Credit: Photo via Freeman Promotions

Credit: Photo via Freeman Promotions

David Coverdale might’ve quit Deep Purple and started Whitesnake back in the late ’70s, but he’s not letting the group’s stop-and-start nature — the band split around 1990 before reuniting for a 1997 album and then breaking up again until 2002 — keep it from releasing a new album, Flesh & Blood.

In a press release, Coverdale used the phrase “light snake” to describe the album’s “Shut Up & Kiss Me” single. “We’ve got some really dark energy going on in the world right now, so we wrote a fun, knees up, song about falling in love with a fabulous babe,” he said. “You’re over-talking, over-compensating & she just looks at you, takes the reins and says, ‘Shut Up and Kiss Me!’ and that’s it!” Don’t forcefully kiss anyone when the band plays Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Whitesnake w/The Black Moods. Tues. April 23. Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater. rutheckerdhall.com.

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Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...