David Coverdale recording "Slide It In" to re-form Deep Purple. (Ian Paice had left Whitesnake in 1982.) In 1985, Sykes and Coverdale started working on new songs for the next album, but Coverdale soon contracted a serious sinus infection that made recording close to impossible for much of 1986 and which had doctors thinking he might never sing again. Coverdale eventually recovered, and recordings were continued. But before their upcoming album was fully recorded and released, Coverdale had dismissed Sykes from the band. The split with Sykes was, reportedly, not amicable. In many period interviews, Coverdale stated that the next album was
Ian Gillan song "Mitzi Dupree" on "The House of Blue Light" is the original demo as Blackmore refused to re-record it. This culminated in Blackmore calling a rehearsal session without Gillan. After an acrimonious argument, Glover told Gillan, "Ian, you've gone too far this time," and he was fired. Gillan, meanwhile, formed a new version of Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners with keyboardist Mark Buckle, bassist Keith Mulholland, drummer Louis Rosenthal and guitarists Harry Shaw and Steve Morris. The band toured regularly through 1989, and recorded the album "Naked Thunder". Gillan later expressed dissatisfaction with the album, calling it "rather hum-de-dum". During