That time I asked John Sykes if he was surprised by the huge success Whitesnake had back in ’87

By Steve Newton

Two years after Whitesnake released its self-titled 1987 album–which has gone on to sell a whopping 25-million copies worldwide–I interviewed guitarist John Sykes, who cowrote most of the album with vocalist David Coverdale but was unceremoniously sacked before its release.

In May of ’89 Sykes was promoting his new power trio, Blue Murder, so we talked about that band mostly. But at one point I asked him if he was surprised at the huge success that Whitesnake had had with the music he’d helped create.

Have a listen:

To hear the full audio of my 1989 interview with John Sykes subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 500 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with rockers since 1982.