“DID THAT REALLY ALL HAPPEN?”
Buckingham boy Bernie Marsden has come a long way since he started out on the local club scene in the late 60s. Aside from being one of this country’s most revered blues-rock guitarists, he’s no slouch in the songwriting department either. He’s best known for his time with Whitesnake, the band he co-founded with David Coverdale and Micky Moody in 1978, during which they recorded classic albums such as Come An’ Get It, Saints & Sinners and Live… In The Heart Of The City. Marsden also co-wrote their biggest international hit, Here I Go Again, which topped the US chart in 1987, five years after its initial release.
Either side of Whitesnake, Marsden has been a member of UFO, Wild Turkey, Cozy Powell’s Hammer, Paice Ashton Lord, Alaska, MGM and the Company Of Snakes. There have been solo albums too, including And About Time Too!, Big Boy Blue and Tribute To Peter Green: Green And Blues, plus great friendships with some bona fide legends. Having recently published his absorbing memoir Where’s My Guitar? The Inside Story Of British Rock And Roll, 68-year-old Marsden gives Classic Rock a guided tour of his eventful life. Cue tales of ex-Beatles, surreal pub games with AC/DC, hanging out with James Bond, making peace with Coverdale and waging war on UFO.
“I’m lucky to have had the pleasure to work with so many people,” he reflects. “And it really was pleasure. Well, most of it, anyway.”
Who was the first guitarist to really capture your imagination?
I loved Hank Marvin in The Shadows as a kid, but Eric Clapton was the first guitar player I really adored, because I was old enough to relate to it. George Harrison comes into this as well, then it was Peter Green. I saw Fleetwood Mac on so
