Marco Mendoza (THIN LIZZY, ex-WHITESNAKE) talked to Rockpages TV about his entire career and he spoke about his relationship with DAVID COVERDALE and the reason behind his departure from Whitesnake.

The following is an excerpt:

Q: Marco, why did you leave Whitesnake?

A: "I started working with David Coverdale back in 1996... I’ve always been a fan of Whitesnake and David, of course... David, he has a one of a kind voice. Period. By the first phrase of a song, you can instantly recognize David Coverdale. For me, again, it was another highlight of my career when I got the call from him... I thought that it was a friend pulling a joke on me, but it turned out to be David! We had a meeting and we clicked really well and we started working on some songs that ended up in his solo record called Into The Light. Great experience with a great bunch of musicians... I connected with David in a big way. But, it was unfortunate the timing... when David asked me to do a world tour with him, I found out that my father was diagnosed with cancer, stomach cancer and I couldn’t be part of that touring band. David really understood... he was really cool about it. In my opinion the Whitesnake lineup with me, Doug (Aldrich), Reb (Beach), Tommy (Aldridge) and Timothy (Drury) was the best ever! But, things started to change after a period of time... different perceptions... I don’t know... I wanted to see this Whitesnake lineup doing lots of things, creating new music and not just be a touring entity. The problem was that we took some really long pauses and as I said I gotta be creative as a musician. If my memory serves me right, we got to a point when we didn’t know what’s going on... we didn’t have a schedule on when we will record an album or if we would record an album whatsoever. It was at that time when Neal Schon called me to do the SOUL SIRKUS record and of course I said “yes”. Another great experience... Maybe, David wanted me to be an exclusive member of Whitesnake... I don’t know. I miss it but I don’t regret it. I followed my instincts."

Check out the full video interview below: