David Coverdale has expressed his exasperation at Deep Purple for how he and Glenn Hughes were treated by their former band ahead of their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2016, declaring; “what the fuck was up THEIR ass?!” The Whitesnake frontman made the comments while speaking to eonmusic about new album Love Songs, which is released via Rhino Records on November 6.

Coverdale said that initially, he was going to decline the invitation to attend the event, if founder Richie Blackmore was going to turn it down. Said David; “We'd been talking about it [Ritchie and I]. We'd been nominated before and never got in, and I said; "are you going to go?", and he said; "nah". I said; "well, I won't go then!" [laughing].

He continued; “But what had happened in 2016, literally, once it had been announced that we were officially being inducted into it, the current Deep Purple refused to go if Ritchie Blackmore was going to be there. And this was like, 72 hours before, when I was ready to fly with my family. And this cost me like $75,000 - $85,000, because you have to pay for all the tables apart from the one you're on, and I had my daughter fly in from Germany, my son came out of college. It was a family affair."

The singer, who fronted Deep Purple along with Glenn Hughes from 1973 - 1976, went on; “Suddenly, Glenn Hughes and I were told; "well, we don't want you singing with us". Initially, I'd spoken to Ian [Gillan] about coming up and singing the backgrounds of 'Smoke On The Water', because originally they were going to close the show. So, that suddenly was pulled, the plug. They tried to stop us doing speeches, and my wife was fucking furious!, apart from the fact she spent a fortune  on posh dresses! [laughing] And I said; "fuck it, nobody's going to keep us off!" I got in touch with Carol, Ritchie's manager, and I said; "tell him to come with me; nobody's going to fucking touch him, tell him to come with me!", and he didn't want to do it.”

He concluded; “The first thing I said when I was up there, was; "none of us would have been standing here without Ritchie Blackmore", and I made sure of that point. Steve Morse and Don Airey [current Deep Purple members] were more complimentary to Glenn and I than the other guys. We had a blast, we had a fucking great time! I'm very happy that I am who I am, and I just talked to Glenn the other day about it; "what the fuck was up THEIR ass?!" Any road, so we didn't get to jam, which was fine; we were back doing press while they were performing, just having a good old time like the unrighteous brothers always do!”

Making a final point about Blackmore’s towering contribution to Deep Purple, he concluded; “But you know, he doesn't give a shit, and he knows he was responsible for the majority of the music there, and its true; none of us, none of us would have been on that stage without Ritchie Blackmore, none of us”.

Read the entire interview, where Coverdale talks about the bucket list guitarists he’d like to work with, and plans for his farewell “gratitude and appreciation tour”, at eonmusic.co.uk.