White Snake and Darius Rucker - 2009

Like a bottle of wine, David Coverdale is getting better with age. The smoky-toned rock vocalist is once again preaching the word of the snake and taking melodic classic rock back on the tour trail throughout the U.S.

Bringing Whitesnake to the Dow Bay City River Roar on Friday, Coverdale has seen every side of the coin imaginable in a career of music now going back more than 35 years. Once the voice of Deep Purple, it was his run in Whitesnake in the mid- to late '80s that put the star into his rock. Fans may easily confuse Whitesnake as one of the premier '80s hair bands, but the story weaves much deeper than that.

The original Whitesnake, a blues-based rock and R&B machine, shot out of the cannon just over 30 years ago. As they made headway in the early '80s, it was the album "Slide It In" that put them on the U.S. map in 1984. But Whitesnake's self-titled 1987 opus catapulted the group into platinum status. "Still Of the Night," "Here I Go Again," "Is This Love" and "Crying In the Rain" became radio staples, and Coverdale found himself splashed all over magazines and in music videos worldwide.After the follow-up album "Slip Of the Tongue" helped them hang onto the radio waves and into the 1990s, Coverdale has taken many different versions of the group on the road and into the studio to keep the engine warm. The group's latest CD, 2008's "Good To Be Bad," helped put the band back on the road selling out venues. It was also the group's first studio album since 1997s "Restless Heart." Backed by the brilliant guitar duo of Doug Aldrich and Winger's Reb Beach, drummer Chris Frazier, bassist Uriah Duffy and keyboardist Timothy Drury, Coverdale still takes precision care and craft into every step of Whitesnake's business and sound.

"Basically a continuation of the style and expression of music that we've always had," Coverdale said about "Good To Be Bad." "(It has) elements of rock, blues, soul with emphasis on taking the songs from the studio to the stage."

Without venturing too deep into the past, Coverdale said the band is trying to re-break into the States once again.

"Whitesnake is doing just fine everywhere other than the U.S.," said Coverdale. "We intend to change that. We have an extended, expanded edition of the recent album called 'Still Good To Be Bad' which was supposed to be released to accompany the U.S. tour with Judas Priest, but the record company just announced they've gone bankrupt. Just what we needed! So, we're trying the get the records back and released through another company. Challenges, challenges, ha-ha!"

In the meantime fans can get the expanded versions of 1987's self-titled CD and a couple of new anniversary releases that will come out Tuesday.

"We have two anniversary collections coming out, 'Slide It In' is 25 years old and 'Slip Of the Tongue' is 20 years old," he stated. "We've assembled very special CD/DVD editions which are pretty happening."

With so many songs covering the group's history, Coverdale isn't sure if he will ever get to fit in all the songs he'd like to sing into a tour.

"I can't get all the songs I want to sing in one show, unfortunately. The band usually twists my arm into doing the older material they want to play. If I can still feel the expression, we do it."

With Beach active in Winger and occasional outside projects, Coverdale says everyone comes together for Whitesnake, including the vocalist himself.

"I work around Whitesnake's schedule," he said. "I only agree to work a certain amount of time each year and thankfully, the guys are there for me when I need them. It's a great bunch of guys. I'm thrilled they can work with other bands when Whitesnake is off the road. That was how we set it up. Our enthusiasm never gets tired. We try to take the shows to another level each tour and it's working already!"

After the release of a live acoustic CD eleven years ago, Coverdale is still getting offers to tour as an acoustic duo as well.

"I'm actually under quite a lot of pressure right now to do more unplugged shows," he said. "Doug and I did some promo a few years back. We're still getting mail about it, so (it's) very likely."

Over the past few years rumors and questions arose regarding a Deep Purple reunion of the band that Coverdale fronted during the Burn and Stormbringer albums from 1974.