Bernie Marsden is not your garden-variety marquee name, but his credentials are A-list all the way. The English guitarist played with a number of bands in the 70s, including Babe Ruth and Paice Ashton Lord, before landing a spot with David Coverdale and Whitesnake (at the same time, his name came up on a short list of guitarists Paul McCartney was seeking for Wings). Four years and half a dozen albums later, Marsden went on to record solo albums, played with Alaska, the Moody Marsden Band, appeared on soundtracks and as a guest on numerous albums by everyone from Cozy Powell and Jon Lord to Ian Gillan and Jack Bruce.
One interesting tidbit about Marsden is that one of the songs he wrote with David Coverdale when he was with Whitesnake became a massive hit — only he wasn’t in Whitesnake when it did. The song is, of course, “Here I Go Again,” which was re-recorded by another Whitesnake lineup, and then became a popular MTV video and #1 hit single. Marsden told me the song changed his life. But he’s much more than just a guy who wrote a hit single; this is a seasoned musician with songwriting and guitar playing chops to spare. He’s never stopped writing and recording, and has even appeared with Whitesnake on stage in recent years.
A solo deal with Provogue, a label that tends to sign well-respected guitarists with a request to “make a Bernie Marsden album” has led to Shine. This is a magnificent 13-song collection with guests like blues guitar master Joe Bonamassa, keyboardist Don Airey and drummer Ian Paice from Deep Purple, and Marsden’s buddy from Whitesnake, David Coverdale. I had the opportunity to chat with Marsden one early December morning about Shine — how it came together, the diversity of the material, recording at Abbey Road and the role of producer Rob Cass. We also touched on gigging, recent and upcoming, his PRS signature guitar, and his illustrious past. Even my deepest research didn’t pull out some of the plums Marsden handed me. He’s definitely one of the more intriguing musicians I’ve spoken with in recent years.
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First off, I wanted to catch up with you about your recent live shows in the UK. How did they go?
I did the last one last night. So, this is my first day off in just over three and half weeks.
So, this is it for the year?
I have a couple of corporate Christmas shows, party kind of things that have been on the books. I kind of do those on a regular basis. That’s all until I come over to the States in February.
I was looking over the setlists and it looks like you’ve been playing “Linin’ Track,” “Wedding Day,” “Who Do We Think We Are?” and “Dragonfly” from Shine. How did the shows go?
Really good. I’ve been out with a guitar player called Joanne Shaw Taylor. She’s a very fine player, a really nice girl. But her people asked me about six months ago, “How do you like the idea of maybe going out on your own?” I said, “I didn’t really want to go out on my own, but if I took out a friend with me.” We have two guitars and we have a stomp box and vocal help, you know, all of these machines and stuff. We kind of recreated the Shine album, how I wrote them, the two of us. And then we threw in some Whitesnake stuff from the old days to please the crowd. The main reason I said “Yes” was because it was in about 14 cities that I hadn’t been to in about 10 years, apart from London, and it worked out really well.
You set out to make a Bernie Marsden album, and it definitely is a myriad of styles, which I guess shows a lot of different sides of your personality and your playing. Is that what you were going for?
Yeah, that’s about sums it up there. The thing is, I’m into my 60s now, so I thought my days of making a new album for a record company were probably in the past, realistically. I’ve been making albums myself over the last 10 – 15 years anyway, and putting them out through the website and selling them at gigs, that kind of thing. Suddenly, out of the blue, come Mascot and Provogue, and they said, “We want you to make an album.” And I said, “Well, what do you want me to do?” And with those very words, they said, “Make a Bernie Marden album.” I thought they showed great faith. They didn’t come into the studio, they didn’t want to hear demos. It was kind of like the old days when the artist made the record and then they gave it to the record company, which really doesn’t happen that much these days, I know. They were really very supportive and it’s been done very well. In fact, we’re getting ready to start a second one.
Obviously the first two songs “Linin’ Track” and “Wedding Day,” which you’ve been playing live, are bluesy rockers with a lot of style and melodic nuances. Then you have “Walk Away,” which could have been a big hit in the 80s.
A lot of people are coming up with that, Maybe someone out there making an 80s movie will hear it, especially in your town (laughs). I think you’re right. Maybe if Rick Springfield had done that, it would have been #1.
I think so, even though radio doesn’t really play anything new these days.
To be honest with you, when I made the album, because I did it at Abbey Road, I was kind of thinking of filming situations as well. Probably about 40 percent of it was already written and in pretty close to the shape that they came out. For kind of my own reasons, I was not so much stockpiling songs, but I did have a bunch of material that I could have released, you know, within the last five or 10 years, but I just kept it and thought, there will come a time when I need it. As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened. I’m very happy with that. That’s why it’s a bit of spectrum. I wanted to do the melodic thing, I’ve always done that. People have known me for what I do. I do like a good rock song. And the blues thing is always going to be an element of that. And then, I thought, the hell with it, let’s get my influences out there. So we got a bit of the Reverend Willie G in there on “Kinda Wish She Would” and stuff like that. I’ve done some shows with ZZ Top and I guess it kind rubbed off on me. But I love Billy Gibbons anyway. No one cannot love Billy Gibbons’ guitar playing.
And then there’s something like “Dragonfly” with this bossa nova rhythm and your guitar sort of weaving in and out. A lot of texturing right there. And then there’s “Hoxie Rollin’ Time” with kind of a Booker T and the MG’s feel.
Yeah, well, thank you for that. As we say here, you’ve sussed me out (laughs). You can tell the records I had when I was a kid.
You also have a few guest players on this record, including your buddy from Whitesnake, David Coverdale on a remake of “Trouble.” How did that one come together?
Since 2011, I’ve been guesting with Whitesnake again, not in America, but in Europe. We’ve done some really good shows. David and I reconnected again over the last five years really. We’re now as close as probably we ever were, and the result of that has been, to my delight, him singing on Shine. I just wanted to do something that we’d written together, and I thought let’s go back to back to the well and “Trouble” was one of the first songs we wrote together. We always said in the old days that if we ever do this again, it could be a lot tougher. So here we go, 30 odd years later, we get a chance to do it and I can put my little bit of Paul Kossoff in there (laughs).
You also have Ian Paice and Don Airey from Deep Purple on the record.
“Trouble” is more or less a Whitesnake reunion because Ian plays drums and I play bass as well, so it’s almost like a new Whitesnake recording (laughs). Don plays on the title track, “Shine,” with Joe (Bonamassa). Ian played on two other tracks, but I still have those in the can.
According to your press release, the light, airy commercial feel of Shine is largely attributable to producer Rob Cass. How would you describe your working relationship with him?
Well, Rob and I go back to the 80s when he was the lead singer in a band I had called Alaska. Then we lost contact. You know how it is in the music business — you lose contact, then you see someone and it’s like you saw them yesterday. We didn’t see each other for the best part of 15 plus years I would have thought. Then he called me up basically because I was the one who got him out of Ireland to audition for Alaska. He kind of looked back on the last 30 years of his life and said, “You know, without Bernie Marsden, none of this would have happened.” So he called me up just to say, “Can we get together.” And it’s almost two years to this point now. He said, “Can we have lunch together, I’ve got a family now, I’ve got a nice house and I’m working at Abbey Road.” And I said, “You’re working at Abbey Road?” and he said, “Yeah I’ve got a production suite here.” And I said, “Well that’s strange.” And he said, “Why don’t you come up and have lunch?” So we did.
It was just synchronicity in a way. He said, “What are you up to?” And I said, “Well, I was about to start recording a new album. How are you fixed for that?” and he said, “I’d love to do it,” and I said, “I’d love to do it here?” He didn’t push at all, he just gave me some stuff he‘d produced over the last two or three years. And I just like the way he works, you know. So working together was almost like finding an old pair of Levi’s. I went in, played the guitar, did the singing and did the backing tracks, and then I let him pretty much let him to do what he thought was right for the record. Because I was so used to doing everything, it was great for me to be working with an independent bona fide producer. I left him to do the backing vocals. And he added percussion, and he added this. The next day, he’d go, “Check this out. What do you think?” I don’t think there was ever was a negative. Working with him was great. I totally stand behind him for what he did for the record. I certainly wouldn’t have made Shine if he hadn’t been around.
And, as you said you cut Shine at Abbey Road. Had you recorded there before?
I worked there in the 70s; I was with a group called Babe Ruth and we mixed an album there. I was in and out there for session work in the 70s. You know, you’re always aware, even when I was younger, that Abbey Road was a bit special because of its history. Abbey Road is probably the best recording studio in the world. It has all that charisma anyway. We did it in Studio Three, which is where the Beatles did Revolver and where Pink Floyd did The Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety. While we were there last year, it was the 40th anniversary for Dark Side, and the two guys from the Floyd were there, talking about the making of it, and I was next door and managed to get in there. It was great. There was something always something exciting going on at Abbey Road. I was there a couple of weeks ago, and Earth, Wind & Fire were rehearsing in there (laughs). It’s a magical place.
Speaking of the Beatles, I read that you turned down a chance to be in Wings with Paul McCartney and joined Whitesnake instead. Is that true?
Yeah, the story is…I didn’t turn down an offer to join Wings; I turned down an offer to possibly join Wings. Is that different enough? What happened was at the end of Paice Aston Lord, the horn guy in Paice Ashton Lord was Howard Casey, who was Paul’s guy. Jimmy McCulloch was an old friend of mine. Jimmy had quit Wings, he had left for whatever reason. And Paul said to Howie, “Now we have to go through audition after audition to find a guitar player.” And Howie said, “I don’t think so. I might have the guy for you.” So what happened was I called Paul’s office, Paul had gone to America. They said, “Can you call back in about 10 days.” I did. I called again. He wasn’t back. I called again, I called again. By that time, I bumped into David Coverdale at a gig in London, a famous old theater called the Rainbow. He said, “Oh, I thought you were joining Wings.” And I said, “So did I, but it didn’t seem to going to happen. Paul’s not come back.” He said, “What are you doing in London? I’m putting a band together and I’d rather like you to be in it.” So we got together the next day. I think we wrote “Trouble” that day. It was plainly obvious I wasn’t going to join a rock and roll band with the guy from Deep Purple and be Paul’s guitar player in Wings, which would have been wonderful. I’m glad I didn’t have that dilemma later in life. It seemed to be an easy decision to me at the time. When I look back now, I’m quite annoyed. So what I did is I called his office to say, “Thanks for considering me, but now will you unconsider me?” And there was a bit of a pause, I have to say. “You’re saying no?” “I’m saying ‘no’ to coming down. Thank you for the honor of being considered.” I wasn’t offered the position, but I was being considered. So, we will never know, will we?
It’s funny because nowadays, you could do both.
Nowadays you could easily do both, yes. The odd thing is I got to play with two Beatles. I got to play with Ringo. I played with George at his house, just the two of us. The only one I thought I might get to have a one-off and play with was John Lennon, and he was the one I never got remotely close to. Paul was one of my favorites when I was a kid. And I was kind of close, but not that close (laughs).
So you never got to play with him? Or met him?
We met. I never jammed with him, never played any music with him, but when we did meet, he did remind me of what happened 10 years before. And I felt about 14 (laughs).
So he knew all about that?
Yeah, he said, “The man who turned me down.” And I went, “Oh no. It was so long ago.” He was so nice and Linda was lovely. She was kind of giggling. I was at a party. He remembered because of Gerry Marsden — you remember Gerry Marsden from Gerry and The Pacemakers?
Yes, of course.
So when Paul obviously saw my name on a piece of paper on his desk, the first thing he thought of was, “I wonder if he‘s related to Gerry?” So I put that down to how he remembered my name.
And you’re not related to Gerry Marsden, are you?
No, I’m not. And I’ve never met him either (laughs).
I’m glad we got that all cleared up. Of course, you did spend quite a few years with Whitesnake. But then you left just before they hit it big in America.
About four years later, maybe five.
And David Coverdale re-recorded a song you wrote with him called “Here I Go Again” for the 1987 Whitesnake album. Were you aware that he was doing that? Did he clue you in?
Yeah, I did know. And I did get a call from Geffen Records at the time saying, “Bernie, you have a #1 song in America.” And it wasn’t #1 at the time, it was #2 and then it went to #7. And I called John Kalodner (legendary Geffen Records A&R executive) and said, “You let me down” and he just said, “Wait.” And it went to #1 the following week. He was true to his word. That song changed my life.
Sure. What did it do? Did your phone start ringing off the hook?
No, not really. But what it guaranteed was obviously a royalty and an income because of the vast sales, especially over there in America. I believe I’m told me it sold two million in the LA Basin. Maybe more. That’s incredible, isn’t it?
I think I have two of them (laughs).
(Laughs) Yeah, OK. There’s a whole bunch of people, mostly in America, who think I’m a songwriter. They don’t realize I was in the band. That’s alright, I can live with that. As Steve Lukather said, “Are you still getting the mailbox money?” (Laughs) That’s pretty cool. I should say that Whitesnake was obviously the big things and people in my career, but there’s been some other things. “Here I Go Again” stands out like the front half of an ocean liner.
Another release we’ve reviewed on VintageRock.com is Celebrating Jon Lord from the Sunflower Jam and you were at that show.
Yeah, I was. In and out with a quick appearance. I did two songs.
It was great to hear you on the Paice Ashton Lord tunes. I love Malice In Wonderland, even though it’s out of print, and imported CDs are going for $75 on Ebay.
Yeah, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done musically.
Really? Just a fantastic band. I saw a clip of you and Jon Lord playing together, and obviously you were in a couple of bands together. How would you describe your musical relationship with him?
I loved Jon Lord. He was a very, very important figure in my career. Not just as a musician — and I’m more fortunate than most because I got to stand next to him every night on a gig and listen to the man play — but everybody knows how good Jon was. But he was a great person, juts a great human being. He was 10 years older than me and he would say things to me, you know when I was 25 and he was 35. I’d say “Come on Jon, let’s do this.” And he’d say, “My dear boy, I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I’m older than you, go away.” (Laughs) And now, because I have younger people in my band, Jon’s on my shoulder and I remember, “What would Jon say.”
Over the last 25 years, since Whitesnake finished, we kept in touch a lot, and I would call him for advice. Sometimes I would be feeling insecure about something, maybe I’d be a bit doggy on something, or just want to ask him about a car or something, and he was always there. I treasure his memory, and am so fortunate to say I worked with him. I was in a band with Jon Lord twice. He played on my solo albums and I played on his. And that little piece you were referring to, “Here I Go Again” with the two of us at Abbey Road — that’s a treasure to me. I didn’t realize we were being filmed at the time. It’s still a raw part of life the fact that Jon is not here. And only two weeks ago, I was at Jack Bruce’s funeral. These people are such giants, but they’re just great as human beings.
That’s right, you played on Jack Bruce’s last solo album, Silver Rails.
Yes I did. I did the very last session at Abbey Road that Jack ever did. Silver Rails is a great album.
Yes, I reviewed that one and spoke to Jack earlier this year.
Yeah, he said some lovely things about him. I couldn’t have paid him enough for what he said. There’s not enough money in the world. And, of course, now that we’ve lost him, it’s even more poignant and I treasure it so much.
Such a great career you’ve had Bernie.
I will put it into words. I have a book two-thirds done. It’s more of a memoir. But I want to get into print the things we just talked about. People know Jon Lord was like as a keyboardist, but they don’t know what he was like sitting on a bus for nine hours, where he would keep you constantly occupied, constantly entertained.
Paice Ashton Lord came from the ashes of Deep Purple. I saw a clip of you on stage with them playing “Smoke On The Water.” Were you ever considered as a replacement for Ritchie Blackmore or Tommy Bolin or whenever they needed a guitar player?
No. The funny thing is when I auditioned for Paice Ashton Lord, they asked me, did I know any Deep Purple songs, and I said “no” because I was never a Deep Purple fan. Eternal shame, some would say (laughs). It wasn’t that. When I was a kid, all I listened to when I was a kid was BB King, Freddie King, Peter Green and Eric Clapton.
You were a blues man.
I was a blues man. And out come Deep Purple in shiny red pants and even more shiny purple shirts. I thought, “What’s that? that’s ridiculous. Give me Peter Green is a hoop shirt.” I realized once I got involved with Paice Ashton Lord, and especially the Whitesnake stuff when I was listening to the Purple albums, I realized how damn good they were. I did see them a couple of times with David singing because Cozy Powell was playing with Ritchie by then. I did see the Tommy Bolin and Ritchie Blackmore lineups, and I’m so glad I did now. No, I was never considered. I think there was a possibility at one point to deflect the guitar thing with Deep purple. Jon did tell there had been discussion once that maybe Micky Moody and I would have been asked to maybe do one tour. But that never resulted in a phone call. I think that was a discussion between them. And I don’t know if I would have been right for them anyway. Like I said, I didn’t really know much about them. When we used to play some of the Deep Purple songs in Whitesnake because we never had enough material, I enjoyed it immensely.
I wanted to touch briefly on your SE Bernie Marsden Guitar with PRS. I saw a clip of you playing this guitar during a guest appearance with Whitesnake from last year. Are you still using it?
It’s pretty much the guitar I use on stage. It’s the best selling guitar in its price range that PRS has. It really is doing very well. I get lots of texts, lots of email, social media, saying, “I just got one. It’s great. How do they do it at this price?” We’ve seem to hit a spot where everyone’s into it and we’re talking about doing a follow-up guitar. There’s some limited editions available in Europe, but we’re talking about another guitar for next year.
You mentioned you have some songs in the can as a follow-up to Shine. So where are you at with that?
I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do in the beginning of the new year because I have some time in the studio. I have some ideas based on the last month of gigging, which has been different. “Dragonfly” with two guitars; I’ve been playing the old Gibson twin-neck. That’s been sensational, just the two of us. You can hear a pin drop in the theaters and that’s been really good and it’s given me an idea I think, going down the road to do regarding the Shine stuff and this last month. After that, I have some other guests lined up for the next one who were going to be on the first one, but I didn’t want to over-guest it. I think Steve Lukather will be on the next one, and hopefully Warren Haynes, maybe even DT.
Ah yes, they’re on Mascot.
Yeah, they’re all on the label. We’re also going on the Blues Cruise in February. I’m on there with Robben Ford, John Hiatt and Robert Randolph. I’m really looking forward to that. It’s called Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea.
Any dates in the States after that?
That’s the projection. I know I have some dates here in the spring, but we’re trying to look at some smaller festivals in America. My days of touring in a bus around America are probably behind me. It would be nice to do a triangle, go to New York, into Maryland and back to Pittsburgh or whatever. It would be nice to do a triangle on your side, within a thousand miles. My days of going from New York to LA are probably in the past (laughs).
