The tribute work is released on May 18, and it's the first Whitesnake album to feature guitarist Joel Hoekstra in place of Doug Aldrich. Coverdale exclusively told Classic Rock how late Purple keyboardist Jon Lord had wanted the Mark III version of the band to reunite, and discussions took place after his death.

Now he says in an EPK video: "A lot of the ideas weren't appealing to me, unfortunately. But I was already doing preparatory work on these songs, hoping Ritchie would be open to bringing them up to date and reappraising some of them."

When he told his wife it was a shame that his work had been wasted, she asked, "Why don't you do it under the Whitesnake banner?"