Coverdale, the lip-synching rumors started on the internet last year in Spain when Whitesnake was touring with Alice Cooper and have refused to die off. “I do not, have not and will not use tapes of my voice to mime in concert. My band and I perform and sing live in concert. Yeah… we’re that f—ing good!,” Coverdale said recently.

In order to disprove the rumors, a journalist was invited to join the group’s sound man at his station in front of the stage during a show in Germany.

The comments from the German journalist seemed to throw water on the allegations of lip-synching and quoted sound man Bradley Johnson regarding Coverdale’s unusual technique, which involves holding his microphone further away from his mouth than most other singers.

Coverdale’s technique results in a particularly challenging situation according to Johnson, who says that, “I work extremely hard to accommodate David’s mic technique. I endeavour to make every syllable and nuance of his vocal heard no matter how far the microphone strays from the sweet spot.”

Summing it all up, Johnson had the following comment: “Getting a vocal mic audible over a juggernaut guitar rig when it is three feet from a singers mouth is no small task. Some nights I win, some nights I do not. As far as running tracks live… ludicrous.”

Below is video reported to be from a Whitesnake show in Barcelona last summer that has some nice close-up footage of Coverdale. Lip-synching? Seems unlikely, but viewers can judge for themselves.

For more on this story, see Classic Rock Magazine.