“I was driven to Ritchie’s house in Surrey. That was the big test. Sitting in his crazy bar, listening to his amazing demos on a Revox tape machine”: David Coverdale recalls his baptism of fire with Deep Purple

Deep Purple in 1974.

In 1973, one of the biggest rock bands in the world took a huge gamble by replacing their lead singer with a complete unknown.

The band was Deep Purple. The outgoing singer was Ian Gillan. And the raw 22 year-old who stepped into Gillan’s big shoes was David Coverdale.