Former WHITESNAKE bassist Michael Devin has described his decade-long tenure with the band as “pure magic.”
Devin‘s departure from WHITESNAKE was announced on Sunday, November 21. His replacement has since been revealed to be Tanya O’Callaghan, an Irish-born bassist who has previously performed with an array of musicians, including Steven Adler, Dee Snider, Maynard James Keenan, Nuno Bettencourt, Michael Angelo Batio and Orianthi.
Earlier today, Michael released the following statement regarding his exit from WHITESNAKE: “The past ten years of making music with my brothers in WHITESNAKE have been pure magic. I will sincerely miss the guys. They are my family.
“I wish David Coverdale a most rewarding Farewell tour, he deserves all the love and support on his Farewell that I know the fans will bring to the concert halls.
“I will miss all you fans, you’re truly awesome and you’ve been so much fun to entertain over the years. Thank you for making my journeys over the world so rewarding. All the love in my heart goes out to you guys.
“Best wishes to Tanya O’Callaghan, a badass bassist and friend. She will lay down the low end in a most righteous way.
“‘Til we meet again… lots of love. Onward.”
In a 2015 interview with Heavy Metal Hill, Michael spoke about how he landed the gig with WHITESNAKE. “I became a member of WHITESNAKE in 2010 while I was on tour with LYNCH MOB,” he said. “Brian Tichy was the drummer and my good friend. He had already secured his position with WHITESNAKE and they were already talking to another bass player — a friend of ours. And it looked very promising for this bass player and I just assumed that he was going to be the guy. I was also working toward going out with Jason Bonham in the LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE. I had two jobs going on. I was pretty happy with that. I never even imagined my name would be put in the hat with WHITESNAKE. Long story short, David Coverdale decided to keep looking for bass players and Brian had mentioned he was out and about with LYNCH MOB and David asked him who was on bass. Brian mentioned me, so I sent some video of me playing live and then one thing led to another and I found myself up in Tahoe auditioning for David live. Then he called me while I was in Seattle and asked if I wanted to join the band. That was a great day… I had three jobs, WHITESNAKE, LYNCH MOB and the LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE with Jason [Bonham].”
Coverdale, who turned 70 in September, recently confirmed that he plans to retire from touring after WHITESNAKE‘s next batch of concerts around the world.
Although Coverdale will no longer perform with WHITESNAKE, he is still planning on writing and recording fresh material once he has retired from the road.
Early last year, WHITESNAKE was forced to cancel its U.S. tour with SAMMY HAGAR & THE CIRCLE and NIGHT RANGER so that Coverdale could undergo surgery for bilateral inguinal hernia. Eventually, all of the shows were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Coverdale had both his knees replaced with titanium in 2017 after suffering from degenerative arthritis. He later explained that he was in so much pain with arthritis in his knees that it hampered his ability to perform live.
WHITESNAKE had been touring in support of its latest album, “Flesh & Blood”, which was released in May 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.
