A week after announcing his retirement from music, Whitesnake singer David Coverdale, 74, added an emotional coda to his nearly six-decade music career. The group released the moving music video for a remix of the title track from the band’s 2011 album, “Forevermore,” produced by the singer and featuring a new orchestral arrangement from the Hook City Strings.
The video directed by Payton Murphy is a trip down memory lane, featuring shots of a grey-haired Coverdale, famous for his flowing blonde hair, singing the tune’s nostalgic lyrics amid shots of his family and wife of 28 years Cindy Barker. “Looking back across the years/ The good times and the bad/ All echo in my mind,” Coverdale sings plaintively from a room festooned with candles and draped in white curtains, lamenting the mix of “sweet and bitter memories” he’s left behind.
“For you will be my life/ And I will feel your heart beat forevermore,” he croons while pounding his fist over his heart as the all-white-clad string players add a layer of extra gravitas to the already elegiac song in the clip that has the feel of a memorial video.
Coverdale revealed his plans to hang it up last week in an Instagram video in which he sipped a glass of wine while delivering the news. “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, brothers and sisters of the Snake, a special announcement for you,” Coverdale said in the clip. “After 15 years plus… the last few years have been very evident to me that it’s time really for me to hang up my rock and roll platform shoes and my skin-tight jeans. And as you can see, we’ve taken care of the lion’s wig. But it’s time for me to call it a day. I love you dearly. I thank everyone who’s assisted and supported me on this incredible journey. All the musicians, the crew, the fans, the family. It’s amazing.”
In addition to fronting 1980s metal act Whitesnake — whose 1987 smash “Here I Go Again” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 28 weeks on the chart, followed by No. 2 hit “Is This Love” later that year — Englishman Coverdale replaced singer Ian Gillan in Deep Purple in 1973, fronting that band until their break-up in 1976. He released a pair of R&B/blues-influenced solo albums in the late 1970s before forming Whitesnake in 1979. He later also formed a duo with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, releasing the album Coverdale-Page in 1993.
In the ensuing years Coverdale bounced between more solo work and a series of reunions with Whitesnake until a sinus infection in 2022 stopped him from touring with the group.
Watch the “Forevermore” remix video below.
