Who would have thought? Ironically, David Coverdale reveals some of the last secrets that still exist from Freddie Mercury. The man with the buzz saw voice, who replaced singer Ian Gillan on Deep Purple in 1973 and later caused a hard rock sensation with his own band Whitesnake, knows all about stage presence.
The now 71-year-old chatted with Deep Purple pal Glenn Hughes on Planet Rock audio format. Self-confident as always, he not only credits himself with having a great stylistic influence on young Freddie. He also knows the secret behind his much admired performance.
At his instigation, Freddie Mercury would have gone into seclusion with Martin Birch, producer of Deep Purple and Iron Maiden. He advised him to use the microphone stand extensively in order to conceal his immense stage nervousness in front of a larger audience. Apparently a measure with great success.
Coverdale remembers his conjuring skills: “So I was sitting with Martin, God bless him, in one of those Hamburg clubs and I was nervous to death. He just: ‘Calm down, have another drink.’ ‘No use, too nervous’. He said, ‘Well, who are your favorite singers?’ There was no hesitation, of course; the Tamla Motown guys, I said. You can hear her breathing.’ He just said, ‘See. Compression, baby! That’s behind it’. I will never forget that!”
Birch told him, ‘Just adjust the mic stand and mic so you can sing over it.’ A psychological trick, also because I needed this titanium stand to work on it.”
When it came to Freddie Mercury, he remembered crucial tips. “My mic moves seemed like accidents at first, but later I was able to pass my experiences on to him. “Oh yes, that lunge. It was an attempt to be completely different. Freddie Mercury told me and David Birch that we gave him the number with the broken stand.”
“I myself was the most clumsy jerk on the planet,” Coverdale says. “It must have looked like singing with a harmonium strapped on. Freddie told me that he got the ideas for his microfigures from my nonsense.”
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