Gary James' Interview With
Adrian Vandenberg



Adrian Vandenberg burst out of The Netherlands and onto the world's Rock stage with his hit self-titled, 1982 album, "Vandenberg". That album produced the international hit "Burning Heart". In 1983, "Heading For a Storm" was released, followed by "Alibi" in 1985. Adrian Vandenberg and his group Vandenberg toured the U.S., Europe and Japan with Ozzy Osbourne, KISS, Rush, Scorpions and Michael Schenker. Recruited to join Whitesnake, that's Adrian playing lead on the 1987 recording of the number one hit, "Here I Go Again", from the album "Whitesnake", which went on to sell eight million records. Adrian would go on to tour with Whitesnake for a year and a half, performing in the world's largest arenas. He co-wrote the entire 1989 Platinum record, "Slip Of The Tongue", and shared guitar duties with Steve Vai onstage. In addition to playing guitar and co-writing "Restless Heart" with David Coverdale and Whitesnake, he performed hundreds of shows as part of that band for some twelve years.
And now, Vandenberg and Mascot Records will release a new studio album titled "Sin" on August 25th, 2023. Adrian Vandenberg spoke with us about his future and his past.

Q - You base yourself out of The Netherlands. Would you be better served if you lived in a music city like say Los Angeles or New York, or doesn't that matter any more?

A - Well, it probably matters. When Whitesnake folded up in 1999, and as we know now it started up a couple of years later, but not with me involved because I was really busy with exhibitions of my paintings at the time. I made all kinds of commitments, so I couldn't join. For a career it would have been better. I always believe in my overall happiness and having a happy life is the most important thing. I would've been happy in L.A. too, I'm sure. In 1999, my then girlfriend and I got a baby daughter and I thought it was really important to be part of her upbringing, especially when the relationship folded, three, four years later. I thought it was even more important because I didn't get to see her as much as I would have loved to. So, if I would have moved to L.A. I wouldn't have been able to be part of her life. So yeah, all those things are really important to me. I will always make music, whether I'm in L.A. or New York or wherever. Career wise it would've definitely been a better thing, but a career is not everything to me. I'm just really thankful that I'm able to make a living making the music I hear in my head.

Q - When your new CD, "Sin" is released on August 25th, 2023, what happens? Are you in the process of putting together a tour? Is your business team waiting to see how sales will be?

A - Before COVID, a European tour would have been planned already, but COVID changed a lot in Europe. A lot of clubs went belly up and there's a lot less personnel because whether it's band crews or club crews chose for a more secure job. So, a lot of things have changed. The other thing that's probably the most important is the release of the record is pretty late for programming because promoters and programmers usually start planning after the summer. In this case, the release is perfect for next year (2024). Right now, an American tour is being planned for the beginning of next year (2024) and we have a bunch of English shows. Towards the end of the year it's going to be focused on some Dutch, German and English shows coming up, and beginning next year it looks like quite an extensive American tour is going to happen. So, I'm really excited about it. It's been a long time since I toured the States.

Q - From your perspective, is it easier to be a musician starting out today that when you started?

A - I don't think so, no. When I started, I'm talking about Europe, I don't know about the States, but I think it's pretty similar, there were much more places to play if you were not known. You could play in cafes, bars and in small youth places where youth could hang out. Everything was, relatively speaking, transport was cheaper. I think a very big difference is everybody and their grandma is releasing records these days 'cause it's very easy to record it yourself. In those days when an album came out it was quite a serious thing for an artist. "Man, we got an album coming out!" There's going to be an album release and lots of people would show up. Right now there's local bands that have their album released and only their mother, father and a couple friends show up. (laughs) The good thing about these days is you can launch yourself on YouTube. I know of a lot of talent that has been discovered through YouTube. That's definitely a good thing, but man, there's so many bands. There's so many artists that came up in the last thirty, forty years. It's amazing. I see kids with a Fender Stratocaster or a Les Paul. Man, I had to work every summer and holiday in a factory to save money to eventually get a good guitar. Things have been very watered down, so to speak. But in the end, I do believe that when a band is really talented and they have great songs, you can still break through. I'm pretty convinced of that.

Q - It was a pretty smart move to name the band after yourself. Not many bands do that. Michael Schenker Group and of course Van Halen. Before the group was called Vandenberg, did other names come up?

A - Yeah, well actually I didn't want to go with Vandenberg. One of the executives from our record company, Atlantic, suggested it. I had a list of names, but I wasn't impressed with most of them because all the cool names were already taken I suppose. One of the coolest names ever was Led Zeppelin. If you look at them, how many bands have made variations of contradicting two words? At the time, the record company executive said, "You are the band. You write the songs. You do the interviews. Why don't you name it Vandenberg 'cause it seems pretty powerful." I didn't want to do it initially because it's going to put even more focus on me and it's under a band name. But, they convinced me, and yeah, it's okay. I got used to it, so to speak.

Q - You opened for quite a few big names in Rock, including KISS. How did you go over with KISS's audience?

A - The audiences were really, really enthusiastic to the extent that Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons actually started giving us less and less lights and sound from day to day because we just came off with a big hit, "Burning Heart". Our live shows were pretty exciting according to everybody in the audience, so when KISS noticed that they were in a little bit of an identity crisis I think because it was the period Vinnie Vincent was with them. They took their black and white makeup off and replaced it and I think they were kind of reinventing themselves and trying to be taken more seriously as a band instead of theatrics, kind of novelty, whatever. The more enthusiastic the crowds got in our case, the less space we got onstage and the less light and the less sound, the harder we worked. So, it was quite an adventure to grow as a band.

Q - Did you tour with Van Halen?

A - No. I didn't tour with Van Halen. I hung out with Eddie several times when I was recording in L.A. I went to see Eddie and Alex regularly because I was close to his studio, but we never opened for him. We opened for Ozzy Osbourne. He treated us great. We had a sound check every night. He was funny. I used to go for a cup of tea at his place with our assistant tour manager who was one of Ozzy's oldest friends. He was just really great. He was really, really nice.

Q - When you would open for KISS and Ozzy did that translate to record sales for Vandenberg?

A - To be honest, I don't really know. I don't really keep an eye on record sales. I hear occasionally from management at the time, "The record is doing well." "Oh, that's great." For me, sales and money have never been important to me. It sounds a little idealistic and a lot of people may not believe me, but I make music because it's in me, and I've been making music ever since I was a kid. So, I'm just really thankful that I appear to be able to make a living with the kind of Rock I want to play because in Holland it was impossible. So, I studied at an art academy and I could teach art, which I did for about a year in high school to make a living for the reason I only wanted to play Rock and with Rock you couldn't make a living in Holland. I never had the illusion that I could get out of Holland. So for me, even to this day, it feels like a surprise, a very pleasant one.

Q - You mentioned you worked in a factory earlier in this interview and you taught Art. Did you do anything else before you started making a living playing music?

A - I worked in a factory on school holidays when I was in high school to save money for guitars. After that I went to an Art Academy and finished six years later. I taught Art for about a year in high school and then I got totally bored with it because I couldn't get used to leaving my room early in the morning and hanging out with boring teachers. So, after a year I worked as a graphic artist, making designs and drawings for publishing companies and magazines. I was an illustrator and designer and I made a nice living with that so I could finance the demos for the early Vandenberg.

Q - Was there ever a time when you felt like giving up?

A - No, not really. Thanks to the good advice from my Dad. He said "It's very important that you finish your Art education because you'll always have something to fall back on." That really gave me confidence to only play the kind of music that comes from my heart, which is the Rock I still play. So, I always thought I don't have to stop doing that because I can always make a living. Of course the band I had before Vandenberg was a Blues/Rock band called Teaser. Man, I drove to Hilversum, which is like the entertainment city in Holland just like L.A. or these days Nashville is for the States. I drove to Hilversum at least every two weeks in my little car to play cassette demos to record companies, and nobody was interested. I'm not the kind of guy who easily throws in the towel with anything. I just keep going 'til I get what I want.

Q - Having persistence is the one quality that most successful people have or we wouldn't be talking today.

A - You're right. Everybody I got to know over the years, from Brian May (Queen) to Eddie Van Halen, to Michaeel Schenker, every time I talked to them they all said the same thing. You have to be really driven and you have to be able to kind of deal with the disappointments and people not liking your music. For those people, they made music because they really want to make music. I remember reading a quote from Mick Jagger. I'm not sure. "You don't choose music. Music chooses you." That's something that echoes in my mind always, basically. I get up, I think, "Man, I have a good idea for a song," or I pick up my guitar or sit down at my piano or I'm on my bicycle, and suddenly I get an idea. So, I sing it into my iPhone, and when I get home I work it out. It's something that's always in your life and in your mind. So yeah, it chooses you basically.

Q - Were you the main songwriter in the band?

A - Yeah, well I always have been. This time for the first time since I worked with David Coverdale for thirteen years, I worked together with singer Mats Leven, who's the vocalist on the "Sin" album. I always start with the music. So, I have the music done and a bunch of lyrical ideas. This time I gave Mats the ideas that I had and see what he would do with it and we got together and worked on the vocal melody line and the lyrics and it worked out great because I've always done it by myself, apart from Coverdale of course.

Q - You're not sitting down when you write a song, saying to yourself, "I've got to write another hit song like 'Burning Heart'," are you?

A - No.

Q - You're just sitting down writing a song.

A - Yeah. Exactly. "Burning Heart" was the funniest thing because the President of Atlantic Records, Phil Carson, he was involved with AC/DC and Led Zeppelin in the early days, he called my Mom up because I temporarily lived with my parents when my house burned down with all my paintings and guitars. He called up my Mom in the middle of the night and he said, "I really want to talk to Adrian because I want to sign his band." He heard the demo with four songs on it and he said, "Do you have any more songs?" I had three more songs finished and I thought, "Man, it's all these Rock songs. I should probably add a ballad to it," because I've always loved Rock ballads. They come to me very naturally when I'm writing. So, I sat behind the piano and I vividly remember I had this guitar into. And I started noodling on the piano and I wrote the song fairly quickly because I thought it would be great to have a ballad. I didn't really think about it. I just thought about the dynamics of the album. I've always liked the light and shade of 'em where you've got up-tempo stuff and a ballad or maybe two ballads, depending on what it is. Of course with writing ballads one of my trademarks appears to be, I haven't really thought about it that much, that there is usually a bit of an acoustic guitar in there as well.

Official Website: VanderbergBand.com

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