In a new interview with Jay Jay French Connection, Whitesnake’s Joel Hoekstra discussed the band’s possible future and explained if it is done for good.
“That’s obviously gonna come from David [Coverdale],” Hoekstra revealed when asked about the band’s future.” The things kind of got I guess cut short for us on that European run and then the US tour was subsequently canceled and we’ve kind of just been in a holding pattern from there, waiting to see what David’s plans are. I will say, whatever his choice is, David’s done all the work and is a legend. Respectfully I’m a very small piece of the puzzle with that.”
Hoekstra also praised his bandmate: “So whatever he chooses to do he has my unending gratitude. I’m really grateful. This always comes off like maybe I’m lying in interviews but David has been an A plus for me as far as being a boss and being a friend since I joined the band. We have a really great friendship. We get on great, he’s very supportive of his players, he did everything he said he was going to do when I joined the band. We shook hands, he’s taken me around the world, he’s helped me build my name in all these different areas that I wasn’t getting to.”
“So whatever his choice is he’s got my full support,” he concluded.
David Coverdale himself also talked about the possibility of reuniting the band. The rocker revealed that he isn’t completely retiring from music. In fact, he wants to invite former Whitesnake members for a ‘farewell’ album.
“I’m soon to be talking with my band about the idea of a farewell Whitesnake studio album and to invite some former members to participate to make it more complete — Adrian [Vandenberg] perhaps, Doug Aldrich, see if they would wanna come in,” Coverdale revealed. “Michael Devin — all people I adore, and to see how it would go. But I think rather than just farewell to this current chapter, it’s farewell to a lot of guys that have been involved. It could be interesting.”
Whitesnake’s last studio album, ‘Flesh & Blood,’ came out in 2019. The band’s farewell tour has been on hold since 2022 because of Coverdale’s health issues.