Oregon Music News' Ruben Mosqueda has posted a new Q&A; with WHITESNAKE guitarist Doug Aldrich. A couple of excerpts follow:

Q: You’ve been in Whitesnake since 2002. Were you a fan of the band or Coverdale’s work?

A: "Originally I signed up for a two-month tour in 2002. I’ve been a fan since I was about 16. I recall my mother had dropped me off at my friend’s house because we wanted to learn how to play 'Mistreated'. There was no way that I could have played 'Burn' at that time! I’ve been a fan since I was a teenager. I really love David’s voice. I was definitely influenced by (DEEP) PURPLE and later on by Whitesnake. When David left Purple it would have been easy to do a Deep Purple Jr. kind of thing, but instead he did Whitesnake. The music was very different; it was blues based, it was gutsy, and had a sound that was influenced by bands like SLADE, STATUS QUO, THIN LIZZY and stuff like ALLMAN BROTHERS. As you know, it wasn’t until Slide It In that Whitesnake found success in America, but there were several records released in Europe before that. I was fortunate enough to have been turned on to those records early on."

Q: You recorded Killing The Dragon with RONNIE JAMES DIO. What was that like?

A: "It was awesome, man. I wouldn’t be in Whitesnake if it wasn’t for Ronnie. He put me out there. I’m a late bloomer, I guess, but he really helped me out. He was very good to me and he had so much faith in me and in my playing. We had a great time designing the album that would become Killing The Dragon. Once again it didn’t work out with their guitar player and I was asked to come in and I started from scratch on everything. We put together an album that was, for him, a new beginning. In the end, through Ronnie and Wendy [Dio], I was noticed by David and the rest is history. I will say that I miss Ronnie tremendously and we got close toward the end. He was upset when I joined Whitesnake full-time but he kept asking me to participate in certain projects with him here and there. We were really tight. I was out of the country when he passed, but my wife and my son went to his service to pay their respects on my behalf. He was a great singer and even better person."

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Guitar World's latest Lick Of The Day is from Aldrich, who delivers a "GARY MOORE-style Super Chunk." Doug explains:

"Today's lick is inspired by the legendary Gary Moore. It begins with a steady, machine-gun barrage of alternate-picked, palm-muted 16th notes and ends with a wild two-step "over-bend" on the low E string, punctuated by a squealing pinch harmonic.

I play through this lick using strict alternate picking (down-up-down-up) to ensure my rhythms are dead-on accurate. The best way to practice this style of picking is simply to start out slow, paying close attention to your pick stroke's direction. You can use the picking prompts in the notation as a guide to make sure you're on the right track.

When performing the two-step bend on the low G note (low E string, third fret) in bar 4, I'm using both my index and middle fingers to pull the string in toward my palm. The extra finger muscle is all but required to perform this monster bend, as otherwise there's a good chance the string would slip out from under my middle finger.

The piercing squeal heard on the first G-note bend in bar 4 is the result of a pick-hand technique called a "pinch harmonic." Pinch harmonics are usually indicated in notation by the abbreviation "P.H.", and are produced by grazing the tip of your pick-hand's thumb against the string as you pick a downstroke. However, to produce a harmonic, the thumb must touch the string at a specific point along the string, known as a "node." Node locations are different for each fretted note, so you'll need to seek them out by picking up and down the string until you locate the desired harmonic note "squeal." An overdriven amp or distortion pedal will expose node points more readily, as will the use of the guitar's bridge pickup, making pinch harmonics a bit easier to perform.

The tempo is 120 beats per minute, 64 for slow practice."

Check out the Lick Of The Day below: