RockPages.gr has issued an interview with bassist Neil Murray (WHITESNAKE, BLACK SABBATH, GARY MOORE), in which he talks about a variety of subjects regarding his tenure in all those great bands.

The following is an excerpt where he talks about David Coverdale, Geezer Butler, John Deacon, etc.:

Q: Has this almost controlled performance affected your style or way of playing?

A: No, I suppose there is a bigger issue in the last 30 years of being a bass player in all the big bands... I know that this may come as a surprise, but my job was to copy other people! Copy Geezer Butler, copy John Deacon (QUEEN)... even copy myself by playing the early Whitesnake stuff with other musicians. I get very little chance to be really me when I play bass. There were times, especially with Black Sabbath and Peter Green’s Band, where I couldn’t put anything original in the bass lines of the songs... so, it’s typical for me to try to play like someone else.

Again, it all comes down to what I was saying before about the audience becoming conservative... they only want to hear the songs the way they were recorded. My theory is that the people want to hear the music that they grew up with... that’s the music they love the most... when they

were 16 or 17 years old and they had no worries in their mind. For example, when Bernie (Marsden), Micky (Moody) and myself got together to play the classic Whitesnake stuff, people didn’t think much of it... they preferred David Coverdale with 4 or 5 other musicians despite the fact that we were three of the original guys in the band! They have almost imprinted in their minds that David Coverdale is Whitesnake. If we’ve got the name, that would be a totally different situation... it’s difficult but that’s the music business!"

Read the full interview at RockPages.gr.